John Mills

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Sir John Mills (born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills, 1908 – April 2005) was an English actor who appeared in more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades.

He played people who aren't particularly good, but heroes are often made because of their common sense, generosity, and good judgment on film.

He was given the Academy Award for his role in Ryan's Daughter (1970).

Early life

John Mills was born in North Elmham, Norfolk, the son of Edith Mills (née Baker), a theatre box office manager, and Lewis Mills, a mathematics tutor. Mills was born at Watts Naval Academy, where his father was a master. He spent his early years in Belton, where his father was the headmaster of the village school. When he was six years old, he first felt the excitement of performing in a concert in the school hall. He lived in a tiny house in Felixstowe's Gainsborough Road until 1929. Annette Mills, his elder sister, was remembered as the host of BBC Television's Muffin the Mule (1946-55).

He was educated at Balham Grammar School in London, Sir John Leman High School in Beccles, Suffolk, and Norwich High School for Boys, where his initials can still be seen carved into the brickwork on the wall of the building in Upper St Giles Street, where it is said that his initials can still be seen carved into the brickwork. He started off as a clerk at a corn merchant's in Ipswich before moving to London as a commercial traveller for the Sanitas Disinfectant Company.

Mills enlisted in the British Army in September 1939, serving the Royal Engineers at the start of the Second World War in September 1939. He was later promoted as a Second Lieutenant, but he was later discharged as a result of a stomach ulcer in 1942.

Personal life and death

He married actress Aileen Raymond, who died just five days after he did. They were married in 1932 and divorced in 1941. Raymond later became the mother of actor Ian Ogilvy.

Mary Hayley Bell, the dramatist, was his second wife. Their marriage, which began on January 16, 1941, lasted for 64 years until his death in 2005. They were married in a hurry civil service as a result of the war; it wasn't until sixty years ago that they were married in a church. For many years, the pair lived in The Wick, London. In 1971, they sold the house to musician Ronnie Wood, who then moved to Hills House, Denham, south Buckinghamshire.

Mills and Bell had two children, Juliet, a Disney child actor who appeared in Pollyanna, The Parent Trap, and Whistle Down the Wind, as well as Jonathan Mills, a screenwriter. Mills appeared in the film So Well Remembered in 1947. On an episode of ABC's The Love Boat, the three threesome appeared together decades later. Crispian Mills, Mills' grandson, is a singer best known for his association with Kula Shaker, the raga rock group.

He appeared on television only on rare occasions in the years leading up to his death, and his vision had failed almost completely by 1992. His film appearances after that were brief cameos.

Mills died in Denham, Buckinghamshire, on April 23, 2005, at the age of 97, following a stroke. On December 1, 2005, his second wife died on December 1st. They are buried in Denham, Buckinghamshire, and St Mary the Virgin Churchyard.

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Career

Mills took an early interest in acting, debuting in The Five O'Clock Girl in 1929. He followed this with a cabaret performance.

Mills later worked with a theatre company that performed in India, China, and the Far East. There are several plays in the series. Nol Coward appeared in a production of Journey's Conclusion in Singapore and wrote Mills a letter of introduction which he used in London.

Mills appeared in The 1931 Revue (1931), Coward's Cavalcade (1931) and the Nol Coward revue Words and Music (1932).

In The Midshipmaid (1932), he made his film debut (1932). He appeared in The Ghost Camera (1933) with Ida Lupino and Britannia of Billingsgate (1934).

Mills was promoted to leading roles in A Political Party (1934), a comedy. He was in a series of quota quickies: The River Wolves (1934); Those Were the Days (1934), Will Hay's first film (1934); Doctor's Orders (1934); and Car of Dreams (1935). Jill Darling (1934) appeared on stage, and he was one of many names in Royal Cavalcade (1935).

He did Aren't Men Beasts?

Mills appeared in William Cameron Menzies' film The Green Cockatoo (1937). In the hugely popular 1939 film version of Goodbye, Mr Chips, opposite Robert Donat, he appeared in Colley.

