Early career Mills took an early interest in acting, making his professional début at the
London Hippodrome in ''
The Five O'Clock Girl'' in 1929. He followed this with a cabaret act. Mills then got a job with a theatrical company that toured India, China and the Far East performing a number of plays.
Noël Coward saw him appear in a production of ''
Journey's End'' in Singapore and wrote Mills a letter of introduction to use back in London. On his return, Mills starred in
The 1931 Revue, Coward's
Cavalcade (1931) and the Coward revue
Words and Music (1932). He made his film debut in
The Midshipmaid (1932). He also appeared in
The Ghost Camera (1933) with
Ida Lupino and
Britannia of Billingsgate (1934). Mills was promoted to leading roles in
A Political Party (1934), a comedy. He was in a series of
quota quickies:
The River Wolves (1934);
Those Were the Days (1934), the first film of
Will Hay;
The Lash (1934);
Blind Justice (1934); ''
Doctor's Orders (1934); and Car of Dreams (1935). He did Jill Darling
(1934) on stage and was one of many names in Royal Cavalcade'' (1935).
"A" movies Mills had the star role in an A film,
Brown on Resolution (1935). It was back to quota quickies for
Charing Cross Road (1935) and
The First Offence (1936). He had another excellent part in an "A", playing
Lord Guildford Dudley in
Tudor Rose (1936). He did ''Aren't Men Beasts?
(1936) on stage and worked for Hollywood director Raoul Walsh in O.H.M.S.'' (1937). Mills starred in
The Green Cockatoo (1937) directed by
William Cameron Menzies. He appeared as Colley in the hugely popular 1939 film version of
Goodbye, Mr Chips, opposite
Robert Donat.
World War II At the Old Vic he was in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream
(1939), She Stoops to Conquer
(1939) and Of Mice and Men
(1939–40). He joined the army in 1939 but occasionally made films on leave. He went back to movies with Old Bill and Son (1940) and made Cottage to Let (1941), a war film for Anthony Asquith. Mills went back to supporting Will Hay in The Black Sheep of Whitehall (1942) and he was one of many names in the war film, The Big Blockade'' (1942). He was in
Men in Shadow (1942) on stage, written by his wife. He achieved acclaim for his performance as an able seaman in Noël Coward's
In Which We Serve (1942), a huge hit. Mills had another good support role in
The Young Mr. Pitt (1942) playing
William Wilberforce opposite
Robert Donat. He was invalided out of the army in 1942.
Stardom Mills's climb to stardom began when he had the lead role in
We Dive at Dawn (1943), a film directed by Asquith about submariners. He was top billed in
This Happy Breed (1944), directed by
David Lean and adapted from a
Noël Coward play. Also popular was
Waterloo Road (1945), from
Sidney Gilliat, in which Mills played a man who goes AWOL to retrieve his wife from a draft-dodger (played by
Stewart Granger). Mills played a pilot in
The Way to the Stars (1945), directed by Asquith from a script by
Terence Rattigan, and another big hit in Britain. He did
Duet for Two Hands (1945) on stage. Mills had his greatest success to date as Pip in
Great Expectations (1946), directed by David Lean. It was the third biggest hit at the British box office that year and Mills was voted the sixth most popular star. Less successful critically and financially was
So Well Remembered (1947) which used American writers and directors.
The October Man (1947) was a mildly popular thriller from
Roy Ward Baker. Mills played the title role in
Scott of the Antarctic (1948), a biopic of
Captain Scott. It was the fourth-most-watched film of the year in Britain and Mills was voted the eighth-biggest star in an exhibitors' poll.
Producer Mills turned producer with
The History of Mr Polly (1949) from the novel by
H. G. Wells. It was directed by
Anthony Pelissier and Mills said it was his favourite film. Pelissier also made
The Rocking Horse Winner (1949) which Mills produced; he also played a small role. More liked at the box office was a submarine drama,
Morning Departure (1950), directed by Baker. By this stage his fee was a reported £20,000 a film.
Career slump After
Morning Departure Mills took almost two years off. The films he made on his return were not popular: a thriller,
Mr Denning Drives North (1951);
The Gentle Gunman (1952), where he and
Dirk Bogarde played
IRA gunmen for
Basil Dearden; and
The Long Memory (1953), a thriller from
Robert Hamer.
Popularity revival and
Yvonne Mitchell in
Escapade (1955) Mills had his first hit in a number of years with ''
Hobson's Choice (1954), directed by Lean. He appeared in the war film The Colditz Story'' (1955). Mills played a supporting role in a movie for
MGM,
The End of the Affair (1955), with
Deborah Kerr and
Van Johnson. More liked in Britain was another war story,
Above Us the Waves (1955); this was the sixth-most-popular film at the British box office that year, and it helped Mills become the fifth-most-popular star in the country. After
Escapade (1955), Mills made the popular military comedy
The Baby and the Battleship (1956), one of the biggest hits of 1956. Also on that list was another Mills comedy, ''
It's Great to Be Young'' (1956). Mills had a key support role as a peasant in
War and Peace (1956) and made a cameo in
Around the World in 80 Days (1956). Mills appeared in the thrillers:
Town on Trial (1957) directed by
John Guillermin and
The Vicious Circle (1957). More popular with the public were the war films:
Dunkirk (1958), the second-most-popular film of the year in Britain;
Ice Cold in Alex (1958), directed by
J. Lee Thompson; and ''
I Was Monty's Double'''(1958), directed by Guillermin. In the 1959 crime drama
Tiger Bay, directed by Thompson, Mills played a police detective investigating a murder that a young girl has witnessed. His daughter
Hayley was cast, and earned excellent reviews. Mills went to Australia to play a cane cutter in the Hollywood financed
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1959). The movie was poorly received critically and commercially. Better received was
Tunes of Glory (1960), a military drama directed by
Ronald Neame co-starring
Alec Guinness. Mills's performance earned him a Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Festival.
