Hayley Mills | |
|---|---|
| File:Hayley Mills.jpg Hayley Mills, c. 1962. | |
| Born | Hayley Catherine Rose Vivien Mills |
| Occupation(s) | Actress, singer |
| Years active | 1947–present |
| Spouse | Roy Boulting (1971–1977) |
Hayley Catherine Rose Vivien Mills (born 18 April 1946) is an English actress.
The daughter of John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell, and sister of actress Juliet Mills, Mills began her acting career as a child and was hailed as a promising newcomer, winning the BAFTA AWard for Most Promising Newcomer for Tiger Bay (1959), the Academy Juvenile Award for Pollyanna (1960) and Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress in 1961. During her early career, she appeared in several films for Walt Disney.
During the late 1960s she began performing in theatrical plays, and played in more mature roles. Although she was not able to duplicate the success she achieved as a juvenile performer, Mills has continued to act sporadically.
Mills was born in London, England, the younger daughter of actor Sir John Mills and playwright Mary Hayley Bell. She is also the younger sister of actress Juliet Mills and the cousin of Susie Blake, who played Bev Unwin in the long running ITV soap Coronation Street.
Mills was 12 when she was discovered by J. Lee Thompson, who was initially looking for a boy to play the lead role in Tiger Bay. Walt Disney's wife, Lillian Disney, saw her performance and suggested that Mills be given the lead role in Pollyanna. The role of the "glad girl" who moves in with her aunt catapulted Mills to super-stardom in the United States and earned her a special Academy Award.[1][2]
Disney subsequently cast Mills as twins Sharon and Susan who reunite their divorced parents in The Parent Trap. In the film, Mills sings the hit song "Let's Get Together." She made four additional films for Disney in a four-year span, including In Search of the Castaways, and Summer Magic. The advent of the British Invasion in popular music in 1964, courtesy of The Beatles, allowed the maturing Mills to maintain her popularity. Her final two Disney films, The Moon-Spinners and That Darn Cat!, did very well at the box office, aided by a well-publicized meeting between Mills and Beatle George Harrison in March 1964.[3]
During her six-year run at Disney, Mills was arguably the most popular child actress of the era. Critics noted that America's favourite child star was, in fact, quite British and very lady-like. The success of "Let's Get Together" (which hit No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart) also led to the release of a record album on Disney's Buena Vista label, Let's Get Together with Hayley Mills, which also included her only other hit song, "Johnny Jingo" (Billboard No. 21, 1962). In 1998, she was awarded the prestigious Disney Legend award by The Walt Disney Company.
In addition to her Disney movies, Mills took the lead in several other films, notably Whistle Down the Wind (based on the book of the same title written by her mother, Mary Hayley Bell), The Truth About Spring (with her real father, John Mills, cast as her father and James MacArthur as the love interest) and The Chalk Garden.
Mills was considered for the role of Lolita Haze in Stanley Kubrick's 1962 film version of Lolita. However, Walt Disney discouraged the casting, feeling the role was not up to Disney's wholesome standard, and the part eventually went to Sue Lyon.
After her contract with Disney expired in 1965, Mills starred in the enduring comedy The Trouble with Angels, opposite screen veteran Rosalind Russell. Looking to break from her clean-cut, girl-next-door image, Mills went home to England to appear as a mentally challanged teenager in the film Sky West and Crooked, which was directed by her father and written by her mother. Shortly thereafter, Mills was persuaded by her father and director Roy Boulting in The Family Way, a comedy about a couple having difficulty consummating their marriage (best remembered today by its music score composed by Paul McCartney). Though harmless by today's standards, a brief shot of Mills' bare buttocks managed to damage her clean cut image and generated a considerable amount of controversy. In addition, Mills and director Boulting became romantically involved during production of The Family Way. The nude scene, coupled with Mills' romance (and later marriage) to Boulting—some 33 years her senior—permanently damaged her movie career in America.[4] Mills curtailed her film to those recommended by Boulting, which resulted in several mediocore movies. Films like Pretty Polly, Mr. Forbush and the Penguins and Agatha Christie's Endless Night received lukewarm receptions at the box office.[5] After her appearance in The Kingfisher Caper in 1975, Mills dropped out of the film industry for several years.[6]
After several years out of the public eye, Mills starred in the UK television mini-series The Flame Trees of Thika, based on Elspeth Huxley's memoir of her childhood in East Africa. The series was well received, prompting Mills to resume her acting career. She then returned to America, and made several appearances on the The Love Boat.
