Hayley Mills looked radiant as she stepped out in London, more than six decades after becoming one of the world’s most famous child stars.
The 80-year-old actress, beloved by generations for movies including The Parent Trap and Pollyanna, attended a special screening of her 1961 classic Whistle Down the Wind at BFI Southbank on Friday, September 4, 2026.
Smiling for photographers ahead of the event, Hayley appeared in high spirits as she returned to a movie that holds a particularly special place in her extraordinary career.
The BFI event marked the premiere of a brand-new 35mm print of Whistle Down the Wind, created by the BFI National Archive, and was followed by a Q&A with Hayley and her former co-stars Diane Poole and Alan Barnes. The screening forms part of a season marking what would have been director Bryan Forbes’ 100th year.
By the time Whistle Down the Wind arrived in cinemas, Hayley was already a bona fide star. The daughter of celebrated British actor Sir John Mills and Mary, she made an acclaimed screen debut opposite her father in 1959’s Tiger Bay.
© Getty Images for BFIWalt Disney subsequently cast her in Pollyanna, the 1960 film that turned her into an international sensation and earned her the Academy Juvenile Award.
A year later came the role that remains perhaps her most famous. In Disney’s original The Parent Trap, Hayley pulled double duty as separated twins Susan Evers and Sharon McKendrick, who meet by chance at summer camp and hatch a plan to reunite their divorced parents.
© Getty ImagesThe movie became a family classic and cemented Hayley’s status as one of Disney’s defining young stars. She followed it with movies including In Search of the Castaways, Summer Magic and That Darn Cat! and was later named a Disney Legend in 1998.
In the late 1980s she starred as teacher Miss Carrie Bliss in Good Morning, Miss Bliss – the series that was later retooled into Saved by the Bell – while more recently she appeared for several seasons in British drama Wild at Heart.
© Getty ImagesAnd 65 years after two of her defining movies were released, Hayley’s latest appearance is a reminder of just how enduring that legacy has proved.
She reflected on turning 80 earlier this year, joining sister Juliet for a wide-ranging conversation about their remarkable showbusiness family, childhood and the lessons she has learned across eight decades.
Read the full article here
