Hayley Catherine Rose Vivien Mills (born 18 April 1946)^[1] is a British actress. The daughter of Sir John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell and younger sister of actress Juliet Mills, she began her acting career as a child and was hailed as a promising newcomer, winning the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her performance in the British crime drama film Tiger Bay (1959), the Academy Juvenile Award for Disney's Pollyanna (1960) and Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress in 1961.

During her early career, she appeared in six films for Walt Disney, including her dual role as twins Susan and Sharon in the Disney film The Parent Trap (1961). Her performance in Whistle Down the Wind (a 1961 adaptation of the novel written by her mother) saw Mills nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best British Actress and she was voted the biggest star in Britain for 1961.^[2] According to one writer, "She was a movie star for about a decade... a genuine, old-school, above-the-title movie star: listed in box-office polls, the focus of a carefully-protected public image, signatory to a long-term contract with a studio who would try to craft vehicles for her. In fact, you could make an argument that Hayley Mills was one of the last stars for whom that last factor applied, at least in English-speaking cinema."^[3]

In the late 1960s, Mills began performing in theatrical plays, making her stage debut in a 1969 West End revival of Peter Pan.^[4] She also played in more mature roles. For her success with Disney, she received the Disney Legend Award. Although she has not maintained the box office success or the Hollywood A-list she experienced as a child actress, she has continued to make films and TV appearances, including a starring role in the UK television mini-series The Flame Trees of Thika in 1981, the title role in Disney's television series Good Morning, Miss Bliss in 1988, and as Caroline, a main character in Wild at Heart (2007–2012) on ITV in the UK. She published her memoirs, Forever Young, in 2021.

Mills was born on 18 April 1946, in Marylebone, London to British actor Sir John Mills and actress Mary Hayley Bell.^[1] She was 12 when she was cast by J. Lee Thompson, who was initially looking for a boy to play the lead role in Tiger Bay, which co-starred her father. The movie was popular at the box office in Britain.^[5]

For Universal, Mills made another film with her father, The Truth About Spring (1965), co-starring Disney regular James MacArthur as her love interest. It was mildly popular. However The Trouble with Angels (1966), was a huge hit; she played as a prankish Catholic boarding school girl with "scathingly brilliant" schemes, opposite screen veteran Rosalind Russell, and directed by another Hollywood veteran, Ida Lupino. She then provided the voice of the Little Mermaid for The Daydreamer (1966).

In 1981, Mills returned to acting with a starring role in the UK television mini-series The Flame Trees of Thika, based on Elspeth Huxley's memoir of her childhood in East Africa. The series was well received, prompting her to accept more acting roles. She then returned to America and made two appearances on The Love Boat in 1985, and an episode of Murder, She Wrote in 1986.

Always welcomed at Disney, Mills narrated an episode of The Wonderful World of Disney, sparking renewed interest in her Disney work. In 1985, she was originally considered to voice Princess Eilonwy in Disney's animated feature film The Black Cauldron, but was later replaced by the veteran British voice actress Susan Sheridan. Later, she reprised her roles as twins Sharon and Susan for a trio of Parent Trap television films: The Parent Trap II, Parent Trap III, and Parent Trap: Hawaiian Honeymoon. She also starred as the title character in the Disney Channel-produced television series Good Morning, Miss Bliss in 1987. The show was cancelled after 13 episodes and the rights were acquired by NBC, which reformatted Good Morning, Miss Bliss into Saved by the Bell without any further involvement from Mills. In recognition of her work with The Walt Disney Company, she was awarded the Disney Legends award in 1998.^[25]

Mills recalled her childhood in the 2000 documentary film Sir John Mills' Moving Memories, which was directed by Marcus Dillistone and produced by her brother Jonathan. In 2005 she appeared in the acclaimed short film, Stricken, written and directed by Jayce Bartok. From 2007 to 2012, she appeared as Caroline in the ITV1 African vet drama Wild at Heart; her sister Juliet Mills was a guest star in series 4 of the drama.

