Mary Hayley Bell
Encyclopedia
Mary Hayley Bell, Lady Mills (22 January 19111 December 2005) was an English
actress, writer
and dramatist.
Mary Hayley Bell was born in Shanghai
, China
, where her father served in the Chinese Maritime Customs Service
, and the family later moved to Tianjin
(then known as Tientsin). It was there that she first met John Mills
, although exactly when is not clear. Mills was on tour at the time. They next met in early 1939 when she was appearing in Tony Draws a Horse
at the Comedy Theatre in London
, UK
. She recalled having an after-dinner party in Mills' dressing room after one of his performances as George in Of Mice and Men at the Apollo Theatre
.
. In 1935 she appeared in the film
Vintage Wine. She subsequently played the part of "Miss Wingate" in the film The Shrike
(1955), which starred José Ferrer
and June Allyson
. She recreated the same part on Broadway in 1958. She also had a brief uncredited role as a nursing home resident in the 1993 Eric Sykes
film The Big Freeze
, opposite her husband John Mills
. She can also be seen in many home movies in her son's documentary Sir John Mills' Moving Memories
(2000).
Mary Hayley Bell wrote four plays: Men in Shadow (1942), Angel (1947), Duet for Two Hands (1945), and The Uninvited Guest (1953). She also wrote the novel Whistle Down the Wind
(1961), co-wrote the screenplay and story of Sky West and Crooked
(1966) (released as Gypsy Girl in the United States), and wrote additional dialogue for Scott of the Antarctic (1948). Whistle Down the Wind was made into a film in 1961
(starring daughter Hayley Mills
) and an Andrew Lloyd Webber
musical in 1996
.
The sound of the wind around the bow windows of The Wick
, the family's home for many years, reportedly inspired Bell to write the novel Whistle Down The Wind.
Registry Office in London on 16 January 1941. Mills had a 48-hour pass from the Royal Engineers
, so their honeymoon at Duke's Hotel was one night. The Mills' first home was a 16th century cottage named "Misbourne" which they purchased in 1942 and lived at until the autumn of 1945. The survival of the marriage for the 64 years until his death on 23 April 2005 is rare in showbiz. Mills said that he regretted that his divorce from his first wife prevented Hayley Bell from having a church wedding. They renewed their marriage vows, sixty years after they married, at St. Mary's Church in Denham, Buckinghamshire
on 16 January 2001.
The Millses had three children:
, Denham, Buckinghamshire
, a 17th century house with a four acre (16 000 m²) garden. By 2003, it was too big and the stairs were too challenging for both Sir John and Lady Mills. They moved to a bungalow
in the village in 2003. Lady Mills suffered from Alzheimer's disease
and used a wheelchair in her final years. Sir John died on 23 April 2005, aged 97. His widow died eight months later, on 1 December 2005, aged 94.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actress, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and dramatist.
Mary Hayley Bell was born in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, where her father served in the Chinese Maritime Customs Service
Chinese Maritime Customs Service
The Chinese Maritime Customs Service was a Chinese governmental tax collection agency and information service from its founding in 1854 until its bifurcation in 1949 into services operating in the Republic of China on Taiwan, and in the People's Republic of China...
, and the family later moved to Tianjin
Tianjin
' is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government...
(then known as Tientsin). It was there that she first met John Mills
John Mills
Sir John Mills CBE , born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills, was an English actor who made more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades.-Life and career:...
, although exactly when is not clear. Mills was on tour at the time. They next met in early 1939 when she was appearing in Tony Draws a Horse
Tony Draws a Horse
Tony Draws a Horse is a 1950 British comedy film directed by John Paddy Carstairs and starring Cecil Parker, Anne Crawford and Derek Bond. It was adapted from a play by Lesley Storm.-Cast:* Cecil Parker - Dr. Howard Fleming* Anne Crawford - Clare Fleming...
at the Comedy Theatre in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. She recalled having an after-dinner party in Mills' dressing room after one of his performances as George in Of Mice and Men at the Apollo Theatre
Apollo Theatre
The Apollo Theatre is a Grade II listed West End theatre, on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. Designed by architect Lewin Sharp for owner Henry Lowenfield, and the fourth legitimate theatre to be constructed on the street, its doors opened on 21 February 1901 with the American...
