Sir John Mills (1908 - 2005)

[Luke]

Sir John Mills died this morning at age 97. To Disney fans like us, his most memorable role has to be as Father Robinson in <i>Swiss Family Robinson</i>. Hayley Mills is his daughter. He certainly lived a full life, and was acting to the end. I haven't seen him in too many films, but he was wonderful as Pip in David Lean's adaptation of <i>Great Expectations</i>. May have been old for the role, but he pulled it off excellently.

Read more here:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/movies/c ... lls24.html

[Timon/Pumbaa fan]

Sad news! Even though I never heard of him before now, I pray God will help his family get over this tragic death!

[chaychay102royal]

Oh...I had never heard of him until today, but I asked my mom about him and she said he was a great actor. She loves Swiss Family Robinsonbut now every time I hear that title I remember fallling asleep while watching it when I was younger.

[Mouseketodd]

I saw on CNN.com that British actor Sir John Mills died Saturday, April 23, 2005. He was 97 years old. Disney fans know him as the Robinson father in "The Swiss Family Robinson." Hayley Mills was one of his three children.

Here is a link to CNN.com's article:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Movies/ ... index.html

[MickeyMousePal]

RIP Sir John Mills

[Mr. Toad]

Sad news! Even though I never heard of him before now, I pray God will help his family get over this tradgic death!

Since when is dying at 97 and living a full live to the end tragic? That's bloody awesome. We should all be so lucky.

So a toast to Mr. Mills. Thanks for your wonderful performance in SFR. We shall remember you.

[JiminyCrick91]

oh thats to bad I hope Hayley takes it ok

[Timon/Pumbaa fan]

Sad news! Even though I never heard of him before now, I pray God will help his family get over this tradgic death!

Since when is dying at 97 and living a full live to the end tragic? That's bloody awesome. We should all be so lucky.

So a toast to Mr. Mills. Thanks for your wonderful performance in SFR. We shall remember you.

To tell you the truth I'm not all that sad, but his family will probably have a difficult time for a while so I hope the family can get over it soon!

[Disney Guru]

John Mills lived a great and long life. Rest In Peace, John mills.

[RJKD23]

In his 93 years of existence, I bet he lived an amazing and great life and enjoyed life to its very extent..
Rest in Peace, Sir John Mills..

[Wonderlicious]

R.I.P John Mills. You may be gone, but we'll always remember you.

[Lazario]

This is really sad news.

[ichabod]

This is sad news, he was a great actor and has played some brilliant parts over his long career. Of course "Swiss Family Robinson" will always be his triumph for most Disney fans. Also i sent wishes to his daughter Hayley. It's strange how a father and daughter could have made such a huge impact on one studio, and been part of some of it's most memorable films!

[Escapay]

This is truly sad news. Rest in Peace John Mills.

His OTHER daughter, Juliet Mills (best known for "Nanny and the Professor", Maxwell Caulfield's wife, and Tabitha on "Passions"), was going to have him and Hayley attend the Daytime Emmys with her. It was her first Daytime Emmy nomination.

Escapay

[chaychay102royal]

Another reason why this seems a little on the sad side is because Hayley just celebrated her birthday. Personally, I wouldn't like to have my father die just after my birthday.

[Wonderlicious]

Another reason why this seems a little on the sad side is because Hayley just celebrated her birthday. Personally, I wouldn't like to have my father die just after my birthday.

Well, it does happen. My late grandfather died on my mum's birthday.

[chaychay102royal]

I know it does happen, but it doesn't make Hayley any happier. You know what I mean?

[Disney Guru]

Yes it is truly sad news. I didn't know that Juliet Mills was still a live. I hope that she is doing well also. She is a lot older than Hayley.

[Fidget1234]

Got this from Disneysites.com

** LONDON - Actor Sir John Mills, the quintessential British officer in scores of films, died Saturday after an Oscar-winning career spanning more than 50 years that included roles in "Gandhi" and "Ryan's Daughter." He was 97.

Mills died at home in Denham, west of London, after a short illness, a statement from his trustees said.

Mills' roles ranged from Pip in David Lean's "Great Expectations" to the village idiot in Lean's "Ryan's Daughter," for which he won his Academy Award as best supporting actor in 1971.

