Hayley Mills in Pollyanna

Hayley Mills Wins Academy Award® for Pollyanna

Disney Legend Hayley Mills captured our hearts the moment she first appeared on the screen in Walt Disney’s Pollyanna. Although this wasn’t her first film, it was her role as Pollyanna—the girl who sees the world through rose-colored glasses—that led her down the path to superstardom. While 15-year-old Mills may not have been old enough to drive to the Academy Awards®, that didn’t stop her from cruising home with the Oscar® for Outstanding Juvenile Performance. After Pollyanna, Mills went on to star in many other classic Disney films, doubling her charm when she starred as both twins Sharon and Susan in The Parent Trap, followed by roles in movies like In Search of the Castaways, Summer Magic, and That Darn Cat. Interestingly, it wasn’t Walt who discovered Mills, but his wife, Lillian, who took notice of her in the 1959 film Tiger Bay, in which she appeared with her father, John Mills, who played the father in the classic Disney film Swiss Family Robinson.