John Mills
Birthday: Born in 1908-02-22 in The Watts Naval Training College, North Elmham, Norfolk, England, UK
Deathday: 2005-04-23
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sir John Mills, CBE (born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills, 22 February 1908 – 23 April 2005) was an English actor who appeared in more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades. On screen, he often played people who are not at all exceptional, but become heroes because of their common sense, generosity and good judgement.
TV Credits
Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
Character: Self
Jonathan Ross's take on current topics of conversation, guest interviews and live music from both a guest music group and the house band....
Tales of the Unexpected
Character: Sam Morrissey
A British television anthology of stories, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, and a twist at the end. With early episodes written and presented by Roald Dahl, the series featured a plethora of big name guest stars....
Hotel
Character:
Hotel is an American prime time drama series which aired on ABC from September 21, 1983 to May 5, 1988 in the timeslot following Dynasty. Based on Arthur Hailey's 1965 novel of the same name, the series was produced by Aaron Spelling and set in the elegant and fictitious St. Gregory Hotel in San Francisco. Establishing shots of the hotel were filmed in front of The Fairmont San Francisco atop the Nob Hill neighborhood. Episodes followed the activities of passing guests, as well as the personal ...
The Merv Griffin Show
Character: Self
The Merv Griffin Show is an American television talk show, starring Merv Griffin. The series ran from October 1, 1962 to March 29, 1963 on NBC, September 20, 1965 to August 15, 1969 in first-run syndication, from August 18, 1969 to February 11, 1972 at 11:30 PM ET weeknights on CBS and again in first-run syndication from February 14, 1972 to September 5, 1986....
Nanny and the Professor
Character: Uncle Alfred
Nanny and the Professor is an American fantasy situation comedy created by AJ Carothers and Thomas L. Miller for 20th Century Fox Television. During pre-production, the proposed title was Nanny Will Do....
The Zoo Gang
Character: Thomas "The Elephant" Devon
Six resistance fighters, known by their animal-based code names, fought during World War II. Their efforts came to a stop when one of their number, "the Wolf", betrayed them to the Gestapo. In their interrogation, one of their number, Claude Roget, the husband of Manouche was shot before her eyes. Thirty years later, Thomas Devon spots the Wolf in his shop. The surviving members of the Zoo Gang drop what they are doing and rendezvous for vengeance. The series follows the adventures of the remain...
Dundee and the Culhane
Character: Dundee
Dundee and the Culhane is an American Western television series starring John Mills and Sean Garrison that aired on the CBS television network from September 7 to December 13, 1967....
A Woman of Substance
Character: Henry Rossiter
The life of Emma Harte, from kitchen maid at the beginning of the twentieth century, to respected business woman and grandmother in the 1980s. From humble beginnings, Emma Harte starts her business with a small shop, but over the next twenty years, she expands her stores and invests in the growing textile industry in Leeds....
Young at Heart
Character: Albert Collyer
The lives of married couple Albert and Ethel Collyer, after Albert, a pottery worker for 50 years, is forced into retirement aged 65....
The Best of British Cinema
Character:
Sir John Mills narrates this entertaining compilation. "The Best of British Cinema" takes an insightful look back at some of the finest and most memorable feature films to be produced in major British studios over a period of five decades. All of the major stars are here, from Olivier to Leigh, from Sabu to Robert Donat, along with eminent directors. This series confirms the power, humor and drama of the great British films....
Talking Pictures
Character: Self (archive footage)
A look back at television appearances by legends of the silver screen, using archive footage to tell the story of their lives and careers....
The Dame Edna Experience
Character: Self
The Dame Edna Experience is a British television comedy talk-show hosted by Dame Edna Everage. It ran for twelve regular episodes on ITV, plus two Christmas specials. The first seven aired for the first time in 1987, the next seven in 1989. It was directed by Ian Hamilton and Alasdair MacMillan and produced by London Weekend Television. Regulars on the program, besides Dame Edna, were her "bridesmaid" Madge Allsop and Robin Houston who was the announcer, with orchestra conducted and arranged by...
Hold the Dream
Character: Henry Rossiter
The follow-up to A Woman of Substance with Emma Harte at age eighty in the last winter of her life and dealing with her granddaughter Paula, as well as her respected advisor Henry Rossiter and Blackie O'Neill....
Around the World in 80 Days
Character: Faversham
The plot centres around Phileas Fogg making a £20,000 wager with three members of the Reform Club that he can circumnavigate the world in 80 days. He takes with him his newly employed French valet Passepartout, and is pursued by Detective Wilbur Fix who mistakenly thinks Fogg robbed the Bank of England and is using the wager as a cover to escape capture....
An Audience with...
Character: Self
An Audience with... is a British entertainment television show produced by London Weekend Television, in which a host, usually a singer or comedian, performs for an invited audience of celebrity guests, interspersed with questions from the audience, in a light hearted revue/tribute style....
