Sir John Mills died yesterday at the age of 97. I always think of him saying something like "you simply have to, old bean, you simply have to!" or some other such earnestness whilst sitting in the tail gunner’s seat of a World War 2 bomber. His characters always seemed to be earnest. Perhaps that was my own misconception.
I remember one evening, many years ago, going into the Bell pub in Chichester. The Bell is directly opposite the Festival Theatre. As we walked in, my friend Louise was in a bit of rush, not really looking where she was going, and careered straight into John Mills as he was coming out. Neither party was injured.
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I’ve just had a quick look at SJM’s filmography on IMDB and as far as I can tell the only film were he was in the air force was The Way to the Stars (1945) and, if I recall, there isn’t a lot of flying in that film, instead all the action takes place on the ground.
Surprising he wasn’t in light blue more as he was in a stack of 40’s and 50’s war films. I watched Ice Cold in Alex* last night in tribute. “Worth waiting for!”
What’s odd really is that he’s actually fairly old even then. In Dunkirk he stars as the corporal leading his platoon back from the front line to the eponymous town and on to the beaches to wait and wait and wait for a ride back to Blighty. He’s 50 years old by this point which must have made him the oldest corporal in the war! At that age most of his contemporaries would have been playing the top brass. He had such a young face though it didn’t look untoward.
My own John Mills post http://blognorregis.blogspot.com/2005/04/sir-john-mills.html
*Spotted the British War DVD Collection in HMW a while back for £25. Bargain!