Sally Ann Howes, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's Truly Scrumptious, dies aged 91

Howes' acting career spanned over six decades, with the Tony Award nominee making her film debut as a teenager in 1943 film Thursday's Child, before appearing in The Halfway House, Dead of Night, Nicholas Nickleby and Anna Karenina.

Howes soon moved into musical theatre, starring in West End musicals such as Paint Your Wagon, Summer Song and A Hatful of Rain as well as My Fair Lady, Kwamina, What Makes Sammy Run? and Brigadoon on Broadway.

However, it's Howes' role in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang that most fans remember her for, with the actor starring opposite Mary Poppins' Dick Van Dyke in the Oscar-nominated film.

In the Ken Hughes film, Howes played Truly Scrumptious, the daughter of a sweet factor owner who falls in love with widower Caractacus Potts (Van Dyke) – a role which was initially offered to Julie Andrews.

Howes was enrolled in dancing lessons before filming a scene in which Truly pretends to be a stiff wooden doll, performing the routine in front of 150 extras playing party guests.

"It was the most difficult thing in the world — it was mathematical to the nth degree," she said, according to The Times. "Everything’s on a count. They put me up on this little box and off I went. I got it in one take, and I got a round of applause from all the extras."

While Howes went on to appear in The Hound of the Baskervilles and BBC show The Good Old Days, she returned to the theatre and spent the rest of her career mainly on stage.

"I would have liked a film career, but I didn’t pursue it – I just loved connecting with an audience," she told the Palm Beach Post. "The theatre is a drug. The problem is that to be remembered, you have to do films."

Howes starred in performances of The Sound of Music, The King and I, Hamlet, Cinderella and My Fair Lady before retiring in 2008.