John Mills

Considered one of the best actors of his country of all time, and remembered for his roles as the perfect British gentleman, Sir John Mills passed away precisely one day before the feast of Saint George -on April 22, 2005-, patron saint of England. The actor died at the age of 97, at his residence in Denham, near London. According to a family spokesman, Mills had suffered “a short illness.”

Like Laurence Olivier , Alec Guinness , and other of his country’s acting greats, John Mills came from the stage. A tireless worker, he was working until the 1990s, despite being virtually blind.

Born on February 22, 1908 in Norfolk, in the southeast of Great Britain, Lewis Ernest Watts Mills (his real name) came from a poor family, and since he was little he had to work, carrying out various activities. He received an exquisite education at Norwich Grammar School, a rigid school. At the age of 20 he moved to London, to try to survive, as a salesman of disinfectants at home. Because of his privileged voice, he gets a job in the theater. When he was acting as a choirboy in a half-baked musical, the prestigious playwright Noel Coward decided to sign him up to take part in his productions of classic Shakespearean works. Especially applauded was his interpretation of ‘Hamlet’, which paved the way for British cinema, emerging in the 1930s. He debuted with TheMidshipmaid , a comedy by Albert de Courville , where she already had a leading role. From that moment on, he was typecast in military roles with an unblemished career, such as Lieutenant George Perry, from the drama Cottage to Let , which was very successful in Great Britain. Soon after, John Mills became a worldwide celebrity with Goodbye, Mr. Chips .

He is then cast by Noel Coward as sailor Shorty Blake, one of the leads in Blood, Sweat, and Tears . Coward himself was the lead, as well as co-directing the film with David Lean , a filmmaker who would continue to turn to Mills over the years. Their next collaboration together was Life Rules , based on a play by Coward that portrayed the lives of ordinary British citizens between World War I and World War II. In Broken Chains , adaptation of the novel ‘Great Expectations’ by Charles Dickens, the actor embodied Pip, the protagonist, in his youth, since as a child he embodied the boy Anthony Wagger. Many years later, in 1971, Mills returned to Lean’s orders to play Michael, the idiot from the Irish town where the protagonist arrived, in Ryan’s Daughter . Although it was an exaggerated and histrionic role for someone specialized in more restrained performances, it earned him an Oscar for best supporting role. The Hollywood Academy surrendered to his talent, despite the fact that he used to resist accepting the many offers that came to him from the United States, especially not to abandon his residence in Great Britain.

In 1931 Mills married Aileen Raymond, but they divorced in 1941. He then married again, to Mary Hayley Bell , an actress, writer and screenwriter. He had three children with her, including Hayley Mills , who would eventually become a popular actress in Walt Disney ‘s live-action productions , after the success of You to Boston and I to California , where John Mills himself made a brief cameo. His other two children, Juliet and Jonathan, have also worked as actors, although not with such good fortune.

An enormously versatile actor, John Mills stood out in films such as The Despot , War and Peace , Around the World in 80 Days , The Robinsons of the South Seas , Operation Crossbow and The Love of Lady Hamilton . In the 80s he continued with an intense activity, combining big blockbusters such as Gandhi , with many series shot for the small screen, such as A Tale of Two Cities or The Lady and the Traveler , and above all for his role as Watson, Sherlock Holmes’ assistant. . Also, he was able to screen-share with Madonna, in Who ‘s That Girl?or voicing a cartoon character, in When the Wind Blows . And although she almost completely lost her sight in 1990, due to a cornea problem, she continued to play both blind characters and perfectly sighted people. His last works seen in Spain were Hamlet , in Kenneth Branagh ‘s version , and Bean, the latest in catastrophic cinema .