Sir John (Lewis Ernest Watts) Mills - Life and career, Family, Death, Major films, Stage performances

Actor and director, born in Felixstowe, Suffolk, E England, UK. He first appeared on stage in 1929, becoming a popular actor in light comedies and musicals in the 1930s. He was best known as a film star, appearing in many patriotic war films as well as such epics as Scott of the Antarctic (1948), The Colditz Story (1954), and Oh! What a Lovely War (1969). For two generations of film audiences he represented the figure of a fundamentally decent and reliable Englishman, and took few unsympathetic roles. He was awarded an Oscar for his role as the village idiot in Ryan's Daughter (1970), and appeared in Gandhi (1982) and Deadly Advice (1994). His stage career indicates a wider acting range, including The Petition at the National Theatre in 1986. He married actress and writer Mary Hayley Bell (1914–2005) in 1941; their daughters, Juliet and Hayley, are both actresses. In 2002 he received a BAFTA Fellowship for outstanding contributions to world cinema. He was knighted in 1976.

Sir John Mills, CBE (22 February 1908 – 23 April 2005), born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills, was an Academy Award winning English actor whose career spanned seventy years and more than 120 films.

Life and career

Mills was born at the Watts Naval School in North Elmham, Norfolk, and grew up in Felixstowe, Suffolk.

Mills took an early interest in acting, making his professional debut at the London Hippodrome in The Five O'Clock Girl 1929. 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. Over the next decade he became particularly associated with war dramas, such as The Colditz Story (1954) and Ice Cold in Alex (1958).

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.

Family

His sister Annette Mills (1894–1955) was known for being the partner of the puppet "Muffin", in the BBC Television series Muffin the Mule between 1946 and 1955. They had two daughters, Juliet, star of television's Nanny and the Professor and Hayley, the Disney child star made iconic by starring in The Parent Trap, and one son Jonathan Mills.

Death

In years before his death, he appeared on television only on special occasions, his sight having failed almost completely in 1992.

Major films

Dunkirk (1958) Forever England (1935) Cottage To Let (1941) 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) Flame In The Streets (1961) 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) Martin Chuzzlewit (TV) (1994) Hamlet (1996) Bean (1998) Bright Young Things (2003)

Preceded by: Gig Young for They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor 1970 for Ryan's Daughter

Succeeded by: Ben Johnson for The Last Picture Show

Stage performances

Cats (musical) (1998) Goodbye, Mr. Chips Of Mice and Men