This Is Your Life: John Mills 1

John MILLS CBE (1908-2005)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - John Mills, actor, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews outside Pinewood Studios.

John, who was born in Suffolk, took an early interest in acting, making his professional stage debut in 1929. His film debut was in The Midshipman in 1932, and he worked continuously in films throughout the 1930s. Following a return to the theatre, with a season at London’s Old Vic in 1939, he joined the army at the outbreak of the Second World War, occasionally making films on leave.

Having been invalided out of the army in 1942, John returned to films full time and soon became one of Britain’s most popular film stars - securing leading roles in box office hits such as 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!"

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 Brown
Tyrone Guthrie
Mary Hayley Bell – wife
Sheila Sim
Bruce Fraser, 1st Baron Fraser of North Cape
Jonathan Mills - son
Hamlet the dog
Hayley Mills - daughter
Martyn Garret Pipe Major De La Spec
20 Pipers And Drummers Of The London Scottish Pipers
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

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.'