The American Film Institute Salute to ...
Character: Self
In 1973 the American Film Institute initiated its Life Achievement Award, to be presented to a yearly recipient whose talent has fundamentally advanced the film art; whose accomplishments have been acknowledged by scholars, critics, professional peers and the general public; and whose work has stood the test of time....
Wogan
Character: Self
Chat show hosted by Terry Wogan, featuring live studio interviews with famous and notable personalities....
A Tale of Two Cities
Character: Jarvis Lorry
A pair of lookalikes, one a former French aristocrat and the other an alcoholic English lawyer, fall in love with the same woman amongst the turmoil of the French Revolution....
Martin Chuzzlewit
Character: Mr. Chuffey
When old Martin Chuzzlewit disinherits his grandson, he falls prey to a host of rapacious relatives....
The Love Boat
Character: Bertram MacDonald
Passengers who search for romantic nights aboard a beautiful ship travelling to tropical or mysterious countries, decide to pass their vacation aboard the "Love Boat", where Gopher, Dr. Bricker, Isaac, Julie, and Captain Stubing try their best to please them, and sometimes help them fall in love. Things are not always so easy, but in the end, love wins....
Quatermass
Character: Bernard Quatermass
In the near future, a now-elderly Bernard Quatermass investigates the disappearance of his granddaughter and a mysterious cult....
The Danny Kaye Show
Character: Self
The Danny Kaye Show is an American variety show hosted by Danny Kaye that aired on CBS from 1963 to 1967 on Wednesday nights. Directed by Robert Scheerer, the show premiered in black-and-white, but later switched to color broadcasts. At the time, Kaye was at the height of his popularity, having starred in a string of successful films in the 1940s and '50's, made successful personal appearances at such venues as the London Palladium, and appeared many times on television. His most recent films ha...
Tales of the Unexpected
Character: William Perkins
A British television anthology of stories, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, and a twist at the end. With early episodes written and presented by Roald Dahl, the series featured a plethora of big name guest stars....
Tales of the Unexpected
Character: The Man
A British television anthology of stories, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, and a twist at the end. With early episodes written and presented by Roald Dahl, the series featured a plethora of big name guest stars....
Parkinson
Character: Self
Michael Parkinson returns for a second run of his iconic talk show....
Movie Credits
Bean
Character: Chairman
Childlike Englishman, Mr. Bean, is an incompetent watchman at the Royal National Gallery. After the museum's board of directors' attempt to have him fired is blocked by the chairman, who has taken a liking to Bean, they send him to Los Angeles to act as their ambassador for the unveiling of a historic painting to humiliate him. Fooled, Mr. Bean must now successfully unveil the painting or risk his and a hapless Los Angeles curator's termination....
Gandhi
Character: Lord Chelmsford
In the early years of the 20th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer, forsakes all worldly possessions to take up the cause of Indian independence. Faced with armed resistance from the British government, Gandhi adopts a policy of 'passive resistance', endeavouring to win freedom for his people without resorting to bloodshed....
Frankenstein
Character: De Lacey
In the early 19th century, Dr. Frankenstein discovers the secret of life – how to create a perfect man – powerful, intelligent and immune to disease. But something goes wrong in the laboratory and the doctor’s hideous creation disappears into the night. At first, Frankenstein hoped that the horrible monster would perish in the wilderness, but now he senses that it’s alive and sets out for him. Dr. Frankenstein tracks the creature to the Arctic, where the two must battle to decide who will become...
The Big Sleep
Character: Inspector Carson
Private eye Philip Marlowe investigates a case of blackmail involving the two wild daughters of a rich general, a pornographer and a gangster....
Sir John Mills' Moving Memories
Character: Self
A film biography with a difference, Sir John Mills' Moving Memories charts the life of one of Britain's most distinguished actors. Compiled from interviews with the man himself and with his family and friends, it traces his career from humble beginnings to all-time great of British cinema. The many film clips reveal an electric screen presence and a willingness to undertake a range of difficult, challenging roles....
When the Wind Blows
Character: Jim Bloggs (voice)
With the help of government-issued pamphlets, an elderly British couple build a shelter and prepare for an impending nuclear attack, unaware that times and the nature of war have changed from their romantic memories of World War II....
Oh! What a Lovely War
Character: Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig
The working-class Smiths change their initially sunny views on World War I after the three boys of the family witness the harsh reality of trench warfare....
Murder with Mirrors
Character: Lewis Serrocold
When Miss Jane Marple arrives at palatial Stonygates, one thing is certain. Before there's time to lather a warm scone with marmalade and place a tea cozy, murder most foul is bound to occur....
War and Peace
Character: Platon Karataev
Napoleon's tumultuous relations with Russia including his disastrous 1812 invasion serve as the backdrop for the tangled personal lives of two aristocratic families....
