The Mills Acting Family

### John Mills

***Sir John Mills*** (born February 22, 1908 – April 23, 2005) was an English actor who appeared in more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades. On screen, he often played people who are not at all exceptional, but become heroes because of their common sense, generosity and good judgment. He received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in Ryan's Daughter (1970).

#### 1930s

Mills took an early interest in acting, making his professional debut at the London Hippodrome in The Five O'Clock Girl in 1929. He married his first wife was the actress Aileen Raymond in 1932 and divorced in 1941. Raymond later became the mother of actor Ian Ogilvy.

He made his film début in The Midshipmaid (1932) an had his first starring role in an "A" movie, Brown on Resolution (1935). He appeared as Colley in the hugely popular 1939 film version of Goodbye, Mr Chips, opposite Robert Donat.

In September 1939, at the start of the Second World War, Mills enlisted in the British Army in the Royal Engineers. He was later commissioned as a Second Lieutenant, but in 1942 he received a medical discharge because of a stomach ulcer.

#### 1940s

His second wife was the dramatist Mary Hayley Bell. Their marriage, on January 16, 1941, lasted for 64 years, until his death in 2005. They had two daughters, Juliet, star of television's Nanny and the Professor and Hayley, a Disney child star who appeared in Pollyanna, The Parent Trap and Whistle Down the Wind, and one son, Jonathan Mills, a screenwriter.

Mills' climb to stardom began when he had the lead role in We Dive at Dawn (1943), a film about submariners. He was top billed in This Happy Breed (1944), directed by David Lean from a Noël Coward play. Mills starred with his daughters, Juliet and Hayley, in So Well Remembered (1947).

#### 1950s

Mills' had his first hit in a number of years with Hobson's Choice (1954), directed by Davi Lean. He was in The Colditz Story (1955), a popular war film. Mills played a support role in a movie for MGM, The End of the Affair (1955) with Deborah Kerr and Van Johnson. More liked in Britain was another war story, Above Us the Waves (1955)

In the 1959 crime drama Tiger Bay, Mills played a police detective investigating a murder that a young girl has witnessed. His daughter Hayley was cast, and earned excellent reviews. When Walt Disney saw Tiger Bay he offered Hayley Mills the lead role in Pollyanna (1960), and Mills the lead in the adventure film Swiss Family Robinson (1960), which was a huge hit.

In the years leading up to his death, he appeared on television only on special occasions, his sight having failed almost completely in 1992. After that, his film roles were brief cameos. He died on April 23, 2005 following a chest infection. His wife died on December 1 2005.

#### Career Highlights

1932: The Midshipmaid

1934: A Political Party

1935: Brown on Resolution

1942: In Which We Serve

1943: We Dive at Dawn

1944: This Happy Breed

1945: Waterloo Road

1945: The Way to the Stars

1946: Great Expectations

1947: So Well Remembered

1948: Scott of the Antarctic

1949: The History of Mr Polly

1954: Hobson's Choice

1955: The Colditz Story

1955: Above Us the Waves

1956: The Baby and the Battleship

1958: Dunkirk

1958: Ice Cold in Alex

1958: I Was Monty's Double

1959: Tiger Bay

1960: Swiss Family Robinson

1969: Oh! What a Lovely War

1970: Ryan's Daughter

1974: The Zoo Gang (TV)

1975: The Human Factor

1976: Trial by Combat

1979: Zulu Dawn

1979: Quatermass (TV)

1980-1982: Young At Heart (TV)

1982: Gandhi

1983: Sahara

1986: When the Wind Blows

1998: Cats