But he took his place in film history as soldier, sailor, airman and commanding officer, embodying the decency, humility and coolness under pressure so cherished in the British hero.

On Mills' 80th birthday in 1988, historian Jeffrey Richards called him "truly an English Everyman. His heroes have been on the whole not extraordinary men but ordinary men whose heroism derives from their levelheadedness, generosity of spirit and innate sense of what is right."

Prime Minister Tony Blair said Mills "made us proud to be British."

"Over many decades and countless films, he inspired us with his ability, warmth and spirit," Blair said.

Buckingham Palace said Queen Elizabeth II was sorry to hear of the actor's death.

Small, fair-haired, with a boyish face and very blue eyes, he was the son, the brother, the boy next door who went off to fight the Germans and only sometimes came back.

In "Forever England" he was the ordinary seaman who pins down a German battleship. In "Waterloo Road" he played an AWOL soldier. In Noel Coward's 1942 classic "In Which We Serve" he was a Cockney able seaman, and in Anthony Asquith's "The Way to the Stars," one of the most popular films of the war, he was a schoolmaster-turned-RAF pilot.

These performances were touching and restrained, within the wartime bounds of acceptable sentimentality, and they made his name.

"There was no one comparable really," Attenborough told British Broadcasting Corp. "He gave such a variety of impeccable performances. ... He will be hugely missed."

The two were friends and worked together on films including Attenborough's "Gandhi," in which Mills played the viceroy of India.

Age seemed hardly to touch him and he carried on in military roles for decades, eventually becoming the commander, as in "Above Us the Waves" in 1955. He was trapped in a submarine in 1950's "Morning Departure," toiled through the desert in "Ice Cold In Alex" (1958), and in "Tunes of Glory" (1960) he was the commander of a Scottish regiment, tormented by a fellow officer.

In a recent survey of British film legends by Sky television, voters puts Mills in 8th place all-time among British male actors.

But Mills started his career as a hoofer, a song and dance man in old Fred Astaire roles, far from the trenches.



Born Lewis Ernest Watts, the son of a Suffolk schoolmaster, he started work at 17 as a grain merchant's clerk but longed for the stage.

His older sister Annette, part of a dancing duo at Ciro's, the London nightclub, encouraged his ambitions and he moved to the capital and changed his name.

Mills recalled how he spent the mornings selling disinfectants and toilet paper to pay the rent, and his afternoons at tap dancing lessons.

"Then I got into a very tatty double act with a man called George Posford who played the balalaika while sang 'Sonny Boy' and that was how it all started," he added.

He was acting with at traveling troupe called The Quaints, in Singapore in 1929 when Noel Coward saw the show and suggested Mills look him up in London.

That led to parts in Coward's revues and eventually his war movies, where Mills swapped dancing shoes for uniform.

Mills' own military career in the Royal Engineers lasted little more than a year after the outbreak World War II, until he was declared unfit because of an ulcer.

Mills was married first to actress Aileen Raymond, then in 1941 to Mary Hayley Bell, an actress-turned-playwright.

Their son Jonathan is a screenwriter and daughters Juliet and Hayley are actresses.

Among Mills' many non-military films were "Great Expectations," "Hobson's Choice," "The Wrong Box," "Tiger Bay" with his daughter Hayley, and "Gandhi."

He was made a CBE, or Companion of the Order of British Empire, in 1960 and knighted in 1976.

Mills was wiry, fit and remarkably youthful in to old age, which his daughter Hayley attributed to "joie de vivre."

"Maybe what attracts people is that exuberant spiritual quality that they recognize is still present," she said in 1986.

At 80, Mills rejected any idea of giving up acting.

"I've never considered myself to be working for a living; I've enjoyed myself for a living instead," he said.

Mills is survived by his wife and their children. The funeral service will be held on April 27 in Denham. **

[Matty-Mouse]

I encourage anyone to watch the short animated film "Where The Wind Blows" in which John voices the lead. It is by far one of the best animated films of all time. Its quiet hard to get hold of but if you do you wont be disapointted, although I will point out the movie isn't easy watching.