The Human Factor
Character: Mike McAllister
After his family is brutally murdered for an unknown reason, a computer engineer sets out to find those responsible....
The Green Cockatoo
Character: Jim Connor
A young girl is travelling to London to find work. Arriving at the station, she meets a man who has been stabbed by a member of a gang of crooks involved with greyhound racing. She becomes a suspect, but flees the scene in order to deliver a message to the dead man's brother. She is protected from the police by a night club entertainer, who she learns is the man she is seeking....
Cats
Character: Gus the Theatre Cat
"Jellicle" cats join for a Jellicle ball where they rejoice with their leader, Old Deuteronomy. One cat will be chosen to go to the "Heavyside Layer" and be reborn....
Who's That Girl
Character: Montgomery Bell
An uptight New York tax lawyer gets his life turned upside down, all in a single day, when he's asked to escort a feisty and free-spirited female ex-convict whom asks him to help prove her innocence of her crime....
In Which We Serve
Character: Ordinary Seaman Blake / Shorty Blake
The story of the HMS Torrin, from its construction to its sinking in the Mediterranean during action in World War II. The ship's first and only commanding officer is Captain E.V. Kinross, who trains his men not only to be loyal to him and the country, but—most importantly—to themselves....
The Masks of Death
Character: Dr. John H. Watson / Narrator
Sherlock Holmes has retired. But when MacDonald asks him to take on another case, he says yes. There have been some mysterious murders, and there are no visible causes for the deaths. At the same time Holmes gets this case, Graf Udo Von Felseck gives him another case: find a young and missing prince to prevent war between Germany and England. But Von Felseck is not as honest as he seems......
The Quatermass Conclusion
Character: Prof. Bernard Quatermass
Influenced by the social and geopolitical situation of the early nineteen-seventies and the hippie youth movement of the late nineteen-sixties, Quatermass is set in a near future in which large numbers of young people are joining a cult, the “Planet People”, and gathering at ancient sites, believing they will be transported to a better life on another planet....
Above Us the Waves
Character: Commandant Fraser
In World War II, the greatest threat to the British navy is the German battleship Tirpitz. While anchored in a Norwegian fjord, it is impossible to attack by conventional means, so a plan is hatched for a special commando unit to attack it, using midget submarines to plant underwater explosives....
King Rat
Character: Smedley-Taylor
When Singapore surrendered to the Japanese in 1942, the Allied POWs, mostly British but including a few Americans, were incarcerated in Changi prison. Among the American prisoners is Cpl. King, a wheeler-dealer who has managed to establish a pretty good life for himself in the camp. King soon forms a friendship with an upper-class British officer who is fascinated with King's enthusiastic approach to life....
Operation Crossbow
Character: General Boyd
Allied agents infiltrate the Nazi rocket complex at Peenemunde in order to obtain their secrets and sabotage the plant. The film alternates between German developments of the V-1 missile and V-2 rocket (with a German cast speaking their own language) and discovery by British Intelligence of the weapon....
Great Expectations
Character: Pip
In this Dickens adaptation, orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker....
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Character: Peter Colley as a Young Man
A shy British teacher looks back nostalgically at his long career, taking note of the people who touched his life....
The Thirty Nine Steps
Character: Scudder
The year is 1914 and Richard Hannay, Mining Engineer who is visiting Britain for a short time before returning to South Africa, is shocked when one of his neighbours, Colonel Scudder, bursts into his rooms one night and tells him a story that Prussian 'sleeper' agents are planning to pre-start World War I by murdering a visiting foreign minister. However, Scudder is murdered and Hannay is framed for the death by the 'sleepers'. Fleeing to Scotland Hannay attempts to clear his name and to stop th...
Tunes of Glory
Character: Lt. Col. Basil Barrow (Battalion Commander)
Following World War II in peacetime Scotland, brigade headquarters replaces commanding officer Major Jock Sinclair, a boisterous battalion leader, with the strict, temperamental Lieutenant Colonel Basil Barrow. Resentful toward his replacement, Sinclair undermines Barrow's authority and damages his successor's reputation among the soldiers. Barrow faces an uphill battle in regaining the discipline and respect of his battalion....
Tiger Bay
Character: Superintendent Graham
In Tiger Bay, the docklands of Cardiff, rough-and-tumble street urchin Gillie witnesses the brutal killing of a young woman at the hands of visiting Polish sailor Korchinsky. Instead of reporting the crime to the authorities, Gillie merely pockets a prize for herself — Korchinsky's shiny black revolver — and flees the scene. When Detective Graham discovers that Gillie has the murder weapon, the fiery young girl weaves a web of lies to throw him off course....
The Rocking Horse Winner
Character: Bassett
A strange and tragic tale of a young boy who is able to predict race winners at the horse track by riding his own rocking horse to aid his parents out of their endless round of debts....
