Forever Young - A Memoir by Hayler Mills (2021) Though we've lived a fairly long lifetime as a rabid movie buff, we'll admit that we've not read a whole lot of actor biographies......autobiogs or those otherwise written by someone else.
Unless of course, it's a particular actor whose career fascinates us.
Usually when we pick one of these books up, we skip over all the childhood chapters and go right to what we consider the good stuff.......the inside dish on the actor's movies, which co-stars they either loved or despised, which directors drove them crazy or inspired them, which movies were a royal pain in the ass to make and so on........
(The only actor whose childhood we bothered to read about was Tony Curtis's......since according to him, his prolific sexual exploits began as soon as he hit puberty......)
But here's a bio we couldn't resist. Because like millions of other Baby Boomer boys, we nursed a serious crush on Hayley Mills as she grew up (right along side us) as Walt Disney's premiere starlet, imported directly from England to become America's Sweetheart
So there was no question that we'd dive into this book from the very beginning......when Hayley's dad, the distinguished actor John Mills, arranged for his 9 year old daughter to co-star with him in the offbeat suspense drama "Tiger Bay".
And "Tiger Bay" as we all know, caught the eye of Walt Disney himself, who signed Hayley to a seven picture contract, with each film and role carefully tailored to coincide with her progression from childhood through adolescence.
Now that's the stuff we wanted to read about and the good news is that two thirds of the book covers that time period.
The other good news - Hayley Mills herself tells her story smoothly and skillfully without the aid of a ghostwriter (we assume). She proves herself as a more than effective tour guide through her own life, narrated with equal amounts of heart, humor and at times, heartache.
The bad news - the last third of the book becomes a rushed, jumbled, hit-and-miss description of her adult life and career. This chunk provides only skimpy information about her films, but a whole lot of angst about her star-crossed, May-December marriage to producer-director Roy Boulting, whom she wed at age 25 while he was 58.
What we really think the author should've done here was to expand her Disney years into its own separate book and continue on with a more fully realized account of the rest of her life as a follow-up sequel.
We'll just content ourselves with what Mills is willing to share about her time toiling as Uncle Walt's very own Shirley Temple.....(and in fact, Mills did win one of those coveted child-star Mini-Oscars, previously given out to Temple and Judy Garland.)
Along the way, there's loads of interesting details to uncover, including Stanley Kubrick offering her the role of Lolita (much to Walt Disney's horror, which he quickly vetoed under the terms of Mills' contract, which forbid her to make anything remotely controversial outside of Mouse-Land.)
The most stunning revelation in Mills' mostly charmed life (if you discount her bouts with crippling shyness, insecurity and bulimia) comes from her most terrible reversal of fortune, courtesy of the British government. As soon as Mills came of age, she found her trust fund of accumulated Disney cash looted by the country's rapacious taxes......rendering her time laboring for Uncle Walt as slave labor.
But just like Pollyanna, the plucky, perky heroine she played in her first Disney film, Mills seems to endure the loss her childhood income as one of those vicious curve balls that life hurls at you if you live long enough......and more than survivable when compared to what you gather as life goes on, like a loving family.
While we felt disappointed with the disjointed, brief section of the book allotted to her adult years, "Forever Young" remains an apt title.......Hayley Mills still charms us as much today and she did when we began our lifelong crush on her.....and her life makes for a entertaining read. 4 stars (****).
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