Frank Mills
Frank Mills
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Frank Mills was born in London in 1929, to a taxi driver father and grew up off the Old Kent Road. At the age of 11 he was evacuated to Shoreham on the south coast and then moved in land to Woking in Surrey. He grew up with 9 different foster mothers but missed his home life. He took a job as a golf caddy and saved up enough money so that on his 14th birthday he could run away. He headed back to London. He then got a live in job at the Savoy Hotel in London as a page boy. When his boss died he joined his parents and sister in Brixton. He also worked for the London Civil Defence and at the Brixton town hall. Frank later took a job in a holiday camp before hoping to work on the Queen Mary ship but he was unable to get a union card until he had a job. He then had a job for a year as an underbutler in a large country house on a 10,000 acre estate. He was also a commis waiter at the House of Commons.
Frank accompanied his younger sister to the local youth club and it was there where he gained his first experience of acting in an amateur production of Hay Fever. A group of them got together and formed a semi-professional group touring prisons and hospitals. He then joined repertory theatre for five years. His first play was in Warrington which was followed by around 250 different plays over five years. Later he appeared in Blackburn and met his wife of 30 years. Despite being a Londoner, he played mainly northern characters, and settled in the north with his wife.
Frank has been working constantly ever since. He played Buck in Hucklebury Finn, Old River Hand in Three Men In A Boat, Vic Lee in Out, Fowler in Flambards and a passport clerk in Rough Cut. His films include The Missionary, Witness for the Prosecution, Champions, Parker, Our Exploits in West Poley and The Young Poisoners Handbook.
On television he played Ivor Mortlake in Coronation Street in April 1976. Other shows include Butterflies Don't Count, Sally Ann, Vanishing Army, The Good Companions, Virginia Fly Is Dead, Keeping In Touch, Nanny, The Grudge Fight, The Country, The Gentle Touch, Beatrix Potter, Mitch, The State of the Nation, Rumpole of the Bailey, Reith, Bergerac, By The Sword Divided, Minder, Big Deal, Pocketful of Rye, Burston Rebellion, Home To Roost, Lovejoy, Bellman and True, Casualty, Starlings, Hannay, Bust, South of The Boarder, The Real Eddie English, The Bill, Sam, Rentaghost, Sherlock Holmes, Lovejoy (as Eric's dad), Hetty Wainthropp Investigates and Nicholas Nickleby
The nineties saw him regularly on television in shows including El CID, Wish Me Luck, Bomber Harris, Redemption, Love Hurts, Rides, The Chief, London's Burning, Harry, Grange Hill, Between The Lines, Casualty, Cardiac Arrest, Gambling Man and Closing Numbers. In 1994 he played Clive in the film Stick By My Kid and in May 1995 he joined Coronation Street as Betty Turpin's long lost love Billy Williams, a role he played until 1997. He then played Emily's father in the show The Tribe.
Frank is divorced and lives in East Anglia.
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