Mary Hayley Bell Biography

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, F.H. Bell served in the Chinese Maritime Customs Service with postings to various Treaty Ports. From 1925-1928 he served as Customs Commissioner for Kowloon (within Hong Hong, although this position had no connection with the British colonial administration). During this period Mary attended school in Hong Kong and frequently spent weekends of leisure at the Commissioner's official country bungalow near Fan Ling Golf Club. The family later (1930) moved to Tianjin (then known as Tientsin). It was there that she first met John Mills, although exactly when is 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 in London. She recalled having an after-dinner party in Mills' dressing room after one of his performances as George in Of Mice and Men at the Apollo Theatre.

Stage/film roles

Mary Hayley Bell 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 José 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 1993 Eric Sykes film The Big Freeze, opposite her husband John Mills. She can also be seen in many home cine films in her son's documentary Sir John Mills' Moving Memories (2000).

Writings

Mary Hayley Bell wrote four plays: Men in Shadow (1942), Angel (1947), Duet for Two Hands (1945), and The Uninvited Guest (1953). She also wrote the novel Whistle Down the Wind (1961), co-wrote 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.

The sound of the wind around the bow windows of The Wick, the family's home for many years, reportedly inspired Bell to write the novel Whistle Down The Wind.

Marriage and 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 one night. The Mills' first home was a 16th-century cottage named "Misbourne" which they purchased in 1942 and lived at until the autumn of 1945. 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 Millses had three children:

• Juliet Mills (b. 1941) was star of television's Nanny and the Professor.
• Hayley Mills (b. 1946) was the Disney child star made iconic by starring in Pollyanna and the original The Parent Trap. Her son Crispian Mills became a successful singer with the rock band Kula Shaker.
• Jonathan Mills (b. 1949) is a writer and film producer.

Death

In 1975, the Mills family bought Hills House, Denham, Buckinghamshire, 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 both Sir John and Lady Mills. They moved to a bungalow in the village in 2003. Lady Mills suffered from Alzheimer's disease and used a wheelchair in her final years. Sir John died on 23 April 2005, aged 97. His widow died eight months later, on 1 December 2005, aged 94.