Disney darling Hayley Mills films movie at Chinqua Penn -
By Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane
Staff Writer
REIDSVILLE — Who among baby boomers doesn’t remember Hayley Mills?
She was the most popular child actor of the early 1960s, the Disney darling who captured young audiences playing the sunny optimist in “Pollyanna” and twins in “The Parent Trap.”
The girl with the blond curls, blue eyes and a British accent got 7,000 fan letters a week back then. Walt Disney made her milkshakes in his home theater. She knew the Beatles.
Hayley Mills has grown up, but at 63, she continues to act, appearing in the British television series “Wild at Heart.”
On Thursday, she came to Chinqua Penn Plantation to film a role in the movie, “Mandie and the Cherokee Treasure.”
In the adventure movie, set in 1899, Mills dons a gold brocade period costume and wig to play Mandie’s grandmother. Chinqua Penn is her mansion.
During a brief break between scenes, Mills talked about a long career that is still alive and well.
“It has gone through all kinds of different vicissitudes,” she said. “Sometimes it seemed to have been becalmed. Sometimes there is a brisk wind in the sails and you skim along quite happily. Sometimes it’s quite turbulent.
“I am still quite amazed, actually, that I am still working — very fortunate indeed.”
It was Georgia filmmakers Joy Chapman and Owen Smith who felt fortunate to hire Mills for their movie, based on the Mandie series of children’s novels by Lois Gladys Leppard.
In 2007, Chapman and Smith discovered Chinqua Penn, which was built in the 1920s by Jeff and Betsy Penn. It’s where they filmed their first Mandie movie, “Mandie and the Secret Tunnel.”
With that movie out on DVD, they are shooting the sequel.
“We wanted someone who could be a regal, wealthy grandmother, and Hayley was the first person we thought of,” Chapman said.
“We knew that she could come in and, in one day, step into this role. We contacted her agent and made the offer, and she said yes.”
This cast features several of the last film’s actors, although Dean Jones doesn’t appear.
Coincidentally, Mills starred with Jones in another of her popular Disney films, “That Darn Cat!” in 1965.
It’s one of dozens of film and TV credits that she has accumulated since childhood.
Mills was born in London to famous parents, actors Sir John Mills and actor/writer Mary Hayley Bell. Her older sister, Juliet Mills, followed her into acting.
Hayley Mills’ talent gained attention from the start. At 12, her work in the 1959 film “Tiger Bay,” won her the British equivalent of an Oscar for most promising newcomer.
She signed with Walt Disney and earned stardom and a special juvenile Academy Award for “Pollyanna.”
Then came “The Parent Trap,” in which she played twins who reunite their divorced parents.
Other Disney movies followed: “In Search of the Castaways,” “Summer Magic,” “The Moon-Spinners” and “That Darn Cat!”
She retains “great love and affection” for her Disney movies, as well as for a movie with her parents, “Whistle Down the Wind.”
Younger generations got to know Mills through roles in “The Parent Trap” sequels and the 1987 TV series, “Good Morning, Miss Bliss,” later reformatted into “Saved by the Bell.”
“There was a time when I thought very seriously of stopping acting altogether,” Mills said. “But I realized that it had become a habit.”
Now a mother of two and grandmother of one, Mills divides her time between New York, London and South Africa, where she films “Wild at Heart” for six months each year.
After filming at Chinqua Penn ends today, she will go to London to shoot another movie. The rest of the cast and crew will take the filming to Pilot Mountain State Park, to Tweetsie Railroad for steam engine shots and to a gold mine in Dahlonega, Ga.
Chapman expects the movie to be out in the fall, likely in a limited theatrical release and then on DVD.
Contact Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane at 373-5204 or dawn.kane@news-record.com
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