Forever Young: A Memoir

by Hayley Mills

Overview

*NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*
*USA TODAY BESTSELLER*

Iconic actress Hayley Mills shares personal memories from her storied childhood, growing up in a famous acting family and becoming a Disney child'star, trying to grow up in a world that wanted her to stay forever young.
 
The daughter of acclaimed British actor Sir John Mills was still a preteen when she began her acting career and was quickly thrust into the spotlight. Under the wing of Walt Disney himself, Hayley Mills was transformed into one of the biggest child'starlets of the 1960s through her iconic roles in Pollyanna, The Parent Trap, and many more. She became one of only twelve actors in history to be bestowed with the Academy Juvenile Award, presented at the Oscars by its first recipient, Shirley Temple, and went on to win a number of awards including a Golden Globe, multiple BAFTAs, and a Disney Legacy Award.

Now, in her charming and forthright memoir, she provides a unique window into when Hollywood was still 'Tinseltown' and the great Walt Disney was at his zenith, ruling over what was (at least in his own head) still a family business. This behind-the-scenes look at the drama of having a sky-rocketing career as a young teen in an esteemed acting family will offer both her childhood impressions of the wild and glamorous world she was swept into, and the wisdom and broader knowledge that time has given her. Hayley will delve intimately into her relationship with Walt Disney, as well as the emotional challenges of being bound to a wholesome, youthful public image as she grew into her later teen years, and how that impacted her and her choices—including marrying a producer over 30 years her senior when she was 20! With her regrets, her joys, her difficulties, and her triumphs, this is a compelling read for any fan of classic Disney films and an inside look at a piece of real Hollywood history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538704196
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	09/07/2021
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	457,840
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Hayley Mills began her acting career as a child at age 12 and was soon hailed as a rising star, winning the Academy Juvenile Award (as one of only twelve actors to ever be bestowed with this honor), BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer, and Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year. Her six-picture deal with Walt Disney made her an international star and included her dual role as the twins Sharon and Susan in The Parent Trap. For her success with Disney, she received the Disney Legend Award. 

Hayley’s role in Whistle Down the Wind, a 1961 adaptation of the novel written by her mother Mary Hayley Bell, secured her a nomination for the BAFTA award for Best British Actress. She has continued to make films and TV drama, among them The Flame Trees of Thika, and featured as Miss Bliss in Saved by the Bell, and as Caroline in Wild at Heart on ITV. She lives in south-west London.

Editorial Reviews

★ 07/26/2021

Golden Globe Award-winning actor Mills debuts with a mesmerizing look at her “golden years” as a child star in the 1960s. The middle child of British actor Sir John Mills and playwright Mary Hayley Bell, Mills enjoyed an ordinary childhood until she was chosen at age 12 to star in family friend and director J. Lee Thompson’s 1959 thriller Tiger Bay. That same year, Hayley signed a seven-picture deal with Walt Disney. Shuttling back and forth between boarding school and film sets—and playing the leads in, among other movies, Pollyanna (1960) and The Parent Trap (1961)—Mills rose to international fame by age 16, receiving an Honorary Oscar in 1961. “For better or for worse,” she writes, “I’d literally grown up in Disneyland.” With a novelistic eye for detail and a disarming sense of humor, Mills illuminates her extraordinary past while evoking the lost empire of mid-20th-century Hollywood. Along the way, she underscores how there was a price to be paid in family tensions; public growing pains; missed opportunities—including the title role in Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita (“to be a Disney Star meant being family friendly”)—and fraught relationships, such as her romance with the much older producer-director Roy Boulting. The result is a luminous work commensurate with the unforgettable movies that made Mills an icon. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"As charming on the page as she's ever been on the screen. Her memoir touches on growing up in a family of performers, thoughtfully considers life as a child'star, and finds honest, often very funny, ways to examine what it means to live in and around the spotlight...Delightful."—Town & Country

"A greatly enjoyable and eye-opening memoir: a showbusiness chronicle which proves equal parts celebration and cautionary tale...Forever Young is an unexpected treat: a brave and revealing memoir with nary a dull passage."—Wall Street Journal