.
Stage/film roles
Mary Hayley Bell first appeared on Broadway on 9 April 1928, in the comedy VolponeVolpone
Volpone is a comedy by Ben Jonson first produced in 1606, drawing on elements of city comedy, black comedy and beast fable...
. In 1935 she appeared in the film
Vintage Wine. She subsequently played the part of "Miss Wingate" in the film The Shrike
The Shrike (film)
The Shrike is a 1955 film based on the Joseph Kramm's play, The Shrike. José Ferrer directed and starred in Ketti Frings' screenplay adaptation.-Characters and story:...
(1955), which starred José Ferrer
José Ferrer
José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón , best known as José Ferrer, was a Puerto Rican actor, as well as a theater and film director...
and June Allyson
June Allyson
June Allyson was an American film and television actress, popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was a major MGM contract star. Allyson won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance in Too Young to Kiss . From 1959–1961, she hosted and occasionally starred in her own CBS anthology...
. She recreated the same part on Broadway in 1958. She also had a brief uncredited role as a nursing home resident in the 1993 Eric Sykes
Eric Sykes
Eric Sykes, CBE is an English radio, television and film writer, actor and director whose performing career has spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and/or performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Peter...
film The Big Freeze
The Big Freeze (1993 film)
The Big Freeze is a featurette-length film written and directed by Eric Sykes. The action centres around mishaps involving a father and son plumbing team attending to business in sub-zero temperatures at a retirement home in Finland. Like other Sykes directorial vehicles, the piece is a silent...
, opposite her husband John Mills
John Mills
Sir John Mills CBE , born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills, was an English actor who made more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades.-Life and career:...
. She can also be seen in many home movies in her son's documentary Sir John Mills' Moving Memories
Sir John Mills' Moving Memories
Sir John Mills' Moving Memories is a British documentary film featuring 16mm color home movies shot by the actor Sir John Mills. It documents his life between 1946 and 1969, directed by Marcus Dillistone and written by his son Jonathan Mills. Commentary was provided by Sir John , Hayley Mills,...
(2000).
Writings
Whistle Down the Wind (novel)
Whistle Down the Wind was a novella written by Mary Hayley Bell. It was published in 1959 by Boardman and retailed for 12 shillings and sixpence. The central characters are three children — Swallow, Brat and Poor Baby...
(1961), co-wrote the screenplay and story of Sky West and Crooked
Sky West and Crooked
Sky West and Crooked is a 1966 film, starring Hayley Mills, directed by her father John Mills, and co-written by her mother Mary Hayley Bell. It was released in the US as Gypsy Girl.-Plot summary:...
(1966) (released as Gypsy Girl in the United States), and wrote additional dialogue for Scott of the Antarctic (1948). Whistle Down the Wind was made into a film in 1961
Whistle Down the Wind (film)
Whistle Down the Wind is a 1961 British film, directed by Bryan Forbes, screenplay by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, from the novel by Mary Hayley Bell.-Plot:...
(starring daughter Hayley Mills
Hayley Mills
Hayley Mills is an English actress. The daughter of John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell, and sister of actress Juliet Mills, Mills began her acting career as a child and was hailed as a promising newcomer, winning the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for Tiger Bay , the Academy Juvenile Award...
) and an Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
musical in 1996
Whistle Down the Wind (musical)
Whistle Down the Wind is a musical based on the 1961 film Whistle Down the Wind with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Jim Steinman, known for his work with Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler.-Stage Premiere:...
.
The sound of the wind around the bow windows of The Wick
The Wick
The Wick is a house in Richmond, Greater London, located at the corner of Nightingale Lane and Richmond Hill in Surrey. The house was at one time owned by actor Sir John Mills who used it as his family home for many years. Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones bought the house from Mills...