Scott of the Antarctic
Character: Captain R.F. Scott R.N.
The true story of the British explorer Robert Falcon Scott and his ill-fated expedition to try to be the first man to discover the South Pole - only to find that the murderously cold weather and a rival team of Norwegian explorers conspire against him...
We Dive at Dawn
Character: Lt. Taylor RN
A gripping tale of WWII naval warfare in the Baltics, starring John Mills as Lt. Freddie Taylor, a British submarine Captain. The crew of the Sea Tiger are summoned from leave on shore with their families, and sent on a secret mission to intercept the Nazi battleship Brandenburg. In the ensuing battle the British submarine is damaged by a German destroyer. The submarine is leaking fuel so badly that the crew won't be able to make it back to Britain before running out somewhere along the Danish c...
Mr. Denning Drives North
Character: Tom Denning
When well-off aircraft designer Denning finds his daughter's current boyfriend is a nasty character he tries to buy him off, ending up hitting him and causing his death when he falls. Instead of calling the police he dumps the body in a lonely spot on the road to the North, making it look like a hit-and-run accident. Weeks later there is still no report of the body being found, and Denning starts to go to pieces. When he lets his wife into his secret the two start making enquiries, possibly maki...
The Wrong Box
Character: Masterman Finsbury
In Victorian England, a fortune now depends on which of two brothers outlives the other—or can be made to have seemed to do so....
The Way to the Stars
Character: Pilot Officer Peter Penrose
Life on a British bomber base, and the surrounding towns, from the opening days of the Battle of Britain, to the arrival of the Americans, who join in the bomber offensive. The film centres around Pilot Officer Peter Penrose, fresh out of a training unit, who joins the squadron, and quickly discovers about life during war time. He falls for Iris, a young girl who lives at the local hotel, but he becomes disillusioned about marriage, when the squadron commander dies in a raid, and leaves his wife...
Ice Cold in Alex
Character: Captain Anson
A group of army personnel and nurses attempt a dangerous and arduous trek across the deserts of North Africa during the second world war. The leader of the team dreams of his ice cold beer when he reaches Alexandria....
Hobson's Choice
Character: William Mossop
Henry Hobson owns and tyrannically runs a successful Victorian boot maker’s shop in Salford, England. A stingy widower with a weakness for overindulging in the local Moonraker Public House, he exploits his three daughters as cheap labour. When he declares that there will be ‘no marriages’ to avoid the expense of marriage settlements at £500 each, his eldest daughter Maggie rebels....
Ryan's Daughter
Character: Michael
The wife of an Irish school teacher is branded a traitor when she falls for a British officer who is part of an occupying force in 1917 Ireland....
The Colditz Story
Character: Pat Reid
Allied prisoners of various nationalities pool their resources to plan numerous escapes from an "escape-proof" German P.O.W. camp housed in a Medieval castle....
Chuka
Character: Colonel Stuart Valois
A group under siege at an Army fort grapple with painful memories....
The Chalk Garden
Character: Maitland
The peculiar antics of Laurel, an emotionally troubled young girl, are the focus of The Chalk Garden – a stately household drama set on the cliffs of the English south coast. Edith Evans plays a matriarchal grandmother who, in raising her granddaughter, has neglected her other love – a barren chalk garden. Mayhem ensues as Laurel's behavior frightens away a succession of governesses until an enigmatic one is hired in spite of her mysterious references. She skillfully sets about tending to the gi...
Young Winston
Character: General Kitchner
This historical drama is an account of the early life of British politician Winston Churchill, including his childhood years, his time as a war correspondent in Africa, and culminating with his first election to Parliament....
Morning Departure
Character: Lt. Cmdr. Armstrong
The crew of a submarine is trapped on the sea floor when it sinks. How can they be rescued before they run out of air?...
Swiss Family Robinson
Character: Father
After being shipwrecked, the Robinson family is marooned on an island inhabited only by an impressive array of wildlife. In true pioneer spirit, they quickly make themselves at home but soon face a danger even greater than nature: dastardly pirates....
Dunkirk
Character: Cpl Tubby Binns
A British Corporal in France finds himself responsible for the lives of his men when their officer is killed. He has to get them back to Britain somehow. Meanwhile, British civilians are being dragged into the war with Operation Dynamo, the scheme to get the French and British forces back from the Dunkirk beaches. Some come forward to help, others were less willing....
The October Man
Character: Jim Ackland
Jim Ackland, who suffers from a head injury sustained in a bus crash, is the chief suspect in a murder hunt, when a girl that he has just met is found dead on the local common, and he has no alibi for the time she was killed....
Sahara
Character: Cambridge
After her father dies, young Dale takes his place in a trans-African auto race, but ends up being abducted by a desert sheik....