Walt Disney saw
Tiger Bay and offered Hayley Mills the lead role in
Pollyanna (1960). Disney also offered John Mills the lead in the adventure film
Swiss Family Robinson (1960), which was a huge hit. He did
Ross (1960–61) on stage. The Rank Organisation insisted Mills play the role of the priest in
The Singer Not the Song (1961) opposite Dirk Bogarde. Mills and Baker reteamed on an interracial drama,
Flame in the Streets (1961), and an Italian-British war film,
The Valiant (1962). Mills did a comedy with
James Mason,
Tiara Tahiti (1962). He had a support role in
The Chalk Garden (1964) starring Hayley. After a cameo on the war film
Operation Crossbow (1965), Mills made a third film with his daughter,
The Truth About Spring (1965). He had a cameo in
King Rat (1965) for
Bryan Forbes, who then directed Mills in
The Wrong Box (1966). Mills played Hayley's father-in-law on screen in
The Family Way (1966). He then directed her in
Sky West and Crooked (1966) from a script written by his wife. He was the subject of
This Is Your Life on two occasions, firstly in 1960 when he was surprised by
Eamonn Andrews outside
Pinewood Studios, and again in 1983 when Andrews surprised him on the stage of London's
Wyndham's Theatre at the curtain call of the play
Little Lies.
Character actor Mills began to move into character roles, supporting
Hugh O'Brian in
Africa Texas Style (1967) and
Rod Taylor in
Chuka (1967). He went to Italy for a giallo,
A Black Veil for Lisa (1968) and played
William Hamilton in
Emma Hamilton (1968). Mills had a cameo in
Oh! What a Lovely War (1969) for director Richard Attenborough and supported
Mark Lester (though he was top billed) in
Run Wild, Run Free (1969). He went to Australia to star in a convict drama, ''
Adam's Woman'' (1970). For his role as the village idiot in ''
Ryan's Daughter'' (1970)—a complete departure from his usual style—Mills won a
Best Supporting Actor Oscar. He was in
Dulcima (1971), then had support roles in
Young Winston (1972) for Attenborough,
Lady Caroline Lamb (1972) and
Oklahoma Crude (1973). On stage he did
Veterans at the Royal Court,
At the End of the Day (1973),
The Good Companions (1974),
Great Expectations (1975) and
Separate Tables (1977). Also on the small screen, in 1974 he starred as Captain Tommy "The Elephant" Devon in the six-part television drama series
The Zoo Gang, about a group of former underground freedom fighters from the Second World War, alongside
Brian Keith,
Lilli Palmer and
Barry Morse. In the late 1970s Mills could still get lead roles in films, as shown by
The "Human" Factor (1975),
Trial by Combat (1976) and ''
The Devil's Advocate (1977). He had filmed supporting roles in The Big Sleep and The Thirty Nine Steps'' (both 1978). His most famous television role was probably as the
title character in
Quatermass for
ITV in 1979. He followed this with a sitcom in
Young at Heart (1980–82). On the big screen he was now mainly playing upper-crust types as in
Zulu Dawn (1979),
Gandhi (1982) and
Sahara (1983). He performed
Goodbye Mr Chips on stage (1982) followed by
Little Lies (1983).
Later career , London In 1986 he did
The Petition at the National and the following year did
Pygmalion on Broadway. He provided a voice for
When the Wind Blows (1986) and supported
Madonna in ''
Who's That Girl (1987). His best roles were on TV in Harnessing Peacocks (1993) and Martin Chuzzlewit (1994). Mills also starred as Gus: The Theatre Cat in the filmed version of the musical Cats'' in 1998. In 2000, Mills released his extensive home cine-film footage in a documentary film entitled ''
Sir John Mills's Moving Memories, with interviews with Mills, his children Hayley, Juliet and Jonathan and Richard Attenborough. The film was produced and written by Jonathan Mills, directed and edited by Marcus Dillistone, and features behind the scenes footage and stories from films such as Ice Cold in Alex and Dunkirk''. In addition the film also includes home footage of many of Mills's friends and fellow cast members including
Laurence Olivier,
Harry Andrews,
Walt Disney,
David Niven,
Dirk Bogarde,
Rex Harrison and
Tyrone Power. He portrayed a charming old gent as head of an art museum in 1997's
Bean. Mills's last cinema appearance was playing a tramp in
Lights 2 (directed by
Marcus Dillistone); the cinematographer was
Jack Cardiff. They had last worked together on
Scott of the Antarctic in 1948. ==Personal life and death==