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Novelist and playwright Mary Hayley Bell, otherwise known as Lady Mills, the wife of actor Sir John Mills, died on Thursday (1 December) at the age of 94.
Bell was perhaps best known for her novel Whistle Down the Wind, which was later adapted by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall into a movie. A musical version of the novel was also adapted by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman, premiering at the Aldwych Theatre, London in June 1998.
Born in Shanghai on 22 January 1911, Bell spent her childhood in the Far East. She gave up her own acting career when she married John Mills in 1942, reported The Telegraph.
John Mills passed away in April 2005. Bell is survived by her three children Juliet, Hayley and Jonathan.
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