John Mills (actor)

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Sir John Mills CBE (* 22. February 1908 in Felixstowe , Suffolk , England as Lewis Ernest Watts Mills ; † 23. April 2005 in Denham , Buckinghamshire , England) was a British film and theater actor . He was one of Britain's most popular actors and made over 120 film appearances over a period of seven decades. In 1971, Mills won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Ryan's daughter .

Life

John Mills was born to a math teacher and theater ticket seller. After a brief employment in the trade, Mills began his acting career in 1927 on the London stages. In 1932 he made his film debut in the comedy The Midshipmaid alongside Jessie Matthews and Frederick Kerr . This was followed by mostly forgotten films during the 1930s that were shot with little effort - also known as quota quickies , in which he often played the youthful hero. His better-known productions of this period include Robert Stevenson's Tudor Rose (1936) about the life of Jane Gray and the film drama Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) with Robert Donat in the Oscar-winning leading role. During the war years he made some British propaganda films such as In Which We Serve , in which he mostly played the exemplary British officer. Because of an illness, Mills could not enter active military service.

In 1946, Mills starred Pip in David Lean's famous Charles Dickens film, Mysterious Inheritance . This was followed by further successes in his home country such as Scott's Last Ride (1948), The Bomb in the Underground Shaft (1952), I Am Lord of the House (1954) and In the Shadow of the Citadel (1955). Mills was a very popular actor, also because he often played the average British guy who only became heroes through their circumstances. However, he also embodied characters with darker shades, for example as a neurotic officer in the war drama Once a hero at the side of Alec Guinness . For this achievement he was awarded the Coppa Volpi at the Venice Film Festival in 1960 . The following year, Mills appeared on Broadway in Ross , a dramatization of the life of TE Lawrence . In the 1960s, Mills was increasingly seen in international film productions, including Jungle of 1000 Dangers (1960), you called him King (1965) and Lady Hamilton - Between Shame and Love (1968). In the film Sky West And Crooked with his daughter Hayley in the lead role, Mills was also active as a film director in 1965 , but the box office flopped.

In 1971, Mills received the Golden Globe and Oscar for portraying the village idiot Michael in David Lean's film Ryan's Daughter . In the 1970s he was seen in several successful productions at the West End. In Richard Attenborough's epic film Gandhi , he took on the supporting role of Viceroy in 1982. His old age blindness from 1990 onwards could not keep him from his acting work until his death. In old age, he had, among other things Cameo -like performances in Kenneth Branagh star occupied Hamlet -Vefilmung and in the comedy Bean - The Ultimate Disaster Movie . In the year he died, Mills could be seen in the short film Lights2 , in which Jack Cardiff , another British cinema veteran , acted as cameraman.

Private life

John Mills was married to Aileen Raymond from 1927 to 1941, then married to Mary Hayley Bell for the second time . In 2001 he and his wife renewed their vows at St. Mary's Church in Denham , after 60 years of marriage at the ages of 89 and 92 , as they could not be married in church in 1941 because Mills was serving as a soldier in World War II at the time . John Mills died in 2005 at the age of 97, and Mary Hayley Bell died just eight months after her husband.

His two daughters Juliet Mills (born November 21, 1941) and Hayley Mills (born April 18, 1946) are well-known British actresses. The latter, like her father, was awarded an Oscar. His son Jonathan Mills was born on December 3, 1949. The family lived in Hollywood during the 1960s as their daughter Hayley had a successful career as a child star here. After this time they returned to England. In 1960, Sir John Mills was appointed Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II , and was finally knighted in 1976. He published his autobiography Up In The Clouds, Gentlemen Please in 1981.

Filmography (selection)

Awards (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b John Mills at Allmovie
  2. ↑ a b c d Obituary in the Guardian
personal data
SURNAME Mills, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wills, Lewis Ernest Watts (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English actor
DATE OF BIRTH February 22, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Felixstowe , Suffolk , United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 2005
Place of death Denham , Buckinghamshire , United Kingdom