REMEMBERING SIR JOHN MILLS ("The First One...")

           
                   
   
  The first working class film Star to come out of Great Britain, Sir John Mills went onto become not only one of the Elite in the British Acting Industry, but also a successful producer, and sometime director - as well as being father to Actresses Hayley & Juliet Mills.

He was born Louis Ernest Watts Mills in 1908 at the Watts Naval School in North Elham in Suffolk UK.
 He did later however grow up in the village of Belton, where his father was Head Master of the village school - later moving again to the coastal town of Felixstowe, ALSO in Suffolk. Of the three schools where Mills was educated,  it is said that on the wall of Norwich High School For Boys, his name is carved into the brickwork on the side of the building. Upon leaving school he then went onto working as a Clerk in a Corn merchants in Ipswich. 

Mills took an early interest in acting when he was all of 21 in 1929, by making his professional debut at the London Hippodrome in the play "THE FIVE O'CLOCK GIRL" - before moving onto working with Noel Coward in his revue show, "WORDS AND MUSIC". He then made his film début in the movie "THE MIDSHIPMAID" aged 24 in 1932, and appeared as "Colley" in the 1939 original version of "GOODBYE MR. CHIPS" opposite the great Robert Donat. 
Upon the outbreak of World War Two in 1939, Mills wasted no time in enlisting in the Royal Engineers - later becoming a 2nd. Lieutenant  However, by 1942 he was DISCHARGED because of a stomach ulcer. Upon demobilization Mills was soon put to work by Noel Coward once more, when he was cast in the excellent UK War drama, "IN WHICH WE SERVE".

 It was through this film that Mill's career (and reputation as a "true" British Hero) began to grow. Working on the latter film also brought him into contact with up and coming UK director David Lean (who had shot the action sequences); and upon the films' completion, it was not long before Lean was organising his OWN projects - including a brilliant version of the Dickens classic, "GREAT EXPECTATIONS" in 1946, and the Wartime classic, "THIS HAPPY BREED" in 1944. The former in particular was sheer Wartime British Cinema at it's very best, and was winner of TWO Oscars for Best Art Direction & Best Cinematography...as well as being nominated for three more including Best Picture. It also featured seasoned players like a young Alec Guinness (who wrote the adaptation), Martita Hunt, Finlay Currie and Jean Simmons (to name but a few). But it was Mills in the part of "Pip" (played as an adult) who held the whole thing together, and bigger things were to await him.        

 The next time Mills struck international gold was in 1948, when he took the lead role in Charles Frend's highly praised biographical film, "SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC". Shot mostly in Norway, this was a largely faithfull account of the man and his ill-fated Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole.

But it was for War Dramas that Mills became particularly known. Beginning with "IN WHICH WE SERVE", he then followed it with the tremendously successful UK hit, "THIS HAPPY BREED" in 1944 & "WE DIVE AT DAWN" - the former focusing particularly on the British spirit of the time.  Then came "MORNING DEPARTURE" in 1950. Nothing less than a British disaster movie in all but name, the film concerns the crew of a British submarine who soon after the War's close hit a derelict magnetic mine which blows the tail off their sub and lands the rest of the ship on the bottom of the ocean, with twelve men awaiting to be rescued. Mills played the Captain of the sub. 

           

                                                   

It has been said (even by the man himself), that Michael Caine was the first working class UK film star. This was NOT true. From 1950 we had Dirk Bogarde (who became a star from his appearance in the film "THE BLUE LAMP") - leading onto a mass of new talent in the early Sixties such as Terence Stamp, Roger Moore and Oliver Reed. Along with Bogarde (also in the 1950's) was dear old Kenneth Moore & John Gregson, EACH of whom put their mark on the UK scene BEFORE Caine came along. YET RIGHT at the top, leading the way was John Mills - who from the minute he arrived during World War Two struck a chord with the British public, JUST when their need for a hero of their own was at it's height. 
HE WAS THE FIRST.... 

In between ALL these big hits, Mills carried on working at a marathon pace, putting in at least 3-4 films a year. In 1954, he hit the Mother lode when TWO of his performances caught the publics' imagination. The first was "HOBSON'S CHOICE". This was a comedy directed by David Lean, and featuring Mills as the timid employee to a nightmarish Boot maker (played by Charles Laughton), who then decides that despite his illiteracy and lack of skill with business  that he wishes to marry one of Hobson's daughters. The second big hit that year was "THE COLDITZ STORY", with Mills in the pivotal role of Pat Reid (also the original story's writer on which the film was based, this being a true story). 

                      

In 1955, MORE hits, MORE class. This time it was the turn of "ABOVE US THE WAVES" (straight wartime adventure about real life attacks of the X-craft midget subs on the German Battleship "Tirpitz"); and "THE BABY AND THE BATTLESHIP" (a riotous Naval comedy set aboard one of her Majesty's Battleships, and with a script from Bryan Forbes).
 In 1956, Hollywood finally beckoned with roles in major productions, "AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS" & "WAR AND PEACE". By this time, some were saying that Mills' best moments were now behind him. However, he was soon to prove them wrong with a little number called "ICE COLD IN ALEX".

