# Mary Hayley Bell
**Mary Hayley Bell** (22 January 1911, Shanghai, China – 1 December 2005, Denham, Buckinghamshire, England) was an English playwright, novelist, and actress, known after her marriage as Lady Mills, whose novel *Whistle Down the Wind* became a 1961 film starring her daughter [Hayley Mills](https://www.edgepedia.org/hayley-mills).[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) • [2](https://www.malvernstjames.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/OGA-News-Spring-2020.pdf) Most reference sources give her birth year as 1911; one biographical notice records 1914 as an alternative.[3](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/bell-mary-hayley-1911-2005)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born / died | 22 January 1911, Shanghai, China; 1 December 2005, Denham, Buckinghamshire, England (heart failure)[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0068393/) |
| Marriage | Married the actor John Mills on 16 January 1941; the marriage lasted until his death on 23 April 2005, and produced three children: Juliet, Hayley, and Jonathan[4](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0068393/) |
| First play | *Men in Shadow* (1942), a wartime drama about the French resistance, initially barred by MI5 until she deleted details of resistance escape routes[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) |
| Stage success | *Duet for Two Hands* (1945), about a young poet given a murderer's hands during surgery, described as one of the great successes of post-war West End theater[5](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/mary-hayley-bell-518168.html) |
| Best-known work | The novel *Whistle Down the Wind* (1958), filmed in 1961 by director Bryan Forbes and producer Richard Attenborough, starring Hayley Mills[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) |
| Later adaptations | The novel became an Andrew Lloyd Webber stage musical in 1998[3](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/bell-mary-hayley-1911-2005) |
| Other books | *Avolena* (1957), *Far Morning* (1962), *Him, Her & Me* (1981), and the autobiography *What Shall We Do Tomorrow?* (1968)[3](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/bell-mary-hayley-1911-2005) |
## Early life and acting career
Bell was born in Shanghai, where her father, a British army colonel, served as commissioner for maritime customs in China, working against smuggling and piracy.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) She was educated first by a governess, then sent to England to attend Malvern Girls' College in the 1920s and study acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) • [2](https://www.malvernstjames.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/OGA-News-Spring-2020.pdf)
Her first stage role was as Henrietta in *The Barretts of Wimpole Street*, performed in Shanghai by an American touring company in 1932.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) In London she first appeared in the comedy *Vintage Wine* in 1934, followed by further West End roles, a tour of Australia (in *Victoria Regina*, 1937–1938), and a New York debut in 1939.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) • [6](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2005/12/07/mary-bell/4a003b53-dd20-45a2-8519-0b3f733d8130/) Her screen appearances as an actress were few and uncredited: *Vintage Wine* (1935), *Love in Exile* (1936), and, decades later, *The Big Freeze* (1993).[4](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0068393/) On Broadway she appeared in *The Shrike* (1952), repeating her role in the 1955 film version.[7](https://www.theatermania.com/news/mary-hayley-bell-author-and-actress-dies-at-94_7242/)
## Marriage to John Mills
Bell and [John Mills](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-mills) first met in Shanghai when Mills, touring with the Quaints theater group, visited her family home; they married in 1941 after divorce proceedings freed Mills from an earlier marriage.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) On marrying, she gave up her acting career for writing, saying, "It was no good my being in Birmingham while John was in the West End. I believe that if you want to keep a marriage together, you have to be together."[6](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2005/12/07/mary-bell/4a003b53-dd20-45a2-8519-0b3f733d8130/) The couple had three children: [Juliet Mills](https://www.edgepedia.org/juliet-mills) (born 1941), Hayley Mills (born 1946), and Jonathan Mills (born 1949).[8](https://www.filmweb.pl/person/Mary%2BHayley%2BBell-322724) They lived at more than 15 addresses over the years, most memorably The Wick, a Georgian house on Richmond Hill, where Bell wrote plays in a Gypsy caravan at the bottom of the garden, and finally Hills House in Denham, Buckinghamshire.[5](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/mary-hayley-bell-518168.html) • [1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) In 1965 she was sworn in as a magistrate on the bench at Richmond Magistrate's Court.[9](https://www.gettyimages.com.br/detail/foto-jornal%C3%ADstica/english-actor-sir-john-mills-and-his-wife-actress-foto-jornal%C3%ADstica/693732739?slot=32)
