Vanity Fair
March, 2004
No. 523
Page 360

The Thespians

HAYLEY MILLS, SIR JOHN MILLS, and JULIET MILLS, actors.

As the heroic, still-upper-lipped face of wartime Britain and the embodiment of English decency, Sir John Mills, 96, has appeared in more than 100 films, including Great Expectations, Hobson's Choice, and Ryan's Daughter, for which he won an Oscar in 1971. He is proudest, however, of his co-productions with novelist and playwright Mary Hayley Bell, his wife of 63 years: son Jonathan, a writer, and actress daughters Juliet and Hayley. Both girls made their screen debuts as infants in movies with their father, and Hayley literally grew up in pictures, from Tiger Bay, at age 12, in which she upstaged Sir John and attracted the attention of Mrs. Walt Disney (who immediately called her husband to say she'd found his Pollyanna - not to mention his Parent Trap twins), to The Family Way, in which the 19-year-old actress brke free of her Disneyfied image with a much-publicized nude scene. For Juliet, cult status came later in life: both as a leading lady (in Billy Wilder's Avanti!) and as a character actress with an Emmy Award and two Golden Globe nominations to her credit, the formar Nanny and the Professor star has acquired a legion of fans for her current role as the villainous witch Tabitha on the soap opera Passions.

Photographed by Julian Broad at Jane's backstage paint shop at the Bristol Old Vic theater in Bristol, England, on November 24, 2003.

Styled by Emily Barnes; Juliet's sweater by DKNY; cape from Virginia, London; pants by Emporio Armani; hair, makeup, and grooming by Alexsandra Byrne.