Waterloo Road
Character: Jim Colter
During WW2 a former railway employee who had been drafted, goes AWOL to hunt down the spiv and draft dodger who is having an affair with his wife....
Emma Hamilton
Character: Lord William Hamilton
The Making of a Lady: The Story of Lady Hamilton is a 1968 historical drama film directed by Christian-Jaque and starring Michèle Mercier, Richard Johnson and John Mills.[1] It was based on the novel La San-Felice by Alexandre Dumas and depicts the love affair between Emma Hamilton and Horatio Nelson. It was a co-production between Italy, West Germany, France and the United States....
The Family Way
Character: Ezra Fitton
Young newlyweds Arthur and Jenny Fitton want nothing more than to get their marriage started on the right foot. But before they can depart for their honeymoon in Spain, they have to spend their first night together at the home of Arthur's parents. The couple are prevented from having any intimacy, but it only gets worse. They find out that their trip to Spain is canceled, which sets the tone for a rocky few weeks....
This Happy Breed
Character: Billy Mitchell
In 1919, Frank Gibbons returns home from army duty and moves into a middle-class row house, bringing with him wife Ethel, carping mother-in-law Mrs. Flint, sister-in-law Sylvia and three children. Years pass, with the daily routine of family infighting and reconciliation occasionally broken by a strike or a festival....
The Long Memory
Character: Phillip Davidson
An innocent man is released from prison after 12 years and tracks down the witnesses who lied about him in court....
Dulcima
Character: Mr. Parker
Dulcima, treated as a drudge by her family, becomes a housekeeper to Parker, a curmudgeonly widower living in drunken disarray on a neighbouring farm. When she sees the amount of money he has stashed around the place, Dulcima is happy enough to indulge his growing desire for her, and a strange, yet mutually beneficial, relationship develops. But a handsome young gamekeeper, newly arrived on a nearby estate, also catches Dulcima's eye......
Dr. Strange
Character: Thomas Lindmer
A psychiatrist becomes the new Sorcerer Supreme of the Earth in order to battle an evil Sorceress from the past....
The Gentle Gunman
Character: Terence Sullivan
The relationship between brothers Terry and Matt, both active in the IRA, comes under strain when Terry begins to question the use of violence....
Cottage to Let
Character: Flt·Lieut. Perry
Allied spies and Nazi Agents insinuate themselves at a Scottish cottage (converted to a wartime hospital) with interests on an inventor's nearly perfected bomb sight....
The History of Mr. Polly
Character: Alfred Polly
Quiet and somewhat direction-less, Alfred Polly uses the money he inherits from his father to marry and to set up shop in a small town. His heart is in neither of these enterprises and he eventually resorts to desperate measures to break free. His random wanderings in the countryside lead him to a new opportunity that just might be what he's been looking for all along....
Night of the Fox
Character: Brig. Dougal Munro
This classic war mini-series stars George Peppard and Michael York in a gripping tale of danger, intrigue, and a deadly secret that could determine the fate of millions. U.S. Officer Colonel Hugh Kelso has inside knowledge about the imminent and highly secretive D-Day Invasion. When he washes ashore behind enemy lines, special agents Harry Martineau and Sara Drayton of the Allied Forces must stage a covert rescue to save his life – or end it – before the Germans acquire the valuable information...
The End of the Affair
Character: Albert Parkis
During the 1940s, Maurice Bendrix, a writer recently discharged from the armed service, falls in love with Sarah Miles, whom he interviews for a book. Sarah is married, but she and Maurice eventually give in to their mutual attraction, leading to an affair that lasts several months. Maurice's jealousy, along with the bombing of London by the Germans, seemingly leads to the end of their relationship. However, the reasons are later revealed to be more complex....
The Baby and the Battleship
Character: Puncher Roberts
After a quayside mix-up with the Italian family of his fiancée, Able Seaman Knocker White finds himself literally left holding the baby. Unable to return it before his ship sails he enlists the help of best mate Puncher Roberts to smuggle the child aboard. But babies are surprisingly demanding and gradually the whole crew is drawn into helping keep it fed and washed - and undiscovered. Even so, the officers above deck start to puzzle over the increasingly strange happenings on board....
I Was Monty's Double
Character: Major Harvey
The incredible but true story of how an impersonator was recruited to impersonate General Montgomery to mislead the Germans about his intentions before the North Africa campaign....
Trial by Combat
Character: Colonel Bertie Cook
A group called The Knights Of Avalon are unhappy with the justice system so are taking the law into their own hands by executing criminals using medieval methods such as jousting....
The Lady and the Highwayman
Character: Sir Lawrence Dobson
Set in old England, Hugh Grant ("Four Weddings & a Funeral", "Notting Hill") plays a highwayman who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. But during one of his robberies, he falls in love with an aristocratic lady, Emma Samms ("Star Quest", "Delirious"). Now, he is forced to choose between his true love or his true cause. This swash-buckling romantic adventure will have you on the edge of your seat with every swing of Hugh's savage sword....
