This article is about the British actor. For the 18th-century British encyclopedist, see John Mills (encyclopedist)

Sir John Mills (born February 22, 1908) is a British actor. Born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills at the Watts Naval School in New Elmham , Norfolk, he grew up in Felixstowe, Suffolk.

Mills took an early interest in acting, making his professional debut at the London Hippodrome in 1927. He made his film debut in The Midshipmaid (1932), and came to prominence as Colley in the 1939 film version of Goodbye, Mr Chips, opposite Robert Donat. He took the lead in Great Expectations in 1946, and subsequently made his career playing traditionally British heroes such as Sir Robert Falcon Scott in Scott of the Antarctic (1949). In 1941, he married his second wife, the dramatist, Mary Hayley Bell , and their two daughters, Juliet and Hayley, became actresses.

For his role as the village idiot in Ryan's Daughter (1970) - a complete departure from his usual style - Mills won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Altogether he appeared in over a hundred films. In 1976, he was knighted. In recent years, he has appeared on television only on special occasions. His most famous television role is probably as the title character in Quatermass for ITV in 1979.

He also starred as Gus the Theatre Cat in the filmed version of the musical Cats in 1998.

In 2002 he received a Fellowship of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), the highest award given by the Academy, and was named a Disney Legend by The Walt Disney Company.

Major Films

• In Which We Serve (1942)
• This Happy Breed (1944)
• The Way to the Stars (1945)
• Great Expectations (1946)
• Scott of the Antarctic (1948)
• The History of Mr Polly (1949)
• Hobson's Choice (1954)
• The Colditz Story (1955)
• Ice Cold in Alex (1958)
• Tiger Bay (1959) - with daughter Hayley Mills.
• Swiss Family Robinson (1960)
• King Rat (1965)
• Oh! What a Lovely War (1969)
• Young Winston (1972)
• The Thirty-Nine Steps (1978)
• Who's That Girl (1987)
• Cats (1998)