Mary Hayley Bell

Mary Hayley Bell
Spouse	John Mills (1941-2005)

Mary Hayley Bell, Lady Mills (22 January 1911 – 1 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 Tientsin, China (now Tianjin). It was there that she first met John Mills, although her age and the year in question are 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. She recalled having strawberries and cream in Mills' dressing room after one of his performances as George in Of Mice and Men at the Apollo Theatre.

Stage/film roles

She first appeared on Broadway on 9 April 1928, in the comedy Volpone. 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 Jose 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 Big Freeze (1993).

Writings

Mary Hayley Bell wrote four plays: Men in Shadow (1942), Angel (1947), Duet for Two Hands (1945), and The Uninvited Guest (1953). She wrote the novel Whistle Down the Wind (1961), cowrote 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. Mary Hayley Bell was featured in her son's video documentary of her husband's Moving Memories (2000).

Marriage & Children

John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell married at Marylebone 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 only a single night. 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 Mills had three children: Juliet Mills (b. 1941), Hayley Mills (b. 1946), and Jonathan Mills (b. 1949). Both daughters are notable actresses. Juliet was star of television's Nanny and the Professor. Hayley was the Disney child star made iconic by starring in the original The Parent Trap. Jonathan Mills is a writer and film producer. Hayley's son, Crispian Mills, became a successful singer with the rock band Kula Shaker.

Death

The Wick on Richmond Hill in Richmond, Surrey, was the family home for many years.

The Mills family bought named Hills House, Denham in 1975. 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 Hayley Bell and her husband. They moved to a bungalow in the village in 2003. Lady Mills suffered from Alzheimer's disease and was wheelchair-bound in her final years. Sir John Mills died on 23 April 2005, aged 97, from a chest infection. His widow died eight months later, on 1 December 2005.

Links

• Mary Hayley Bell at IMDb
• Mary Hayley Bell at the Internet Broadway Database
• Times Obituary

Sources

• Bell, Mary Hayley. What Shall We Do Tomorrow? An Autobiography, (London: Cassell, 1968) ISBN 0-304-93264-7
• Roisman-Cooper, Barbara. 'Sir John Mills', British Heritage, February/March 2000, p. 44
• Russell, William. 'Sir John Mills', The Herald (Glasgow), 25 April 2005