Forever Young
Ratings2
Average rating2.8
15
Ratings2
Average rating2.8
Iconic actress Hayley Mills shares personal memories from her storied childhood, growing up in a famous acting family and becoming a Disney child star, trying to grow up in a world that wanted her to stay forever young. The daughter of acclaimed British actor Sir John Mills was still a preteen when she began her acting career and was quickly thrust into the spotlight. Under the wing of Walt Disney himself, Hayley Mills was transformed into one of the biggest child starlets of the 1960s through her iconic roles in Pollyanna, The Parent Trap, and many more. She became one of only twelve actors in history to be bestowed with the Academy Juvenile Award, presented at the Oscars by its first recipient, Shirley Temple, and went on to win a number of awards including a Golden Globe, multiple BAFTAs, and a Disney Legacy Award. Now, in her charming and forthright memoir, she provides a unique window into when Hollywood was still 'Tinseltown' and the great Walt Disney was at his zenith, ruling over what was (at least in his own head) still a family business. This behind-the-scenes look at the drama of having a sky-rocketing career as a young teen in an esteemed acting family will offer both her childhood impressions of the wild and glamorous world she was swept into, and the wisdom and broader knowledge that time has given her. Hayley will delve intimately into her relationship with Walt Disney, as well as the emotional challenges of being bound to a wholesome, youthful public image as she grew into her later teen years, and how that impacted her and her choices--including marrying a producer over 30 years her senior when she was 20! With her regrets, her joys, her difficulties, and her triumphs, this is a compelling read for any fan of classic Disney films and an inside look at a piece of real Hollywood history.
Reviews with the most likes.
Pleasant. I enjoyed reading about the Disney/Parent Trap years, and the overall weirdness of growing up in a showbiz family. The book ends abruptly in the 1970s, though. Where'd she go after that?
I was excited to see this book, but in the end it just bored me.
Everyone is “brilliant”. But......her parents are actually terrible though she doesn't see it that way. The biggest proof of that is basically mismanaging her money , but there's also the time that the mother insists Hayley only film in England. Walt Disney made arrangements to move everything to England to film her latest movie and then when shooting began, Hayley's mother took her brother and went to stay in another country. What. They just seemed like selfish, lazy people.
I expected the “name-dropping” because of course, this is a celebrity memoir, but a lot of the stories she told about celebrities in this book had nothing to do with her. It was just observations about their lives that she heard the way everyone else did (gossip rags), though she would often say it was because her parents were all in the know. ::shrug:: maybe. She would go on about someone that she only had maybe an hour interaction with, which made this relatively short book feel incredibly long. It took me days to finish this!
I think maybe she's just not realistic about herself. Her mistakes, her brattiness, her family. She's trying to paint everything in this glowing light, but really her life was just not that interesting or if it was, she withheld any of that from this book.
I have always been a fan of Hayley Mills. So interesting to know the details of her life and how she was treated as a Disney favorite. Very good.
