Forever Young by Hayley Mills is a memoir that mostly covers her younger years. I listened to an audio version read by Mills herself and hearing the actress recount her personal stories from her childhood and on into her twenties was both entertaining and enlightening.

She really had nothing bad to say about Walt Disney and her treatment at that studio. She felt protected and secure there and enjoyed acting in the various films that she was given. Her difficulties mostly came when she had left the studio and was on her own. She faced a world that didn’t want to see her grow up or to take on more challenging roles. Her fans wanted to see her as the young ingenue but she did manage a number of interesting films and she particularly liked working on the stage. She also had legal battles to fight as she came of age and found that most of her Disney money was being taken by the Revenue Service. She was married to Roy Boulting from 1971 until 1977 and has one son with him, it was a difficult marriage as he was 32 years her senior. She never remarried but went on to have a second son with Leigh Lawson and has now been with her current partner Firdous Barnji since 1997.

I was a huge fan of Haley Mills and found this book a treat as she came across pretty much as I expected. She is close to her family, enthusiastic about life, and enjoyed the acting profession but was not obsessed with fame or fortune. Although I thought she was very careful in revealing anything about other famous people that she knew, she was very honest about her mother’s alcoholism and her own bout with bulimia. I was surprised at her deep spirituality but this and her love for her children has guided her through life’s ups and downs. ( )

A surprisingly honest and un-selfaggrandizing (surely there's a better word but I can't think of it at the moment) memoir of Hayley Mills' career as a young actress. I needed something to read that did not contain any anxiety or revulsion-triggering revelations, and I read with interest about how Hayley Mills came to be a Disney actor. I mean, it wouldn't have happened without her famous father, John Mills, but still...I guess acting is just in some people's genes. Sure she had a privileged childhood, but she seemed to remain unspoiled through her early life, which is what I suppose shines through in her portrayal of Pollyanna, my first encounter with Hayley. Later in life she would discover the extent to which her early career had been controlled by Walt Disney (and her parents) but she doesn't seem to blame him or them. And when the family accountants failed to protect her childhood earnings from being taxed into oblivion by the British government, she just went back out to work, like everyone else. Although she did not continue to be a star, but a working actress, she does not seem bitter, but is a contented and loving parent and grandparent. Worth reading, if you're interested in Hollywood in the 60's, and the making of movies. ( )

When I was a girl my friends in the neighborhood loved nothing more than to go together to a Haley Mills movie. The Parent Trap , Pollyanna and The Swiss Family Robinson I remember well. So of course when I read Mills had written a memoir I wanted to read it.

She was the daughter of the famous actor John Mills and her mother the writer Mary Haley Bell. Haley worked with both parents, she and her father worked in several movies together including her first one and she starred in the adaptation of her mother's novel Whistle Down the Wind in 1961. That's one I have no memory of.

Walt Disney was at the zenith of his career when he convinced her father to let Hayley star in her first movie with Disney, [Pollyanna] . A large portion of the book is about her relationship and work with Disney whom she writes about with fondness though they had some differences as she grew older. Growing older, wanting control of career decisions, and the effort to grow up when the world wanted her to stay young are covered in depth.

Mills was not the first or last child star to be taken advantage of. Her earnings as a child were put in trust but when she turned twenty-one and thought they were hers, she learned her earnings would be taxed at over 90%. Basically nothing became hers.

The memoirs focus on her childhood and her work during those years. She doesn't use the book as a platform for gossip or intimate adult reveals. She does discuss the fallout from her marriage at twenty to a producer thirty years older and their subsequent divorce. One of her two children is from that marriage, she doesn't divulge the father of the second.

Mills has continued to act but doesn't seem the least interested in celebrity. My impression is that she is intelligent, thoughtful and likeable. I'm one that still likes her. ( )

I idolized Hayley Mills as a preteen, so when I saw this book I knew I had to read it. And even though she is selective in what she shares, Hayley has written a very readable memoir. Thanks to her journals and the editing and encouragement from her oldest son, the book provides a tremendous amount of detail covering her life from her childhood to her early twenties. In addition to Hayley's personal struggles with self-confidence, romantic crushes, family issues with her theatrical parents, we learn so much about Walt Disney, Hayley's transformation into one of the biggest child stars of the 1960's, and the behind-the-scenes antics of Hollywood, the British theater, and even her friendship with the Beatles.

The writing style is warm, honest and charming - just like her earliest classic Disney movies "Pollyanna," "The Parent Trap," and "That Darn Cat." And throughout the book Hayley's attitude remains positive and upbeat. In conclusion she explains "There's no doubt that playing [Pollyanna] at such as early age had a lasting influence on me. It made me aware of the importance of seeing the positive. It's not always easy. We all face the struggle to know ourselves and to find the courage to truly be ourselves."

This book is a well-written, personable and honest examination of a creative life as well as a documentation of the time period. ( )

Forever Young by Hayley Mills is a 2021 Grand Central Publication.

Hayley Mills came from a family of actors and grew up, rubbing elbows with her parent’s friends and colleagues- like Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier, for example.

While her older sister did some stage acting, when Hayley was growing up, acting never really crossed her mind. In fact, she was pretty a normal kid, doing normal kid things- and was a bit of a tomboy. In what was more a fluke, than anything else, she was cast in one movie, but that appeared to be a one-off thing, which was fine with her, until she caught the eye of Walt Disney… and the rest- as they say is history.

I was a huge fan of Pollyanna. The cast was stellar and of course Hayley personified that role. I’m hazy on some of the other movies she did for Disney, except for “The Parent Trap” and her last one- ‘That Darn Cat’.
I hate to admit this, but once I had outgrown Disney movies, I never thought about Hayley again until I had children of my own, and I found myself re-watching some of her Disney films.

There is only one post- Disney movie sticks in my mind now- “The Trouble with Angels”.

I didn’t know one thing about her personally, except her father was in ‘Swiss Family Robinson’ and I’d seen a few of her sister’s movies over the years.

In some ways, Hayley appeared to live a charmed life while growing up, but of course, there were issues. Still, she approaches the darker side of fame and her tough experiences candidly, without sounding embittered, excepting some resentful sounding passages about her alcoholic mother.
Many of Hayley’s experiences sound so typical of Hollywood and the pressure that is placed on young performers, which takes its toll on their health.

Hayley stayed in line a lot longer than most before finally going a little wild. A chance at playing Lolita, a controversial marriage to a much older man, and a religious epiphany, are among some of the surprises in the book, I knew nothing about. Her juxtapositions about losing that role, feeling pigeonholed as a Disney star, with Sue Lyons- who got the part- was interesting… and true.

The book trails off when Hayley is pregnant with her first child- which might have been by design as the book’s intent was to focus on her life up until she is firmly cemented into adulthood- a plateau she struggled to obtain after her childhood was immortalized on film for many generations.
Hayley’s life has encompassed so much more than what is etched in our childhood memories of her, but she is for many of us, despite all her efforts to be otherwise…

Forever young.

4 stars ( )