The Singer Not the Song
Character: Father Michael Keogh
A Roman Catholic priest defies a Mexican bandit whose gang kills villagers in alphabetical order....
Run Wild, Run Free
Character: The Moorman (Colonel)
A young boy, unable to speak, befriends a wild colt with blue eyes and a falcon named "Lady"....
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll
Character: Barney
Two Australian sugarcane cutters spend their annual five-month vacations in Sydney with their mistresses....
Town on Trial
Character: Supt. Mike Halloran
When an attractive young girl is murdered, suspicion falls on several members of the local tennis club. It falls to Police Inspector Halloran to sort out all the red herrings, and finally after a confrontation at the top of the local church spire, arrest the culprit. Another fascinating look at what life was like in Britain during the 50's....
The Vicious Circle
Character: Dr. Howard Latimer
When Dr. Howard Latimer finds the German actress whom he had just met at the London Airport murdered in his flat, he is led into a world of murder, blackmail, and a fake passport scam....
A Black Veil for Lisa
Character: Inspector Franz Bulon
Franz Bulon is a police inspector intent on bringing down a major drug ring operating in Hamburg. Thwarted at every turn by an assassin who is systematically killing informants, jealous of his beautiful, younger wife, Lisa, and suspecting her of having an affair (is it real or imagined?), Bulon can scarcely focus on his work. With jealousy nearing the boiling point, Bulon hires Max, the assassin he has arrested for the recent informant murders, to kill his wife......
Britannia of Billingsgate
Character: Fred Bolton
The owner of a fish-and-chips shop in the Billingsgate area of London harbors a secret ambition: to become a movie star. It turns out that she has a beautiful singing voice, and when that fact comes to the attention of a movie studio, it begins to turn her and her family's lives upside down....
Tiara Tahiti
Character: Lt. Col. Clifford Southey
James Mason and John Mills star in this comedy-drama about a tough colonel and a refined captain who clashed during the war, and continue their personal battle in peace-time Tahiti....
Royal Cavalcade
Character: Young Enlistee
Made in commemoration and celebration of the Jubilee of King George V, this is the story of the first twenty-five years of his reign, told through the many travels of a penny that was minted in the year of his accession: 1910. Through a series of individual stories, Royal Cavalcade covers a period of striking change in every area of life – from the suffragette movement to the trenches of World War One, the effects of the Depression to single events such as the first ever Royal Command Performanc...
Oklahoma Crude
Character: Cleon Doyle
In 1913, in Oklahoma, oil derrick owner Lena Doyle, aided by her father and a hobo, is stubbornly drilling for oil despite the pressure from major oil companies to sell her land....
The Valiant
Character: Captain Morgan
Having placed mines on the hull of a British warship whilst it is safe in harbour during the second World War , the two man crew of an Italian miniature submarine are captured and held prisoner whist the crew try and discover the nature of their mission!...
The Black Sheep of Whitehall
Character: Bobby Jessop
A professor teaching at a correspondence school discovers that a Nazi agent is trying to prevent a trade treaty being signed between England and South America....
The Ghost Camera
Character: Ernest Elton
When a photograph is taken at the scene of a murder, the camera is tossed out of a castle window to destroy the evidence and lands in the back of a passing car belonging to chemist John Gray who becomes amateur sleuth after developing the film and goes in search of the woman captured by the photograph. When the camera is stolen from his laboratory, Gray's suspicions are further aroused....
The Truth About Spring
Character: Tommy Tyler
Tommy Tyler, a lazy Caribbean sailor, and his tom-boy daughter, Spring, are out to search for a buried treasure. Tommy brings aboard William Ashton, a young lawyer, to help with the search. Ashton turns out to be handy when they encounter dangerous rivals. Tommy also tries to play match maker between Ashton and Spring – a difficult task indeed....
Car of Dreams
Character: Robert Miller
Produced by the highly acclaimed Michael Balcon, the story revolves around Robert, the son of the owner of a musical instrument factory. He is in love with Vera, one of the factory workers, who is unaware of his position. So when she jokes one day that she would love a Rolls-Royce, Robert makes sure that she gets one. Then he decides to raise her salary out of all proportion to hint at who he is......
O.H.M.S.
Character: Cpl. Bert Dawson
American racketeer Jimmie Dean travels to England, where he assumes the identity of a Canadian whom he has been falsely accused of murdering. Jimmie is then forced to join the British army in the dead man's place. He falls in love with the Canadian's childhood playmate, Sally Briggs, and becomes a hero after saving an isolated English colony in China....
Escapade
Character: John Hampden
An English pacifist's (John Mills) sons run away from school and hijack a plane to Vienna to petition for peace....
