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| Hayley Mills |
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| Forecourt Ceremony held on Saturday, February 22, 1964 |
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Born: April 17, 1946, in Marylebone, London, England
Age at the time of the ceremony: 17
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Hayley Mills is best known for being a type of performer who became celebrated for being in films from the Disney studio. Tremendously talented and appealing, Mills made a huge impression in the baby-boom years.
Born in post-war London, Marylebone is right in the center of the city. Her parents were the actor John Mills and her mother was writer / actor Mary Hayley Bell. The two had met while John was on tour in China. They were married while John was on leave from the army, with daughter Juliet coming along in November of that year, Hayley in 1946, and son Jonathan in 1949.
In 1958, John Mills was set to star in a gritty crime film Tiger Bay (released in March 1959), where a child is a witness to a murder. Director J. Lee Thompson was looking for a boy to play the role, but when Hayley auditioned, he changed his mind; the film was popular, and Hayley's path opened.
A producer at the Disney studio, Bill Anderson, saw Tiger Bay and suggested that Hayley Mills be given the title role in their adaptation of the popular children's novel Pollyanna (which would play the Chinese in July 1960). Not only was the film popular, but Mills, now practically a superstar, bagged the last "Juvenile" Oscar for it.
Anxious to get another film with Mills going, Pollyanna director / writer David Swift adapted and directed Mills in a double role of two seperated twin sisters in the famous The Parent Trap (released in June 1961). The hit film had Mills sing a duet with herself onscreen "Let's Get Together" which became beloved by a whole generation of young girls.
A book her mother Mary had written was to be filmed in Britain, and since there was a large part for a young girl in it, Haley Mills got the part. Whistle Down the Wind (released in August 1961) was a big hit in Britain and elsewhere. Back in Burbank, Mills would star with Maurice Chevalier in the Disney adaptation of Jules Verne's Les enfants du capitaine Grant, In Search of the Castaways (released in November 1962). It became the third highest-grossing film of the year.
Now Mills was pressed into work mode: she was in Disney's Summer Magic (released in July 1963), then torments governess Deborah Kerr in The Chalk Garden (released in April 1964), then upset the plans of jewel thieves in Disney's The Moon-Spinners (released in July 1964).
Hayley Mills' next Disney film would be That Darned Cat! (released in December 1965), which became another solid hit. Her mother Mary wrote, and her father John directed Sky West and Crooked (aka: Gypsy Girl - released in January 1966) which flopped, but Hayley and John Mills starred together in The Truth About Spring (released in March 1965), and starred with Rosalind Russell in the wildly popular The Trouble with Angels (released in March 1966).
Hayley Mills innaugurated her adult career with The Family Way (released in December 1966), and proceeded to marry the film's director, Roy Boulting in 1971. Working in Britain for a time, Mills appeared in A Matter of Innocence (aka: Pretty Polly - released in October 1967), Twisted Nerve (released in December 1968), Take a Girl Like You (released in December 1970), and made her West End debut in a revival of Ibsen's The Wild Duck in the 1970 season. Mills then starred when her husband took over directing Mr. Forbush and the Penguins (released in 1971), replacing Susan Fleetwood. The film was a huge, expensive flop.
She starred in Agatha Christie's Endless Night (released in October 1972), and Deadly Strangers (released in April 1975). She starred for Roy Boulting again in The Kingfisher Caper (released in June 1975).
After taking several years off from films and divorcing Roy Boulting, she did very well in a television mini-series, The Flame Trees of Thika, aired on ITV in September 1981. This led to two appearances on The Love Boat over ABC in February 1979, February 1980, and two episodes in early and mid May 1985.
Swerving back into the Disney orbit, she undertook roles in The Parent Trap II, aired over ABC, in July 1986, The Parent Trap III, aired over NBC, in April 1989, and Parent Trap Hawaiian Honeymoon aired over NBC in November 1989. She also played the lead in the television series, Good Morning, Miss Bliss, aired over the Disney Channel in the 1987-1989 seasons. Upon returning from the Bliss shoot in California, Mills discovered her Oscar to have been stolen. Looking everywhere, Mills asked the Academy if she could get a replacement. They said they would think about it.
In 1991, Mills toured in an Australian production of The King and I. She appeared in a documentary about her father, Sir John Mills: A Century in Films aired over Australian Broadcasting Corporation in March 2005, and appeared in the television show Wild at Heart over ITV1 for eight seasons beginning in 2006. Most recently, Mills has appeared in Mandie and the Cherokee Treasure (released in January 2011). In 2012, she starred in a stage production of Ladies in Lavender in Northampton, then toured the UK with it. She has recently toured Australia with sister Juliet in Legends! She has a role on the television show Pitching In, aired over the BBC Wales and Acorn TV in March 2019 with Larry Lamb.
Finally, in January 2022, Mills was given a replacement for her "Juvenile" Oscar by Academy president David Rubin. |
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| Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, California. Hayley Mills Forecourt block. Executed by John Tartaglia, Saturday, February 22, 1964. 55 x 42 inches overall. |
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| Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, California. Hayley Mills Forecourt ceremony, Saturday, February 22, 1964. Hayley's father, John Mills and mother, Mary Hayley Bell Mills help their daughter Hayley into the cement. |
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