list_text=          Veteran Actor Sir John Mills has appeared in more than 100 motion pictures during his prolific career, among them the 1960 Disney live-action "Swiss Family Robinson," in which he played the patriarch of the shipwrecked, but resourceful family.
          As Critic Leonard Maltin observed in his book The Disney Films, "John Mills strikes just the right note of adventurism (in 'Swiss Family Robinson'), tempered with humor and a genuine feeling of enjoying the whole escapade."
		  Born in Felixtowe, England, in 1908, to a school master and a one-time theater manager of the Haymarket Theater in London, John was convinced of his destiny from an early age.
		  "I never considered anything else," he later recalled.
		  In 1929, he debuted as a song-and-dance man in a London revue, moving to the legitimate stage the following year.  By 1932, he had branched out into film, becoming one of Britain's leading screen stars, playing mild-mannered, but iron-willed fellows.  His early films include "The Midshipmaid" in 1932, "Those Were the Days" in 1934, and "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" in 1939.
		  A medical discharge forced him out of the service during World War II, but he contributed to morale by fighting the war on-screen, playing commanding characters in such films as Noel Coward's "In Which We Serve" and "We Die at Dawn".
		  One of his greatest parts was in David Lean's 1946 "Great Expectations," a superb rendering of Charles Dickens' novel, in which he played Pip, the orphan who becomes a gentleman of means.  The role led to a string of memorable performances in such motion pictures as "The October Man" in 1947, "Hobson's Choice" in 1954, "The End of the Affair" in 1955, "War and Peace" in 1956, "Tunes of Glory" in 1960, among others.
		  Married to playwright Mary Hayley Bell, John starred with their daughter Hayley Mills in "Tiger Bay," the 1959 film in which Walt Disney first spotted his future Pollyanna star.  Hayley was named a Disney Legend in 1998.
		  During the 1960s, John evolved from leading man to character actor appearing in such motion pictures as "The Wrong Box" in 1966, "Oh! What a Lovely War," and "Run Wild, Run Free", both in 1969.  He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in the 1970 motion picture "Ryan's Daughter," in which he portrayed the village idiot.
		  One of John's memorable latter-day appearances was in the 1982 feature film "Gandhi" starring Ben Kingsley, while his most recent appearances include, Kenneth Branagh's "Hamlet" in 1996 and the television production of "The Gentleman Thief" in 2001.
		  Knighted in 1976, Sir John Mills published his photographic autobiography "Still Memories" in early 2000, documenting his career, which spanned most of the 20th Century.&