The Disney Channel Magazine September, 1985 Pages 2-3

Although it's been 25 years since her Disney debut, Hayley Mills continues to shine among the brightest stars on The Disney Channel. She made only six pictures for the studio, but every one was a winner. Those that we've shown on the Channel have brought countless requests for an encore, so this month we're pleased to reintroduce Hayley in her first Disney movie, "Pollyanna."

As it often does, luck played a large part in placing the right actress in the right film. Walt Disney had seen a striking performance by a 13-year-old girl in "Tiger Bay," an English movie starring John Mills. When writer/director David Swift began casting his screenplay of "Pollyanna," Walt had a suggestion for the title role. She turned out to be John Mills' daughter, Hayley, whom he remembered from "Tiger Bay."

"Once they saw her, everybody agreed that Hayley was perfect for the part," David Swift recalls. "However, she did have a British accent, and Pollyanna -- according to the well known, perennially popular book by Eleanor H. Porter -- was cheerful, matter-of-fact, and all-American. 'What are we going to do about the accent?' Walt asked. 'I'll have her born in the West Indies,' I said."

Pollyanna Whittier, so the novel reads, was an orphan who came to a small Eastern town to live with her wealthy, strict, unloved and seemingly unloving spinster aunt, Polly Harrington. Walt assembled an impressive adult cast headed by Jane Wyman, Richard Egan, Karl Malden, Nancy Olson, Adolphe Menjou, Donald Crisp and Agnes Moorehead, but it was Hayley Mills who stole the show.

"Richard Egan summed it up," Swift says. "After doing a scene with Hayley, he walked over to me and said, 'David, I've got two chances in that scene -- little, and none at all.'"

The phenomenon who became Walt Disney's most popular juvenile screen star was born April 18, 1946, in London. Neither her actor father nor playwright mother encouraged her to become an actress. However, when the opportunity to appear in "Tiger Bay" arose, she accepted it with the blessing of her parents.

Hayley's second picture for Walt Disney Productions was "The Parent Trap," also written and directed by David Swift.

"Her father used to visit the set," Swift says. "One day we were shooting a golf scene and found ourselves short one bit player. Without any hesitation John Mills, one of the most eminent actors in the world, stepped right in and played a caddy."

Hayley was 19 when she made her final film for Disney. She returned to England, made four or five pictures there, then went into acting in British television and stage productions. Meanwhile she interrupted her career to marry, divorce, and raise two sons. A generation passed before she was seen by American audiences again.

"Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life" on television in 1981 and "The Flame Trees of Thika," a seven-part series on PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre" the following year reacquainted American televiewers with Hayley Mills. The first of her Disney films premiered on The Disney Channel in 1983.