This Is Your Life: John Mills 1

John MILLS CBE (1908-2005)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - John Mills, actor, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews as he left Pinewood Studios after a day of filming.

John, who was born in Norfolk, worked as a clerk and a commercial traveller before breaking into acting, making his professional debut in 1929 in the chorus of the musical The Five O'Clock Girl. After touring India, China and the Far East with The Quaints repertory company, he returned to London, where he established himself as a juvenile lead with success on stage with the plays Charley's Aunt and Cavalcade. Having made his film debut in The Midshipman in 1932, he worked in films throughout the 1930s while continuing to appear on stage, notably in a season at the Old Vic in 1939.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, having enlisted with the Royal Engineers, John was invalided out of the army in 1942 and returned to films as one of Britain's most popular film stars, securing leading roles in box office hits such as In Which We Serve - in a role specially written for him by Noel Coward - We Dive at Dawn, This Happy Breed, The Way to the Stars and Great Expectations. His popularity as a film actor continued throughout the 1950s as he showed his versatility and range in Hobson's Choice, The Colditz Story, Above Us the Waves and Ice Cold in Alex.

John Mills was a subject of This Is Your Life on two occasions - surprised again by Eamonn Andrews in September 1983 at the Wyndham's Theatre in London.

"You brute! I've got no tie you know, Eamonn!"

programme details...

Edition No: 143
Subject No: 143
Broadcast live: Mon 19 Dec 1960
Broadcast time: 7.30-8.00pm
Repeated: Wed 28 Aug 1963 9.25pm
Venue: BBC Television Theatre
Series: 6
Edition: 14

on the guest list...

Sir Frederick Wells
Zelia Raye
Roma Beaumont
James Grant Anderson
Louise Browne
Tyrone Guthrie
Mary Hayley Bell - wife
Sheila Sim
Lord Fraser
Jonathan - son
Hamlet - dog
Hayley Mills - daughter
members of the London Scottish Pipes and Drums
Juliet Mills - daughter

production team...

Researcher: Nickola Sterne
Writer: Nickola Sterne
Director: Michael Goodwin
Producer: T Leslie Jackson

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

John Mills

second tribute

An Actor's Life For Me

spotlight on the stars

Life Second Time Around

surprised again!

Family Life

keeping it in the family

Hayley Mills

Juliet Mills

Photographs and screenshots of John Mills This Is Your Life

John Mills recalls his experience of This Is Your Life in his book, Still Memories an Autobiography in Photography...

In 1960 I was caught for This Is Your Life and it was brilliantly done.

I had been around filming at Pinewood Studios.

We finished at 6.30 and my driver, Jolly, came into the dressing room and said, 'I'm terribly sorry. We're being delayed by at least three-quarters of an hour because of a puncture on the Rolls.'

When we left, finally, I was not in the best of moods. It had been a long day, and I wanted to get home.

At the studio gate we stopped. There was a blaze of light and about five cameras, and then Eamonn Andrews stepped forward and said, 'John Mills – This Is Your Life.'