Hayley Mills rose to fame as a child star under Walt Disney’s wing for seven years – but saw her once-promised fortune slip away.
The actress, whose most memorable roles include “Pollyanna” and “The Parent Trap,” recently appeared with her sister, Juliet Mills, on the “Rosebud Podcast.” The appearance marks Mills’ 80th birthday.
When host Gyles Brandreth pressed Mills about what became of the “millions” he earned during his Disney years, he replied, “I gave it to the tax man.”
“It was a really big deal,” he admitted. “Most of it is because everything was put into the trust fund, because the maximum tax was 90% in those days, so they had to do something.”
“I know the background of this, and because you were not well advised,” said Brandreth. “But also, partly it had to do with your father’s naïveté, I think there was an innocence about him and a certain kind of optimism.”
“He had a business manager who made those decisions,” Juliet, 84, chimed in.
The Mills sisters come from a famous British family. Their father, Sir John Mills, was one of Britain’s most respected actors and had a career that spanned decades. Their mother, Mary Hayley Bell, was also an actress and playwright.
“Stanley [Passmore] he also counseled Daddy, not very well,” said Mills, referring to the family’s lawyer.
“The trust company was established by me [actor] Jack Hawkins. And the Inland Revenue raided his trust company, which affected British law. It sets an example.”
“And so, when I turned 21, instead of being given a key to the door, I was given an envelope on a green bail tablecloth by Stanley, which was basically the Inland Revenue saying, ‘Thank you. You owe us 90% of your salary,'” Mills continued. “And I’ve never been good at math.”
“I said, ‘Well, what does this mean, I don’t understand.’ And Stanley laughed and said, ‘Well, I guess that means you should move to America [for work].’ And that’s all he ever said. He was a villain. He didn’t give the flying Dutchman a shot.”
The Times of London reported that when Mills was 21 years old, he went to collect his trust money that his father and Passmore had prepared for him.
However, he found out that the trust was not set up properly, and he had to pay a 91% tax on everything in it. Although he strongly opposes it, there is no solution other than to sue his father or Passmore, the newspaper reported.
In the podcast, Mills said he had a meeting with a prominent attorney in hopes of fighting the case, but it “didn’t work out.”
Lord Denning, one of Britain’s most powerful judges at the time, gave Mills a brief victory in his battle with the tax authorities. In the 1970s, he ruled in his favor, admitting that it was unfair to tax Disney the way the government had.
However, the victory did not stick. The case went to the House of Lords, which overturned Denning’s decision, leaving Mills reeling from a huge debt that wiped out all his wealth.
Mills pleaded his case to the British government for years, the Los Angeles Times reported. However, his request was permanently rejected in 1975. Had he been successful, Mills said he would have been able to keep about £2 million, which is more than $17 million today.
“I didn’t have a clear idea of my career and what I should be doing, but I didn’t want to do any more Disney movies,” Mills said. “I wanted to spread my wings and have more choices and not be limited by that.
“[But] I didn’t know what to look for. I didn’t know who I was. There was this moment when we were growing up when we were really in that uncomfortable crucible, one foot in childhood and the other foot in womanhood.
“And I found it very difficult to find both feet in womanhood because [there] it was a part of me that didn’t want to disappoint people. ‘Hey, she’s not that pretty girl anymore. What is he?’ I didn’t know what kind of thing to look for.”
After becoming a mother, Mills did stage work and took a few TV gigs in the US, the Los Angeles Times reported. He still works from time to time.
Back in 2021, Mills told Fox News Digital that she was “lucky” to have a better outcome than many other child stars in Hollywood.
“I was working for a studio with an employer who was a really honest man,” he explained at the time. “He cared about the people who worked for him, and I was supported by both of my parents who were in the business, so I was supportive.
“Business can come to people like an express train. Suddenly you’re surrounded by wealth and recognition at high speed. It’s hectic and it’s very easy to lose your way unless you have that support.”
“Of course I had my problems,” Mills admitted. “But I think we all struggle growing up. You’re trying to make sense of life and who you are, without trying to figure it all out in Hollywood.
“When you’re in that place, it’s hard to stick to the truth, but after work, I went back home, I went to a boarding school in England.
In a newly shared 2017 interview on “Nostalgia Tonight with Joe Sibilia,” Mills talked about his close relationship with Disney, who died in 1966 at age 65.
“He was a great friend of my family because of my work there,” he told the outlet.
“He got along very well with mom and dad, especially mom, who was very funny and had a wicked sense of humor, which Walt really appreciated. So, I was always very happy when I was with him. He was a warm, kind and sweet man. I loved him. I really loved him.”
“I always knew he was a brilliant, wonderful, wonderful man,” Mills said. “And he took us around his beautiful Disneyland. He took us around. And how amazing is that, to be taken to Disneyland by Walt Disney?
“But I wasn’t happy at the time how lucky I was to start my career at that studio with him at the head of it, because he ran it so well, and we were small, and everybody knew everybody, and everybody knew everybody’s name. And he did.”