Africa: Texas Style!
Character: Wing Commander Hayes
Two American cowboys are hired by a British rancher to oversee his estate in Kenya. Shot on location in Africa, this film led to the TV show Cowboy in Africa starring Chuck Connors....
Those Were the Days
Character: Bobby Poskett
A farce based on Arthur Wing Pinero's play 'The Magistrate' in which the son (John Mills) of a stern magistrate (Will Hay) visits a music hall against the wishes of his father. In true farcical style, the magistrate too ends up at the music hall, and before long all the characters are trying not to avoid each other... Mainly notable (a) because of its depiction of the music hall as seen by a generation which knew it intimately (b) because of its use of music hall acts of the time and (c) because...
Forever Ealing
Character: Self
This is a history of the England's Ealing Film Studios, from its beginnings in 1902. It follows the studio's successes through the 1930's, World War II dramas, the well-known 'Ealing comedies' with Alec Guinness, and the BBC's television productions...
The Many Lives of Richard Attenborough
Character:
Two-part Arena special celebrating the life and distinguished career of one of Britain's best-loved public figures. Lord Attenborough's film CV as actor stretches from Brighton Rock to Jurassic Park, while as director he has been responsible for Oh! What a Lovely War, Shadowlands and Gandhi. He has also been integral to the work of many charities, while his support for minority groups has led to the building of a Centre for Disability and the Arts. Part one examines his early career and follows ...
The Big Blockade
Character: Tom
Wartime propaganda piece reporting on the success of the economic blockade of Germany in the early years of the war....
The Way to Wimbledon
Character: Self - Commentator
Focuses on the fifty weeks of the year when Wimbledon is preparing to host the next tennis championship....
So Well Remembered
Character: George Boswell
A mill-owner's ambitious daughter almost ruins her husband's political career....
Lady Caroline Lamb
Character: Canning
Lady Caroline Lamb, dissatisfied in her marriage, has an affair with the dashing Romantic poet Lord Byron....
Hamlet
Character: Old King Norway
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother now marrying the murderer... his uncle. Meanwhile, war is brewing....
The Big Freeze
Character: Dapper man
A silent comedy. Two accident-prone plumbers go to fix the plumbing at a home for retired gentle-folk on the coldest day of the year in Finland. Everything that can go wrong for these plumbers goes wrong....
Flame in the Streets
Character: Jacko Palmer
Flame in the Streets is a 1961 British drama film directed by Roy Ward Baker. Racial tensions manifest themselves at home, work and on the streets during Bonfire Night in the burgeoning West Indian community of early 1960s Britain. Trades union leader (Mills) fights for the rights of a black worker but struggles with the news that his own daughter is planning to marry a West Indian, much against his own logic and the prejudice of his wife....
One More Audience with Dame Edna Everage
Character: Self (uncredited)
The gloriously glamorous Dame Edna entertains a celebrity audience in this 1988 special....
The Devil's Advocate
Character: Monsignor Blaise Meredith
A dying priest is commissioned to investigate the deeds of Giacomo Nerone, a dead wartime partisan, and find out if he truly is worthy of being canonized....
Brown on Resolution
Character: Albert Brown
Forever England gives John Mills his first leading role as Brown. Born after a brief affair between his mother and a naval officer, he joins the Royal Navy during the First World War. There his bravery and marksmanship keeps a German ship in port so a British ship can sink it. He becomes a hero, but at what cost?...
Adam's Woman
Character: Sir Philip MacDonald
Adam is a young American wrongly accused of being an accomplice to murder while on shore leave in Liverpool. He is sentenced to death by hanging but the sentence is commuted to twenty years in a convict settlement in Australia....
Broadway Gondolier
Character:
A taxi driver travels to Venice and poses as a gondolier to land a radio singing job....
The Grotesque
Character: Sir Edward Cleghorn
Sir Hugo is more interested in reconstructing dinosaur bones than in paying attention to his wife, Lady Harriet. He's not thrilled when daughter Cleo brings home her betrothed, Sidney, who aspires to be a poet. The new butler, Fledge, provides Lady Harriet with the attention she's been missing and then seduces Sidney. Did he have a role in Sidney's disappearance as well?...
The Midshipmaid
Character: Golightly
Sir Percy Newbiggin visits the fleet to find ways to economize Naval expenditures. Daughter Celia tags along and organizes a morale-boosting show utilizing ship-board talent. Her fiancé shows up, and romantic complications ensue....
Tudor Rose
Character: Lord Guilford Dudley
The tragic story of Lady Jane Grey, the young queen who reigned in England for nine days before she was executed....
Zulu Dawn
Character: Sir Henry Bartle Frere
In 1879, the British suffer a great loss at the Battle of Isandlwana due to incompetent leadership....
Doctor's Orders
Character: Ronnie Blake
Leslie Fuller stars as a quack whose son qualifies as a doctor in total ignorance of his father's occupation!...