He was in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1939), She Stoops to Conquer (1939), Of Mice and Men (1939–40). He joined the army in 1939 but on leave, but he made films occasionally. With Old Bill and Son (1940) and Made Cottage to Let (1941), Anthony Asquith's war film. Mills returned to assisting Will Hay in The Black Sheep of Whitehall (1942) as one of many names in the war film The Big Blockade (1942).

He appeared on stage in Men in Shadow (1942), a script written by his wife. In Nol Coward's In Which We Serve (1942), a huge hit, he received acclaim for his role as a good seaman. Mills had another good support role in The Young Mr. Pitt (1942), when William Wilberforce was opposite Robert Donat opposite William Wilberforce. In 1942, he was barred from the army.

Mills' rise to fame began when he appeared in We Dive at Dawn (1943), a film directed by Asquith about submariners. He was top billed in This Happy Breed (1944), directed by David Lean and adapted from a No.l Coward play.

Waterloo Road (1945), from Sidney Gilliat, in which Mills played a man who goes AWOL to retrieve his wife from a draft-dodger (played by Stewart Granger). Mills appeared in The Way to the Stars (1945), directed by Asquith from a script by Terence Rattigan, and was another big hit in Britain. On stage, he appeared Duet for Two Hands (1945).

In 1946, Pip in Great Expectations (1946), directed by David Lean, Mills had his best show to date. Mills was voted the sixth most famous celebrity at the British box office this year, and it was the third biggest hit at the British box office this year.

So Well Remembered (1947), which used American writers and directors, was less profitable both financially and financially. Roy Ward Baker's The October Man (1947) was a moderately popular thriller.

Mills appeared in Scott of the Antarctic (1948), a biopic of Captain Scott. Mills was the eighth most watched film of the year in the United Kingdom, and it was the fourth most watched film of the year, and it was the eighth biggest celebrity.

The History of Mr Polly (1949) by H. G. Wells from the novel "The History of Mr Polly (1949) Anthony Pelissier and Mills said it was his favorite film. Pelisse was also a winner of The Rocking Horse Winner (1949), which Mills produced; he also played a small part. Morning Departure (1950), directed by Baker, was more liked at the box office. His film was worth £20,000 a film at this point.

After Morning Departure Mills' demise, we had almost two years off. His films on his return were not well known: Mr Denning Drives North (1951), where he and Dirk Bogarde played IRA gunmen for Basil Dearden; The Long Memory (1953), a Robert Hamer thriller.

With Hobson's Choice (1954), directed by Lean, Mills had his first hit in a number of years. He appeared in the war film The Colditz Story (1955).

Mills appeared in a MGM film The End of the Affair (1955), starring Deborah Kerr and Van Johnson. Above Us the Waves (1955), Mills' sixth most popular film at the British box office this year, was more liked in the United Kingdom than any other; it helped Mills become the country's fifth most popular actor.

Mills produced The Baby and the Battleship (1956), one of 1956's biggest hits, following Escapade (1955). It's Great to Be Young (1956), which was also on the list, but It's Great to Be Young (1956).

Mills played a key role in War and Peace (1956) and made a cameo in Around the World in 80 Days (1956).

Mills appeared in the thriller The Town on Trial (1957), directed by John Guillermin and The Vicious Circle (1957). The war films were becoming more popular with the public: Dunkirk (1958), the second most popular film of the year in the United Kingdom; Ice Cold in Alex (1958), directed by J. Lee Thompson; and I Was Monty's Double'(1958), directed by Guillermin.

Mills, a 1959 crime drama, portrayed a police detective investigating a murder that a teenage girl has witnessed. Hayley's daughter, Hayley, was well-received and has received raves.

In the summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1959), Mills went to Australia to perform a cane cutter.

Tunes of Glory (1960), a military drama starring Alec Guinness, was much appreciated. Mills' appearances earned him the Venice Film Festival's Best Actor Award.

