05/13/2024
Happy Birthday, Millie!
Millie Perkins never wanted to be an actress, but director George Stevens saw photos of her and tried to convince her to read for a part he had her in mind for. She flew to Hollywood for a screen test and, with much fanfare, landed the title roll in Stevens' 1959 film "The Diary of Anne Frank." Perkins received almost universally excellent reviews for her portrayal of Anne.
After her work with Stevens, Perkins was placed under contract to 20th Century Fox. She was one of the promising young stars of Hollywood, but the studio contract system, which was coming to an end, was a poor fit for Perkins, who had come of age with the Beat Generation in 1950s New York City. Stevens would later state: "Millie did not fit in. She was 10 years too early." Suspended for refusing the lead in the 1960 film "Tess of the Storm Country" (Perkins saw the film as a B-picture and a step back career-wise), she was cast by 20th Century Fox in the 1961 film "Wild in the Country," playing the supporting role of the girlfriend to star Elvis Presley. The studio then dropped Perkins. Joshua Logan personally selected Perkins for the female lead in the 1964 film "Ensign Pulver," but the film was a failure. Perkins would not appear in another mainstream film release for almost twenty years. She played the female lead in both of Jack Nicholson's inaugural productions, "The Shooting" and "Ride in the Whirlwind" (shot side by side in 1965), and in 1968 co-starred in "Wild in the Streets" which was written by her then-husband Robert Thom.
In 1976, Millie Perkins moved to Jacksonville, Oregon with her two daughters by Thom, Lillie and Hedy. In 1977, People Magazine reported that Perkins "conducts a drama-therapy workshop every Tuesday night in her living room and often speaks to high school drama groups in the area." By 1978, Perkins was sufficiently far off the Hollywood radar that the Screen Actors Guild had her on their inactive list and that September the Hollywood column "Ask Dick Kleiner" responded to the query "What ever happened to Millie Perkins?" with "Millie Perkins died recently." A letter from Perkins herself resulted in a January 1979 retraction by Kleiner, although the columnist maintained "almost everyone in Hollywood believes that [Perkins] died." (Wikipedia)
Happy Birthday, Millie Perkins!