Old Bill and Son
Character: Young Bill
Old Bill has grumbled his way through the trenches of the First World War. Now it is the Second and, envious of his son, Young Bill, he decides to enlist. He finally enters the Pioneer Corps, which is based near his son. When Young Bill goes missing during a raid, Old Bill shows that there's still life in the old dog yet!...
A Political Party
Character: Tony Smithers
A north-country chimney sweep standing for Parliament is opposed by a local bigwig. His campaign is imperiled when his artist son, Tony, falls in love with a girl who has reason to hope that the bigwig will be elected....
Bright Young Things
Character: Gentleman
During the 1930s in England, a group of young socialites dominate the national gossip with extravagant and outlandish antics. Among the group is the aspiring novelist Adam Fenwick-Symes, who is attempting to raise enough money to marry fellow member Nina Blount. However, after customs officials confiscate his first manuscript, Fenwick-Symes must recover from the financial setback and figure out new ways to earn money for a wedding....
Harnessing Peacocks
Character: Bernard Quigley
Sir John Mills, Peter Davison and Serena Scott Thomas star in this warm, funny and romantic story of a woman forced to make a new life for herself in a Cornish seaside town. Based on Mary Wesley’s bestselling novel, «Harnessing Peacocks» is adapted by the multi-award-winning Andrew Davies....
Around the World in Eighty Days
Character: London Carriage Driver
Based on the famous book by Jules Verne the movie follows Phileas Fogg on his journey around the world. Which has to be completed within 80 days, a very short period for those days....
First Offence
Character: Johnnie Penrose
After his father sells his car, an immature playboy steals it back, and gets involved with a gang of professional car thieves. British remake of "Mauvaise graine" (1934)....
The Parent Trap
Character: Mitch Evers' Golf Caddy (uncredited)
Two identical twin sisters, separated at birth by their parents' divorce, are reunited years later at a summer camp, where they scheme to bring their parents back together. The girls, one of whom has been living with their mother and the other with their father, switch places after camp and go to work on their plan, the first objective being to scare off a gold-digger pursuing their father....
The Young Mr. Pitt
Character: William Wilberforce
This biopic tells the story of the life of Pitt The Younger, who became Prime Minister of Great Britain at the age of 24....
It's Great to be Young!
Character: Dingle
IT’S GREAT TO A YOUNG stars John Mills as Dingle an easygoing high school teacher. When autocratic new headmaster Frome (Cecil Parker) begins imposing all sorts of repressive rules, Dingle does his best to stand up for his students, only to be dismissed for his troubles. The kids conspire to not only reinstate their favourite teacher, but to circumvent Frome's refusal to purchase new instruments for an upcoming music festival....
A Profile of In Which We Serve
Character: Interviewee
Documentary about the 1942 British film "In Which We Serve" directed by David Lean and Noël Coward....
Deadly Advice
Character: Jack the Ripper
Mother rules the house with an iron hand and has such power over her daughters that they see themselves as becoming old unmarried, maids. Jodie has feelings for the local doctor, a man much older than her, for which her mother strongly disapproves. Beth finds a relationship with a male stripper in Bristol, but sees nothing in the future with Mother around. While both girls would like to be rid of Mother, nothing happens until Jodie sees images of H. R. Armstrong, the man who put the town on the ...
Land of Promise
Character: The Voice
Described as a 'film argument' about homes and houses, this film is in three parts showing houses as they were, houses as they are and houses as they might be....
All Hands
Character: Jack
From a series of propaganda films made to raise awareness of the risks of idle gossip providing vital information to enemy spies and collaborators. This Ealing Studios production features well-known 1940s actor John Mills, playing a sailor whose girlfriend thoughtlessly blunders away vital wartime secrets. The consequences prove disastrous when his boat next leaves to cross the English Channel....
Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff
Character: Self – Interviewee
In 2001 Jack Cardiff (1914-2009) became the first director of photography in the history of the Academy Awards to win an Honorary Oscar. But the first time he clasped the famous statuette in his hand was a half-century earlier when his Technicolor camerawork was awarded for Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus. Beyond John Huston's The African Queen and King Vidor's War and Peace, the films of the British-Hungarian creative duo (The Red Shoes and A Matter of Life and Death too) guaranteed im...
The Wind and the Bomb
Character:
The making-of When the Wind Blows, featuring interviews with producer John Coates, director Jimmy T. Murakami and writer Raymond Briggs...
Swiss Family Robinson: Adventure in the Making
Character: Self (archive)
A look behind the scenes at Walt Disney’s Swiss Family Robinson (1960)...
Escape to Paradise/Water Birds
Character:
A behind-the-scenes show on the filming of Swiss Family Robinson on the West Indian island of Tobago. Then the True Life Adventure Water Birds....