Mandy Miller
Mandy Miller is an English former child actress who made a number of films in the 1950s. She recorded the 1956 song "Nellie the Elephant".
Early life
Carmen Isabella Miller, known professionally as Mandy Miller, was born in 1944.Career
Miller's first film appearance was at the age of six playing Gladdie, who helps Sidney Stratton escape an angry mob in The Man in the White Suit. She says she got the part purely by chance while accompanying her father on a visit to Ealing Studios. In the canteen, director Alexander Mackendrick was having coffee. On seeing Mandy, he said, "That’s a funny face, I could use that funny face in my next film."The following year, an Ealing casting agent invited her to screen test for the title role in Mandy, also directed by Mackendrick. Mackendrick said of the test,
Her lead role in Mandy is a deaf-mute child whose parents quarrel over her upbringing.
Her next film was Background, with two other child actors, in a film about a well-to-do middle-class family breaking up because of an impending divorce. Valerie Hobson plays her mother. In 1954, she starred in Adventure in the Hopfields, a film made for the Children's Film Foundation. Her lighter roles include Raising a Riot starring Kenneth More. She has co-starred with, among others, Joan Greenwood, Cecil Parker, Godfrey Tearle, Thora Hird and Sam Wanamaker. She also appeared in television dramas.
Miller made two popular single records: "Snowflakes" and "Nellie the Elephant", the latter produced by George Martin.
In 1962, at the age of 18, she gave up acting and moved to New York City to become an au pair.
Personal life
Miller's sister is actress Jan Miller, and her niece is actress Amanda Pays.In 1965, she married Christopher Davey, an architect, and had three children.
Filmography
The Man in the White Suit as GladdieI Believe In You as ChildMandy as MandyBackground as Linda LomaxAdventure in the Hopfields as Jenny QuinDance Little Lady as Jill GordonThe Secret as Katie MartinRaising a Riot as Anne KentThe Feminine Touch as JessieChild in the House as Elizabeth LorimerThe Snorkel as Candy BrownTV series that she appeared in included The Avengers, The Saint and The Third Man.