February 22, 1908 – Actor and Disney Legend Sir John Mills is Born
“One of the luckiest things that ever happened to me was to be born with the desperate desire to become an actor. I never remember at any age wanting to be anything else.”
On January 22, 1908, Lewis Ernest Watts Mills was born in North Elmham, Norfolk, England, and grew up in Belton. In 1929, Mills made his professional acting debut in The Five O’Clock Girl at the London Hippodrome, and made his film debut in the 1932 film The Midshipmen. He enlisted in the Royal Engineers at the beginning of World War II, but was medically discharged in 1942 due to a stomach ulcer. In the late ’40s and ’50s, Mills was known predominantly for starring in war dramas, including The Colditz Story and Above Us the Waves.
Beginning in 1959, Mills starred in several films alongside his daughter Hayley, beginning with Tiger Bay. In 1960, Mills starred in the highly successful film Swiss Family Robinson, which became the highest grossing film of the year, beating out Psycho, Spartacus, and Exodus. He was also featured in the Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color episode “Disneyland 10th Anniversary,” showing his family the new Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse attraction. Over his entire seven-decade career, Mills starred in more than 120 films, and was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1960 before being knighted in 1970. Mills was named a Disney Legend in 2002, and passed away in 2005 at the age of 97.
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