photo:
https://trueclassics.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/john-mills.jpg
Biography
Life and career
Born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills at the Watts Naval School in North Elmham, Norfolk and he grew up in Felixstowe, Suffolk. He was educated at Norwich School.
Mills took an early interest in acting, making his professional debut at the London Hippodrome in 1927. He made his film debut in The Midshipmaid (1932), and came to prominence as Colley in the 1939 film version of Goodbye, Mr Chips, opposite Robert Donat. He took the lead in Great Expectations in 1946, subsequently made his career playing traditionally British heroes such as Captain Robert Falcon Scott in Scott of the Antarctic (1948). Over the next decade he became particularly associated with war dramas, such as The Colditz Story (1954) and Ice Cold in Alex (1958). He often acted in the roles of people who are not at all exceptional, but become heroes due to their common sense, generosity and right judgement. Altogether he appeared in over a hundred films.
For his role as the village idiot in Ryan's Daughter (1970) — a complete departure from his usual style — Mills won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was appointed a CBE in 1960, and in 1976 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. His most famous television role was probably as the title character in Quatermass for ITV in 1979. Also on the small screen, in 1974 he starred as Capt. Tommy "The Elephant" Devon in the six-part television drama series The Zoo Gang, about a group of ageing adventurers, all of whom had been spies during the war.
He also starred as Gus the Theatre Cat in the filmed version of the musical Cats in 1998. In 2002 he received a Fellowship of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), the highest award given by the Academy, and was named a Disney Legend by The Walt Disney Company.
His first wife was the actress Aileen Raymond, whom he married in 1927 and divorced in 1941.
His second wife was the dramatist Mary Hayley Bell. Their marriage on 16 January 1941 lasted 64 years till his death in 2005. They had two daughters, Juliet and Hayley, one son Jonathan Mills. Hayley Mills's son, Crispian Mills, became a successful singer with the pop group Kula Shaker.
In the later years before his death, he appeared on television only on special occasions, his sight having failed almost completely in 1992. He died aged 97 on 23 April 2005 at his home in Denham, Buckinghamshire following a chest infection. A few months after Sir John's death, Mary Hayley Bell died on 1 December 2005.
Major films
Forever England (1935)
In Which We Serve (1942)
We Dive at Dawn (1943)
This Happy Breed (1944)
Waterloo Road (1944)
The Way to the Stars (1945)
Great Expectations (1946)
Scott of the Antarctic (1948) as Robert Falcon Scott
The History of Mr Polly (1949)
Hobson's Choice (1954)
The Colditz Story (1955)
Ice Cold in Alex (1958)
I was Monty's Double (1958)
Tiger Bay (1959) — (with daughter Hayley Mills)
Swiss Family Robinson (1960)
Tunes of Glory (1960)
King Rat (1965)
The Wrong Box (1966)
Oh! What a Lovely War (1969) as Douglas Haig
Ryan's Daughter (1970)
Young Winston (1972) as Lord Kitchener
Oklahoma Crude (1973)
The Thirty-Nine Steps (1978)
Zulu Dawn (1979)
Gandhi (1982)
Who's That Girl (1987)
Hamlet (1996)
Bean (1998)
Stage performances
Cats (1998)
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Of Mice and Men
