British actress, an appealing juvenile who charmed audiences as the bubbly teenage star of such ’60s Disney classics as “The Parent Trap” and “Pollyanna,” for which she won a special Oscar in 1960 at the age of 14. She was 12 when cast in “Tiger Bay” with her famous dad, and after a visit by Walt Disney was imported into Hollywood. For a while, at 15, she battled with weight gain. Some 100 lbs and 5’4″ was hardly excessive, but enough to send her into an eating disorder by the time she was 18.
She continued into adult, films that included “The Moon-Spinners,” 1964 , as well as TV and, convinced that “you can’t live your life safely,” she left her English rose garden and her beloved Burmese cats for her place in the limelight.
The daughter of actor Sir John Mills and actress-writer Mary Hayley-Bell, Hayley was raised on a 400-acre dairy farm in Sussex, England. Trying to be a “grown-up,” she made “The Family Way,” in 1966, containing a nude scene. During the film she began a relationship with the director, Roy Boulting, 32 years her senior. They married in 1971 and had a son, Crispian, in 1973. By 1977 the marriage dissolved and Mills had her second son, Jason, with actor Leigh Lawson, whom she had met in a West End production.
A self-described “seeker,” she delved into Hinduism and Christianity for guidance, concluding that the important issue was living according to spiritual truths. In the mid-’80s, her skills were deepened on the English stage as she met the challenge of an ongoing process of nightly productions. At the age of 50, she played a distinguished Mrs. Anna in a one-year national tour of “The King and I.”
By the year 2000, Mills’ son Crispian, 27, was lead singer in the band Kula Shaker. In March 2000, Mills made her New York City stage debut in “Noel Coward’s Suite in 2 Keys.”
Link to Wikipedia biography