 

In 1958, there were few who could have foreseen the effect that "ICE COLD IN ALEX" was going to have - either THEN, or in the years to come - it was and is quite simply one of the BEST British films ever made. NOT because it plays for over 3 hours hours like "LAWRENCE..." or because it has blinding special effects such as the recent "AVALON" (2009), but simply for it's level of drama, and the way so many could relate to similar situations during THEIR time in the Desert. The plot surrounds the fall of Tobruk, and the crew of a small ambulance who decide to make a mad dash for freedom before the Germans close in, to Alexandria. The lynch-pin being the groups' leader, "Captain Anson", as played of course by Mills. For this film, Mills was determined to play AGAINST type, and NOT be the stuff upper lip gent everyone had come to know before.
 This time, he was a real man - on the brink, living in the bottle, ...and scared of making a decision. It was very probably the best performance of his entire career. 

1959 came around, and Mills made "TIGER BAY", along with for the first time, his daughter Hayley. The film was a huge success and now a new pattern began to take shape, with Mills occasionally taking to work with his daughter from time to time once she became an overnight smash in the U.S. with both this and the Disney film, "THE PARENT TRAP" (1961).

 

Hollywood beckoned again in 1960, when the call came through to work for Disney in a successful version of "SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON". Returning to England, it was now a seasoned and ESTABLISHED Mills which graced the screens from now on. No longer a big draw in his own right, but more a revered founding father of the UK Scene. In true Mills style, he ignored all this and just got on with the job at hand. 

 

Another excellent performance ensued when Mills starred alongside old pal, Alec Guinness in the military drama, "TUNES OF GLORY" in 1960. Here he played a newly-appointed Commanding Officer to a remote barracks in Scotland who finds rivalry and opposition from an old hand (Guinness) who resents his presence. It was directed by Ronald Neame. Then came the hopelessly-ignored gem, "FLAME IN THE STREETS" (1961), where Mills played a tough Union leader who stands up for the rights of a Black worker in his factory, whilst his daughter plans to marry a black man...much to the chagrin of Mill's prejudiced wife. A racial drama which would do well to be uncovered today. And then, in 1962 "TIARA TAHITI" with James Mason, where Mills played a rival to an ambitious ex-colleague (Mason) during the War. 

                         

For much of the Sixties, Mills then embarked on appearing in a number of his daughter Hayley's movies, now that she had become a major Star in her own right in the U.S. - the best of these perhaps being "THE TRUTH ABOUT SPRING" (1965), where they played a pair of misfits running around the Caribbean on an old sail boat; and "THE FAMILY WAY" in 1966 - the latter also covering Hayley's transition from child star to young woman and in turn opening up a string of movie partnerships with co-star Hywel Bennett. Also in 1966, Mills co-starred in Bryan Forbes' excellent zany period comedy, "THE WRONG BOX", with Michael Caine and many others.

 

It wasn't until 1969 that Mills embarked on anything substantial again, when he initiated a lavish movie production of Joan Greenwood's popular anti-war play, "OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR!". After the runaway success of this, Mills then went onto work with further substantial roles in contemporary films "RUN WILD, RUN FREE" for director Richard Sarafian, and "ADAM'S WOMAN"...all leading up to the cream, his Oscar winning role in David Lean's "RYAN'S DAUGHTER" in 1970. 

    

 

                                                     

   

By the turn of the 1970's, John Mills had done his stuff and made his mark. Not only had he been the first UK working class leading man to make the grade, but more than that, he had become a British hero per se, and ALSO A MAJORLY ACCEPTED UK FILM STAR, AROUND THE WORLD.

Hollywood beckoned again in 1973, when he was asked to appear in the comedy movie, "OKLAHOMA CRUDE". Mills then continued to work in British and international movies throughout the 70's and 80's, without anything more of serious significance. With this in mind, it was perhaps not surprising when in 1979 he appeared on British TV in the UK Television show, "QUATERMASS", playing the famous English scientific boffin in a resurrection of the character from the 50's. YES he made a very good Quatermass!

  

It wasn't then until 1986 that his next assignment of worth came along, when he took part, along with Dame Peggy Ashcroft in the animated movie by Jimmy Murikami, "WHEN THE WIND BLOWS", about two retired people facing a nuclear attack from Russia. 

  

                          

Before his blindness in 1992 and eventual death in 2005, John Mills had continued to wrack up some sturdy work. Indeed, one of the things he was ALWAYS known for was his open mind and cheery disposition; always happy to take on adventurous projects and NEVER frightened of working with the young of the time. From Kenneth Branagh's "HAMLET" in 1996 (as Old King Norway), the movie of "CATS" in 1998, and Stephen Fry's "BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS" in 2003, Mills continued to be right up there with the best of them!
 Also in the early 1980's he had appeared with some success in the TV show, "YOUNG AT HEART" with Megs Jenkins. 

                                

 Sir John Mills died in 2005 of a chest infection. He was 97. A few months later, his wife also died. They are buried together in Denham Churchyard.

 HE WAS REMEMBERED.....

 In 1960, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of The British Empire, and later in 1976 KNIGHTED by the Queen for services rendered. He also went onto receive a Fellowship of BAFTA in the UK (one of the hardest honours to achieve in the UK industry) in 2002; whilst also being

named a Disney Legend by the Disney Company.