, the family's home for many years, reportedly inspired Bell to write the novel Whistle Down The Wind.
Marriage and children
John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell married at MaryleboneMarylebone
Marylebone is an affluent inner-city area of central London, located within the City of Westminster. It is sometimes written as St. Marylebone or Mary-le-bone....
Registry Office in London on 16 January 1941. Mills had a 48-hour pass from the Royal Engineers
Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....
, so their honeymoon at Duke's Hotel was one night. The Mills' first home was a 16th century cottage named "Misbourne" which they purchased in 1942 and lived at until the autumn of 1945. The survival of the marriage for the 64 years until his death on 23 April 2005 is rare in showbiz. Mills said that he regretted that his divorce from his first wife prevented Hayley Bell from having a church wedding. They renewed their marriage vows, sixty years after they married, at St. Mary's Church in Denham, Buckinghamshire
Denham, Buckinghamshire
Denham is a village and civil parish in the South Buckinghamshire district of Buckinghamshire, England. It is north west of Uxbridge and north of junction 1 of the M40 motorway. Denham contains the Buckinghamshire Golf Club.-Origin:...
on 16 January 2001.
The Millses had three children:
- Juliet Mills (b. 1941) was star of television's Nanny and the ProfessorNanny and the ProfessorNanny and the Professor is a U.S. fantasy situation comedy created by AJ Carothers and Thomas L. Miller for 20th Century Fox Television. During pre-production, the proposed title was Nanny Will Do. The series first aired as a mid-season replacement on January 21, 1970, on ABC and was last telecast...
. - Hayley MillsHayley MillsHayley Mills is an English actress. The daughter of John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell, and sister of actress Juliet Mills, Mills began her acting career as a child and was hailed as a promising newcomer, winning the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for Tiger Bay , the Academy Juvenile Award...
(b. 1946) was the Disney child star made iconic by starring in PollyannaPollyanna (1960 film)Pollyanna is a Walt Disney Productions feature film starring child actress Hayley Mills, Jane Wyman, Karl Malden and Richard Egan in a story about a cheerful orphan changing the outlook of a small town. Based upon the novel Pollyanna by Eleanor Porter, the film was written and directed by David...
and the original The Parent Trap. Her son Crispian MillsCrispian MillsCrispian Mills is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is the son of actress Hayley Mills and director Roy Boulting, the grandson of John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell , nephew of Juliet Mills and Jonathan Mills, and half-brother to Jason "Ace" Lawson...
became a successful singer with the rock band Kula ShakerKula ShakerKula Shaker are an English psychedelic rock band. Led by outspoken frontman Crispian Mills, the band came to prominence during the Post-Britpop era of the late 1990s. The band enjoyed great commercial success in the UK between 1996 and 1999, notching up a number of Top 10 hits on the UK Singles...
. - Jonathan Mills (b. 1949) is a writer and film producer.
Death
In 1975, the Mills family bought Hills HouseHills House, Denham
Hills House is a 17th Century Tudor residence located on the Village Road in Denham, Buckinghamshire, England. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, it was the home of Merle Oberon and her husband Sir Alexander Korda. In 1975 the house was purchased by Sir John and Lady Mills.-Description:The house is...
, Denham, Buckinghamshire
Denham, Buckinghamshire
Denham is a village and civil parish in the South Buckinghamshire district of Buckinghamshire, England. It is north west of Uxbridge and north of junction 1 of the M40 motorway. Denham contains the Buckinghamshire Golf Club.-Origin:...
, a 17th century house with a four acre (16 000 m²) garden. By 2003, it was too big and the stairs were too challenging for both Sir John and Lady Mills. They moved to a bungalow
Bungalow
A bungalow is a type of house, with varying meanings across the world. Common features to many of these definitions include being detached, low-rise , and the use of verandahs...
in the village in 2003. Lady Mills suffered from Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
and used a wheelchair in her final years. Sir John died on 23 April 2005, aged 97. His widow died eight months later, on 1 December 2005, aged 94.