In 2010, Mills appeared in Mandie and the Cherokee Treasure, based on one of the popular Mandie novels of Lois Gladys Leppard. In 2011, she starred in the film Foster alongside Toni Collette. Mills guest-starred in episodes of Midsomer Murders and Moving On in 2014. In 2019, she had a role in the television series Pitching In set at a holiday park in Wales. In 2021, Mills played Michael Sheen's mother in the film Last Train to Christmas, and in 2022 she had a recurring role in the television thriller series Compulsion.

In February 2023 she appeared in the fifth series of the ITV crime drama Unforgotten as Lady Emma Hume.^[26] In September 2023, Mills starred in an episode of The Wheel of Time.

Mills made her stage debut in a 1969 West End revival of Peter Pan.^[27] In 2000 she made her Off-Broadway debut in Sir Noël Coward's Suite in Two Keys, opposite American actress Judith Ivey, for which she won a Theatre World Award. In 1991 she appeared as Anna Leonowens in the Australian production of The King and I. In December 2007, for their annual birthday celebration of "The Master", The Noël Coward Society invited Mills as the guest celebrity to lay flowers in front of Coward's statue at New York's Gershwin Theatre, thereby commemorating the anniversary of the 108th birthday of Coward.

In 1997, Mills starred in the U.S. national tour of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I.^[28] In 2001, Mills starred as Desiree Armfeldt in a production of "A Little Night Music" in Seattle, Washington. It was a co-production with the city's A Contemporary Theatre and the Fifth Avenue Theatre.^[29][30] In 2012 she starred as Ursula Widdington in the stage production of Ladies in Lavender at the Royal & Derngate Theatre, before embarking on a national UK tour. In 2015, she toured Australia with sister Juliet Mills and Juliet's husband Maxwell Caulfield in the comedy Legends! by James Kirkwood. Mills starred in the 2018 Off-Broadway run of Isobel Mahon's Party Face at City Center.^[31]

In 1966, while filming The Family Way, 20-year-old Mills met 53-year-old director Roy Boulting. The two were married in 1971 and owned a flat in London's Chelsea and Cobstone Windmill in Ibstone, Buckinghamshire, which was later sold.^[32] Their son, Crispian Mills, is the lead singer and guitarist for the raga rock band Kula Shaker. The couple divorced in 1977.^[33]

Mills had a second son, Jason Lawson, born in July 1976,^[34] during a relationship with actor Leigh Lawson.^[35][36] She and Lawson split up in the early 1980s.^[37]

In the 1980s, following her breakup with Lawson, Mills developed an interest in a number of Eastern religions.^[37] She wrote the preface to the book, The Hare Krishna Book of Vegetarian Cooking, published in 1984.^[38] In a 1997 article in People magazine, she stated that "she is 'not a part of Hare Krishna', though she delved into Hinduism and her own Christianity for guidance."^[37]

In 1988, Mills co-edited, with then-partner Marcus Maclaine (né Newby; brother of actor Maxwell Caulfield, husband of Hayley's sister, Juliet), the book My God, which consisted of brief letters from celebrities on their beliefs, or lack thereof, regarding God and the afterlife.^{[citation needed]}

Mills's partner since 1997 is actor/writer Firdous Bamji, who is 20 years her junior.^[39]

In April 2008, Mills was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had surgery and started, but quickly abandoned, chemotherapy after only three sessions because of the severity of the side-effects. She credits her survival to the alternative treatments she used. She told Good Housekeeping magazine in January 2012 that she had fully recovered.^[39]

Let's Get Together with Hayley Mills, released in 1962, was Mills' only solo album. It had the million-selling song "Let's Get Together" and "Johnny Jingo".

Side one

1. "Jeepers Creepers" – 1:37
2. "Green and Yellow Basket" – 1:59
3. "Sentimental Sunday" – 2:04
4. "Ding Ding Ding" – 2:18
5. "Side by Side" – 1:36
6. "Cranberry Bog" – 1:50

Side two

1. "Little Boy" – 2:19
2. "Cobbler Cobbler" – 2:14
3. "Johnny Jingo" – 1:38
4. "Pollyanna Song" – 1:57
5. "Jimmie Bean" – 1:53
6. "Let's Get Together" – 1:29