In Pollyanna (1960), Walt Disney saw Tiger Bay and gave Hayley Mills the lead role. In the adventure film Swiss Family Robinson (1960), which was a huge success, Disney gave John Mills the lead. On stage, Ross (1960–611) did Ross (1960-61).

Mills was expected to play the priest in The Singer Not the Song (1961) opposite Dirk Bogarde, according to the Rank Organisation. Mills and Baker reteamed on an interracial drama Flame in the Streets (1961) and an Italian-British war film The Valiant (1962).

Tiara Tahiti (1962) and James Mason appeared in a comedy. In The Chalk Garden (1964), starring Hayley, he had a supporting role.

Mills directed The Truth About Spring (1965), his mother's third film after a cameo on Operation Crossbow (1965). In King Rat (1965) for Bryan Forbes, who then supervised Mills in The Wrong Box (1966), he had a cameo. In The Family Way (1966), Mills played Hayley's father-in-law on film. From a script written by his wife, he then directed her in Sky West and Crooked (1966).

He appeared on This Is Your Life twice, firstly in 1960 when Eamonn Andrews outside Pinewood Studios and then again in 1983, when Eamonn surprised him on the stage of London's Wyndham's Theatre at the curtain call of the play Little Lies.

Mills began to play roles supporting Hugh O'Brian in Africa Texas Style (1967) and Rod Taylor in Chuka (1967). He went to Italy for a giallo, A Black Veil for Lisa (1968) and played William Hamilton in Emma Hamilton (1968).

Mills had a cameo in Oh!

Mills received a Best Supporting Actor award for his role as the village idiot in Ryan's Daughter (1970) — a complete departure from his usual style.

He was in Dulcima (1971) and later appeared in Young Winston (1972) for Attenborough, Lady Caroline Lamb (1972), and Oklahoma Crude (1973). On stage, he represented Veterans at the Royal Court (1973), At the End of the Day (1974), Great Expectations (1975) and Separate Tables (1977).

In 1974, he appeared on the small screen as Captain Tommy "The Elephant" Devon in the six-part television drama series The Zoo Gang, about a group of former underground freedom fighters from World War II, starring Brian Keith, Lilli Palmer, and Barry Morse.

Mills could still be in leading roles in films in the late 1970s, as shown by The "Human" Factor (1975), Trial by Fire (1976), and The Devil's Advocate (1977). In The Big Sleep (1978) and The Thirty Nine Steps (1978), he appeared in supporting roles.

In 1979, Quatermass was his most well-known television role. In Young at Heart (1980–82), he continued this with a sitcom.

On the big screen, he was now predominantly playing upper crust characters like in Zulu Dawn (1979), Gandhi (1982), and Sahara (1983). On stage (1982), he appeared Goodbye Mr Chips (1982), followed by Little Lies (1983).

He did The Petition at the National in 1986, and Pygmalion on Broadway followed the next year. He appeared on When the Wind Blows (1986) and helped Madonna in Who's That Girl (1987). His best roles came on television in Harnessing Peacocks (1993) and Martin Chuzzlewit (1994). In 1998, Mills appeared in Gus: The Theatre Cat in the filmed version of the musical Cats.

Mills released a lengthy home cine film clip in Sir John Mills' Moving Memories in 2000, as well as interviews with Mills, his children Hayley, Juliet, and Richard Attenborough. Jonathan Mills, directed and edited by Marcus Dillistone, produced and wrote the film, as well as the scenes footage from films such as Ice Cold in Alex and Dunkirk. In addition, the film also includes home videos of several of Mills' acquaintances and coworkers, including Laurence Olivier, Harry Andrews, Walt Disney, David Niven, Dirk Bogarde, Tyrone Power, and Tyrone Power. In the 1997 Mr. Bean, he portrayed a charming old gent as the head of an art museum. In Lights 2, Mills' last cinema appearance was playing a tramp; the cinematographer was Jack Cardiff. In 1948, they last worked together on Antarctica's Scott.

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