biography
| name: |
Mills, Sir John (Lewis Ernest Watts)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1908– )
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| biography:
| Actor and director, born in Felixstowe, Suffolk, E England, UK. He first appeared on stage in 1929, becoming a popular actor in light comedies and musicals in the 1930s. He was best known as a film star, appearing in many patriotic war films as well as such epics as Scott of the Antarctic (1948), The Colditz Story (1954), and Oh! What a Lovely War (1969). For two generations of film audiences he represented the figure of a fundamentally decent and reliable Englishman, and took few unsympathetic roles. He was awarded an Oscar for his role as the village idiot in Ryan's Daughter (1970), and appeared in Gandhi (1982) and Deadly Advice (1994). His stage career indicates a wider acting range, including The Petition at the National Theatre in 1986. He was knighted in 1976, and is the father of actresses Juliet and Hayley. In 2002 he received a BAFTA Fellowship for outstanding contributions to world cinema. |
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