Mandy Miller
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Mandy Miller (born Carmen Isabella Miller, 23 July 1944, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England) was an English child actor who made a number of films in the 1950s.
She was christened Carmen but called Mandy by her family. Her career tended to involve serious acting roles rather than comedy, even in her first small part in The Man in the White Suit, where she was a sad-faced little girl who helped Alec Guinness escape his pursuers. She was a natural actress and put in a much praised performance in her second film, another Ealing production, Mandy (1952), playing a deaf child whose parents (played by Jack Hawkins and Phyllis Calvert) did not know how to cope with raising her.
She was also convincing in the next film, Background (1952), along with the other two child actors in this film about a family breaking up due to an impending divorce. Like Mandy, this was a drama about a well-to-do middle class family; Valerie Hobson played her mother.
She had lighter roles such as in Raising A Riot (1955) starring Kenneth More. Just some of her other famous co-stars were Joan Greenwood, Cecil Parker, Godfrey Tearle, Thora Hird, Sam Wanamaker and Joan Carroll, one of the stars of the MGM musical, Meet Me In St. Louis. Miller also made two single records, familiar to British people of a certain age: "Snowflakes" and "Nellie the Elephant".
She also appeared in TV dramas, making films until she was 18. Although she did not continue her career as an adult, her films are well remembered and she was recently featured in a magazine article bringing readers up to date on her life. She continues to live in retirement in England.
She is the aunt of actress Amanda Pays.
[edit] Filmography
- Compact (1962) TV Series
- Sunday's Child (1959) TV Series
- The Snorkel (1958)
- The Feminine Touch (1956)
- Child in the House (1956)
- Dance Little Lady (1955)
- Raising a Riot (1955)
- Adventure in the Hopfields (1954)
- The Secret (1954)
- Background (1953)
- Mandy (1952)
- The Man in the White Suit (1951)
