Forever Young: A Memoir

Like many young American boys, I walked out of The Parent Trap with a huge crush on Hayley Mills.Her account of her younger life in this book is incredibly well put together, filled with amazing detail, and interesting vignettes and dilemmas about her life, career, and relationships with well-known film and singing stars, including the picture-producing legend who signed her to that big initial several picture contract, Walt Disney.Growing up in the film industry proves to be very challenging and filled with potholes and quite a few regrets, as most of us might suspect.Hayley lays it all out with honesty, insight, humor, and an overall keen perspective about her growth and challenges that amuses, entertains, educates, and allows readers to identify with her struggles to understand herself, while also escaping the bondage of celebrity, family concerns, and insecurity.She pulls no punches and shows her sad side, mistakes, and triumphs with both humor and integrity.I can't recommend this memoir highly enough. It is extremely well-written and will make you decide to see some movies of hers you may have never even heard of before. I gladly did exactly that, just another reason her thorough inside account proves worth knowing. Just a great read.It turns out that the adolescent infatuation I had on The Parent Trap twin was well-deserved after all.

Hayley Mills’ memoir is an honest, humble, entertaining, and very British account of her fascinating childhood experiences and years of youthful fame as a (mostly) Disney movie star. Fans like me will enjoy it tremendously. Unfortunately, it stops rather abruptly in her 20s after the birth of her first son and the end of her first marriage. She quite briefly mentions her second son, but not his father or any of her subsequent relationships. It also omits her bout with breast cancer. Many of these details are readily available on Wikipedia, so it’s unclear why her book ends when it does.

The subject (Haley Mills) aside, this memoir was a pleasure to read. The author (Haley Mills herself) is a talented writer and dare I say an insightful philosopher as well. Like so many 14 year old boys who saw the original "Parent Trap" film in the early 1960s, I admit to having had a crush on Haley Mills at the time, which piqued my curiosity about her book enough to purchase and read it, but I only wish that half the Hollywood/Theatre biographies and memoirs I've read over the years were as enjoyable to spend a weekend with as this book was. I would give a plug to Michael J. Fox's memoir "Lucky Man" as having equal standing on my list of wonderful reads in this realm of "literature"…and I would lend that term to Ms. Mill's work as well. I had not followed the career of Haley Mills and did not see "Pollyanna" until I had my own kids, but it's a wonderful movie, as are all the Disney films, of which we have many on DVD that we watch with our Grandchildren…"GrandPop…what's a DVD?" LOL. We also own the vintage Lassies, National Velvet, and the 1950s Disney nature films on DVD…still as fun and entertaining as ever for today's young sprouts. One thing I was unaware of is how many iconic and challenging classical stage roles Haley Mills played during her career. There's no faking-it with those roles, the challenges of which take courage and a lot of talent and discipline for any actor to successfully perform night after night. In any event, my crush on her is now renewed, and I highly recommend spending some time with this delightful human by reading her terrific, compelling, and life-affirming book.

My only complaint is it ended rather abruptly when she left Roy Boulting. Nothing about Leigh Lawson or the tv show Good Morning Miss Bliss ( which became Saved By The Bell). Maybe she became ill and had to finish it. But it was very good, just the first half of her life! Great memories of Walt Disney. I find it hard to believe anything negative about him when his studio family loved him so much.

I grew up on Disney and Hayley Mills films... I even worked at Disney for 15 years on the studio side. I absolutely LOVED this book. If you are looking for an account of Hayley's life as an adult... go elsewhere. This covers her film career in depth, as well as her personal/family life at that time. The book ends when her first marriage ends, and nothing else is added other than a few comments. What I did love about this book was that it did not hide anything, nor gloss over anything. She gave stories about Walt both good and bad. You saw the genius storyteller and the stubborn studio head. Hayley's account of her family life is equally balanced, and you see the good and bad in her parents and their decisions (seriously how could the family not check out the trust fund for Hayley after her father lost all his money paying British taxes???) After reading this book, I went out and bought 2 of my favorite Hayley movies and watched them with a fresh perspective... Good fun, insightful, and honestly written. This book was a scathingly brilliant idea!

I just got it last week and haven't had a chance to start but I know I'll love it. She was my first Disney "crush" growing up in the early 60's. Not only that......I was in NYC in October 2019 on a vacation and went to the theatre one night looking at merchandise stand, I turned around, and it was HER! Very surreal, and wonderful. I had the good fortune to introduce myself and tell her I was such a fan when I was so young. I recognized her right away even at age 73 then, I knew it was her. Didn't ask for autograph or picture, it would have been rude. After the show, she just so happened to be on her way up the aisle at the same time, a very large theatre.......and I had about 10 minutes to talk to her. It was a very out of body experience:-) And a total thrill. She reached out her hand and I shook it. So when I read her biography was coming out........I just had to have it, and I can't wait to read it. She was absolutely lovely and endearing as one would expect. Total thrill.

5 stars.

Loved this book! Hayley Mills dives straight into her time working with Walt Disney and takes you on a insightful journey through her incredible career. There was no point of this biography that I felt dragged or was dull, she's such an interesting person and her career has been fascinating.

❤❤When I heard that Hayley Mills had a memoir coming out I might have been a little bit excited. Ever since I was a kid, she has been one of my favourite actresses, growing up watching Pollyanna and The Parent Trap repeatedly every school holidays.I ordered the paperback book and then discovered that she reads the audiobook so I had to have that as well. Her voice is so English and proper, it was a delight to listen to her talk about her life. As the daughter of John Mills, acting was in her blood. Walt Disney saw promise at a young age and she became a star. He love of Walt shines through, and you can see what an big influence he was on her life.Her life wasn't always easy, in fact she has suffered many heartbreaks and losses. It was an eye opening story about a child star, in the limelight and the difficult choices that she often had to make.I loved hearing about the Disney days, but also about her teenage life, where she hung out with The Beatles at the height of their fame. Her family is a big part of her life, a tough relationship with her mother and competing with her father and sister for movie roles.A few years ago - pre covid, I was so lucky to be able to see Hayley and her sister Juliette, perform in a play in Sydney called Legends. It was so wonderful to see her on the stage and I was thrilled to meet her after the show. I may have fan girled like crazy but I was a little excited.Highly recommend this book and audiobook to fans.

Reading this book, I also relived my childhood as Haley Mills and I are of the same generation and her childhood on film was part of what formed my real childhood in the 50's and 60's. I saw a couple of her Walt Disney Movies before seeing her in Tiger Bay, although that was not the order they were released. As if she was my older sister, I either went through or wanted to go through everything she did on film. Right up to her first screen kiss on Crete, in The Moonspinners. Reading her book, I learned that she loved the Beatles, as I did between 1963 and 1969, but she actually had a date with George Harrison. A Beatlemaniac's ideal dream. In her twenties, she met and married a much older man, Roy, one of the famous Boulting Brothers of UK film production and had a son with him. After that her film career faltered along with her marriage to him. There were other men, and another son, but I lost track of her until I saw her memoir and caught up on her news once again. I'm glad I did as it mostly covered some of the most memorable parts of my early childhood to my late teens and I thank her for bringing those memories back to me so vividly.