## Plays
**Men in Shadow (1942).** The idea came from her husband: after hearing a broadcast about the French resistance, Mills suggested the subject to a wife with "a drawerful of uncompleted plays." She wrote it in two weeks under the title *To Stall the Grey Rat*, which Noel Coward, calling it "piss-poor," replaced with *Men in Shadow*. The play opened at the [Vaudeville](https://www.edgepedia.org/vaudeville) in 1942, co-directed by Mills and Bernard Miles, with Mills in the lead.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) When the censor showed the script to MI5, the security service refused to let it be performed and interrogated Bell about the resistance escape routes it contained; she deleted them and MI5 withdrew its objections.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) The play received a standing ovation on its first night, ran long in the West End and the provinces, and was also performed in New York and Moscow.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) On Broadway it ran from 10 to 27 March 1943.[10](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/mary-hayley-bell-6178)
**Duet for Two Hands (1945).** Mills directed and starred in this play about a young poet given a murderer's hands during surgery; it became one of the great successes of post-war West End theater, and it was reported that even the couple's friends the Oliviers could not get tickets.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) • [5](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/mary-hayley-bell-518168.html) A Broadway production ran briefly in October 1947.[10](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/mary-hayley-bell-6178)
**Later plays.** *Angel* was performed at the Strand in 1947, after which a dozen unperformed plays accumulated before *The Uninvited Guest* (1953), in which Mills played a disturbed figure returning to the scene of his childhood. The play broke box-office records on its pre-London tour but was slated by West End critics and closed in less than a fortnight.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) Bell said in 1962, "They don't want my plays now ... I never want to write another. A lot of hard work for nothing."[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) The Boston University archive of her papers holds typescripts of many unproduced works, including *The Cloudy God*, *Dear Enemy*, *Feather on the Water*, *The Hungry Month*, *Journey North*, *Scorpion Grass*, *Treble Key*, *Two Harlequins*, and *Violence Is the Enemy*, along with several screenplays.[11](https://www.bu.edu/library/wp-assets/finding-aids/Bell-Mary-Hayley-559.pdf)
## Novels and Whistle Down the Wind
With fashion turning against her kind of play, Bell turned to novels.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) Her best known, *Whistle Down the Wind*, was published in 1958 (some later accounts give 1959) and tells of three children who find an escaped murderer hiding in a barn and mistake him for Jesus.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) • [12](https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/181195/1/WRAP_Theses_Hitchin_2022_Redacted.pdf) [Bryan Forbes](https://www.edgepedia.org/bryan-forbes) and [Richard Attenborough](https://www.edgepedia.org/richard-attenborough) turned it into the 1961 film, directed by Forbes and produced by Attenborough, which gave Bell's daughter Hayley Mills her first big screen acting chance.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) The film was BAFTA-nominated, and in 2005 the [British Film Institute](https://www.edgepedia.org/british-film-institute) included it in its list of "50 films you should see by the age of 14."[2](https://www.malvernstjames.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/OGA-News-Spring-2020.pdf) In 1998 it became an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, relocated by that production to the American Deep South.[3](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/bell-mary-hayley-1911-2005) • [6](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2005/12/07/mary-bell/4a003b53-dd20-45a2-8519-0b3f733d8130/) A separate musical adaptation by Russell Labey and Richard Taylor, based on the novel and the 1961 film, was later licensed for stage productions.[13](https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/44924/whistle-down-the-wind-labeytaylor)