"With a novelistic eye for detail and a disarming sense of humor, Mills illuminates her extraordinary past while evoking the lost empire of mid-20th-century Hollywood...The result is a luminous work commensurate with the unforgettable movies that made Mills an icon.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A natural storyteller, as so many actors are, Mills takes us on that wide-eyed 12-year-old’s journey […] If you loved those Disney movies, or just want to get a sense of what life was like in a Hollywood very different from how it is today, Forever Young is a pleasure. One of its joys is watching Mills grow up on the page, learning to love her craft.”—The Seattle Times

"Hayley’s insights into Disney and the interaction between Disney and Hayley and the Mills family are worth the price of admission...You’ll likely love reading this behind-the-scenes account of what our Hayley was really up to during her formative years."—New York Journal of Books

“The iconic star of Pollyanna and The Parent Trap recalls her rise to stardom, her experiences on
set, and her friendship with Walt Disney in this endearing memoir.…A warmhearted peek behind the curtain at youthful fame and filmmaking in the 1960s.”—Booklist

"Child star Mills’s charming and eloquent walk down memory lane is a fascinating study of moviemaking in 1960s Britain and the United States...Movie buffs will be riveted by Mills’s behind the scenes tales."—Library Journal

"This memoir by the English actress who rose to fame as a child'star for Disney is rather like a Disney movie: enchanting, entertaining and only fleetingly dark."—Shelf Awareness

"Hayley writes frankly and cogently about her life, her experiences...The reader is also treated to the behind the scenes of the movie making process...A must read for the Hayley Mills fan, but it is also a salient, relevant chronicle of an actor’s life - not only a life against the backdrop of a busy movie making career but a life where conflicts musts be addressed and resolved."—Post-Gazette

From the Publisher

09/01/2021

Child star Mills's charming and eloquent walk down memory lane is a fascinating study of moviemaking in 1960s Britain and the United States. Born in London to legendary actor Sir John Mills and actress/writer Mary Hayley Bell, she was cast in Tiger Bay at 12 and became a star for Disney, with hits including Pollyanna and The Parent Trap. Plagued by self-doubt and a fear of upstaging her beloved father and her twin sister Juliet (who costarred with her in The Parent Trap), as she received accolades for her work (including an Oscar before her father), Mills grappled with depression, suicidal thoughts, and bulimia. Leaving home, she embarked on a love affair with director Roy Boulting, who was 32 years her senior; took on adult roles that proved disastrous; and tried her hand at theater. Mills conveys the excitement of being a young starlet—dating Frank Sinatra Jr. and George Harrison and touring Disneyland with Disney himself—but also addresses the darker side of fame: She was the victim of death threats and had conflicted feelings about her alcohol-addicted mother and her father, who downplayed her success and eventually lost all of her money. VERDICT Movie buffs will be riveted by Mills's behind-the-scenes tales.—Lisa Henry, Kirkwood P.L., MO

Library Journal

Hayley Mills offers an evocative, honest, and eloquent memoir with candid behind-the-scenes glimpses of what it was like to be a juvenile actor, and later a Disney superstar, of the 1960s. Additionally, we learn of the perquisites and challenges of maturing in the public spotlight. This audiobook covers Mills from her birth in 1946 through the 1973 birth of her second child. Mills’s English-accented narration is precise, warm, and inviting as she guides listeners through the transatlantic entertainment careers of the entire Mills clan. Whether listeners first enjoyed her in the British thriller TIGER BAY or as identical twins in THE PARENT TRAP, they will revel in this reflective effort exuding charm, discretion, and tact. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2021 - AudioFile

Hayley Mills offers an evocative, honest, and eloquent memoir with candid behind-the-scenes glimpses of what it was like to be a juvenile actor, and later a Disney superstar, of the 1960s. Additionally, we learn of the perquisites and challenges of maturing in the public spotlight. This audiobook covers Mills from her birth in 1946 through the 1973 birth of her second child. Mills’s English-accented narration is precise, warm, and inviting as she guides listeners through the transatlantic entertainment careers of the entire Mills clan. Whether listeners first enjoyed her in the British thriller TIGER BAY or as identical twins in THE PARENT TRAP, they will revel in this reflective effort exuding charm, discretion, and tact. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2021 - AudioFile