Always welcomed at Disney, Mills narrated an episode of The Wonderful World of Disney, sparking renewed interest in her Disney work. In 1986, she reprised her roles as twins Sharon and Susan for a trio of Parent Trap television movies: The Parent Trap II, The Parent Trap III and The Parent Trap IV: Hawaiian Honeymoon. Mills also starred as the title character in the Disney Channel-produced television series Good Morning, Miss Bliss in 1987. After 14 episodes, Mills left the series, which was later syndicated and retitled Saved by the Bell.
From 2007 to 2009, Mills appeared as Caroline in the ITV1 African vet drama, Wild at Heart.
Critics have noted that though "Mills has continued to work in film, television, and on stage, her grown-up performances, while competent, lack the spunk and sparkle she exhibited as a young woman".[7]
Mills made her stage debut in a 1966 West End revival of Peter Pan. In 2000, she made her Off Broadway debut in Sir Noel Coward's Suite in Two Keys, opposite American actress Judith Ivey, which she won a Theatre World Award for. She then appeared as as Anna Leonowens in the Australian production of The King and I.
While filming The Family Way, a 20-year-old Mills met 53-year-old director Roy Boulting. The two married in 1971. They owned an apartment in London's Kensington. They then went on to purchase Cobstone Windmill in Ibstone, Buckinghamshire. The couple divorced in 1977. They had one child, Crispian Mills, who became famous in the 1990s as the lead singer and guitarist for the psychedelic rock band Kula Shaker. Mills later had a second son, Jason Lawson, during a relationship with British actor Leigh Lawson.
Mills has had involvement with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (the "Hare Krishna" movement).[8] She composed the preface to the book The Hare Krishna Book of Vegetarian Cooking, ISBN 0-9026-7707-1, published in 1984.
Template:Filmography table head ! Year ! Film ! Role ! Other notes |- |rowspan= 1|1947 |So Well Remembered |Infant |Uncredited |- |rowspan= 1|1959 |Tiger Bay |Gillie | |- |rowspan= 1|1960 |Pollyanna |Pollyanna Whittier |Academy Award Winner |- |rowspan= 2|1961 |The Parent Trap |Sharon McKendrick/Susan Evers | |- |Whistle Down the Wind |Kathy Bostock | |- |rowspan= 1|1962 |In Search of the Castaways |Mary Grant | |- |rowspan= 1|1963 |Summer Magic |Nancy Carey |nominated a Golden Globe |- |rowspan= 3|1964 |The Truth About Spring |Spring Tyler | |- |The Chalk Garden |Laurel | |- |The Moon-Spinners |Nikky Ferris | |- |rowspan= 1|1965 |That Darn Cat! |Patricia "Patti" Randall | |- |rowspan= 4|1966 |Sky West and Crooked |Brydie White |U.S. title: Gypsy Girl |- |The Trouble with Angels |Mary Clancy | |- |The Daydreamer |The Little Mermaid |Voice |- |The Family Way |Jenny Fitton | |- |rowspan= 2|1967 |Africa - Texas Style! |Blonde girl at airport |Uncredited |- |Pretty Polly |Polly Barlow |U.S. title: A Matter of Innocence |- |rowspan= 1|1968 |Twisted Nerve |Susan Harper | |- |rowspan= 1|1970 |Take a Girl Like You |Jenny Bunn | |- |rowspan= 2|1971 |Mr. Forbush and the Penguins |Tara St. John Luke |U.S. title: Cry of the Penguins |- |Endless Night |Fenella "Ellie" Thomsen | |- |rowspan= 2|1974 |What Changed Charley Farthing? |Jenny |U.S. title: The Bananas Boat |- |Deadly Strangers |Belle Adams | |- |rowspan= 1|1975 |The Kingfisher Caper |Tracy | |- |rowspan= 1|1979 |The Love Boat (TV series) |Lila Stanhope | |- |rowspan= 1|1981 |The Flame Trees of Thika (TV mini-series) |Tilly Grant | |- |rowspan= 1|1986 |The Parent Trap II (TV movie) |Sharon Ferris/Susan Corey | |- |rowspan= 1|1987 |Good Morning, Miss Bliss (TV series) |Miss Carrie Bliss | |- |rowspan= 1|1988 |Appointment with Death |Miss Quinton | |- |rowspan= 2|1989 |The Parent Trap III (TV movie) |Susan/Sharon Grand | |- |The Parent Trap: Hawaiian Honeymoon (TV movie) |Susan Wyatt/Sharon Evers | |- |rowspan= 1|1990 |After Midnight |Sally Ryan | |- |rowspan= 1|1994 |A Troll in Central Park |Hilary |Voice |- |rowspan= 1|2004 |2BPerfectlyHonest |Terri | |- |rowspan= 1|2005 |Stricken |Hildy | |- |rowspan=1|2007 |Wild at Heart (TV series) |Caroline | |}