Her other fiction includes *Avolena* (1957), *Far Morning* (1962), and *Him, Her & Me* (1981), the latter two about the family dog.[3](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/bell-mary-hayley-1911-2005) • [11](https://www.bu.edu/library/wp-assets/finding-aids/Bell-Mary-Hayley-559.pdf)
## Film work and later years
Bell wrote the screenplay for *Sky West and Crooked* (1966), another family affair, directed by Mills and starring Hayley; unlike *Whistle Down the Wind*, it was a box-office flop.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) The film was released in some markets as *Gypsy Girl* (1966), for which IMDb credits her with the screenplay and original story.[4](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0068393/) Her earlier screen writing credit was additional dialogue for *Scott of the Antarctic* (1948).[4](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0068393/)
She published her autobiography, *What Shall We Do Tomorrow?*, in 1968; it was serialized in *Woman and Home* from October 1968 to February 1969 and republished in 1969 as *What Shall We Do Tomorrow?: The Story of My Families*.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) • [11](https://www.bu.edu/library/wp-assets/finding-aids/Bell-Mary-Hayley-559.pdf) • [3](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/bell-mary-hayley-1911-2005) In later life she had Alzheimer's disease and used a wheelchair; in 2001, despite the illness, she and Mills renewed their wedding vows at a family ceremony in their local church at Denham on their 60th anniversary.[8](https://www.filmweb.pl/person/Mary%2BHayley%2BBell-322724) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0068393/) She was too ill to attend Mills's memorial service after his death in April 2005, and she died of heart failure on 1 December 2005, aged 94, survived by her daughters Juliet and Hayley and her son Jonathan.[4](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0068393/) • [14](https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jul/01/film.filmnews) • [1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries)
## References
1. [Mary Hayley Bell, obituary by Dennis Barker, The Guardian, 5 December 2005](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/dec/05/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries)
2. [In Memoriam: Mary Hayley Bell (1911–2005), Malvern St James, OGA News Spring 2020](https://www.malvernstjames.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/OGA-News-Spring-2020.pdf)
3. [Bell, Mary Hayley 1911(?)–2005, Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/bell-mary-hayley-1911-2005)
4. [Mary Hayley Bell, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0068393/)
5. [Mary Hayley Bell, obituary, The Independent, 5 December 2005](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/mary-hayley-bell-518168.html)
6. [Mary Bell, Writer and Widow of John Mills, The Washington Post (AP), 6 December 2005](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2005/12/07/mary-bell/4a003b53-dd20-45a2-8519-0b3f733d8130/)
7. [Mary Hayley Bell, Author and Actress, Dies at 94, TheaterMania, 5 December 2005](https://www.theatermania.com/news/mary-hayley-bell-author-and-actress-dies-at-94_7242/)
8. [Mary Hayley Bell, Filmweb](https://www.filmweb.pl/person/Mary%2BHayley%2BBell-322724)
9. [English actor Sir John Mills and his wife Mary Hayley Bell outside Richmond Magistrate's Court, 1 February 1965, Getty Images / Hulton Archive](https://www.gettyimages.com.br/detail/foto-jornal%C3%ADstica/english-actor-sir-john-mills-and-his-wife-actress-foto-jornal%C3%ADstica/693732739?slot=32)
10. [Mary Hayley Bell, Broadway Cast & Staff, IBDB](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/mary-hayley-bell-6178)
11. [Inventory of the Mary Hayley Bell Collection #559, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University](https://www.bu.edu/library/wp-assets/finding-aids/Bell-Mary-Hayley-559.pdf)
12. [Hitchin, WRAP thesis on Whistle Down the Wind, University of Warwick, 2022](https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/181195/1/WRAP_Theses_Hitchin_2022_Redacted.pdf)
13. [Whistle Down the Wind (Labey/Taylor), Concord Theatricals](https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/44924/whistle-down-the-wind-labeytaylor)
14. [Stars share memories of John Mills, The Guardian, 1 July 2005](https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jul/01/film.filmnews)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of the Anglosphere and Europe › English actors: 1940s to 1960s › Surnames A to E*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license