Hugh Geoffroy Millais (23 December 1929 – 4 July 2009) was a British author and actor known for his film collaborations with director Robert Altman.

Hugh Millais
Born
Hugh Geoffroy Millais

(1929-12-23)23 December 1929
Died4 July 2009(2009-07-04) (aged 79)
NationalityBritish
Other namesHughie
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom
EducationAmpleforth College
Occupation(s)Actor, author, journalist, yachtsman, property developer, interior designer, chef, bar owner, oil dealer, club entertainer
Spouses
  • Eve Millais
Suzy Marthe Falconnet Millais
(m. 1957⁠–⁠1974)
Anne Sheffield Millais
(m. 1988⁠–⁠2009)
Children3
Parents

Early years

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Hugh Millais was the son of Raoul Millais (1901–1999) a painter-illustrator, and his first wife Elinor Clare (d. 1953), daughter of Allan Ronald Macdonell and Helen Margaret Ryan, of Montreal.[1] He was brought up Roman Catholic.[2] As a child he lived in Blackwater Valley and Cork in Ireland.[3] He was educated at Ampleforth.[4]

Culinary exploits

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As for his cooking, there are many stories surrounding his culinary adventures. Millais made a meal for Orson Welles after the actor-director had hired his house in Andalusia, Spain for a year while filming, then left him stranded, penniless, in Naples. On another occasion, Rita Hayworth shed her lipstick in his onion soup. Once, Millais and Gary Cooper were said to have fled unwanted "friends" at a Paris party by hiding in a bathroom. Millais was once presented with a platter of seafood by Salvador Dalí served on the artist's naked wife, Gala. There was also an occasion where Millais shared Huevos Cubanos with Ernest Hemingway (whose chauffeur he apparently became for a while), Ava Gardner and Marlene Dietrich after sailing into a mini-revolution in pre-Castro Cuba and getting shot through the arm at the helm of his racing yacht, the Benbow. These and many other anecdotes are in Millais' cook-book "Hugh's Who: The Name-Dropper's Cookbook" which was published in 2007.[5] A devoted falconer, he is said to have turned down a role in the film Shoot the Sun Down, in 1976, to go to Saudi Arabia, for a falconers' meet.[6]

Acting career

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Millais' career as an actor came about by accident. Spotted in a bar at during the feria in Pamplona, he was invited to meet the director Robert Altman in England. Altman immediately hired him to play bounty hunter Dog Butler in McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), in which his character uses a single-shot elephant gun to shoot Warren Beatty's McCabe. During filming he adopted a phoney Texan accent, but Altman told him: “If I’d wanted an American heavy, I would have got Lee Marvin"; Millais' final voice track is spoken with a British accent. Altman then cast him to portray Susannah York's lecherous neighbour, Marcel, in the psychological thriller, Images (1972). In 1973 Millais took the lead role in Wolf Mankowitz's play The Samson Riddle, again with York at the Gate Theatre, Dublin. He portrayed Roy Endean in The Dogs of War (1980) and Uncle Martin, an 18th-century grandee in The Wicked Lady (1983), in which John Gielgud played his butler and Faye Dunaway his niece. He played the US Colonel in Chicago Joe and the Showgirl (1990), as well as appearing in British TV shows such as Deceptions, Ruth Rendell Mysteries, Kavanagh QC and Foreign Affairs.[7]

Personal Life

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Millais lived in Kirtlington, Oxfordshire until his death in July 2009. As Herbert Kretzmer put it, Hugh showed "wisdom and acquired magnificence by not doing any one thing for too long", while Robert Altman said: “As an actor, he is an excellent cook. As a cook, he’s a fantastic actor.”[8]

He had three children from his second marriage to Suzy Marthe Falconnet Millais which ended in 1974. They are Ian Everett Millais (50), photographer Joshua Rengault Millais (48),[9] and Tara Romany Maria Millais (41).

Millais married his third wife, Anne Sheffield, in Kensington & Chelsea, April of 1988.[10]

Filmography

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Year Title Role Notes
1971 McCabe & Mrs. Miller Butler
1972 Images Marcel
1973 The Samson Riddle (Play)
1980 The Dogs of War Roy Endean
1983 The Wicked Lady Uncle Martin
1985 Deceptions TV movie
1990 Chicago Joe and the Showgirl US colonel
1990 Ruth Rendell Mysteries Martin Silk 1 episode
1993 Foreign Affairs Sir Thomas Fellowes TV movie
1996 Kavanagh QC Vice Admiral Kinross 1 episode, (final appearance)

Bibliography

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"Hugh's Who: The Name-dropper's Cookbook" (Park Press 2007)

References

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  1. ^ "The Gazette 28 Apr 1926, page 8". Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ "Hugh Millais". London: The Daily Telegraph. 13 August 2009. Retrieved 11 September 2010.
  3. ^ Sharp, Rob (23 December 2007). "How We Met: John Hurt & Hugh Millais". The Independent. London.
  4. ^ "Hugh Millais actor in Robert Altmans film Images". The Times. London. 17 July 2009. Archived from the original on 24 May 2010.
  5. ^ "Cooking up a storm: Hugh Millais, a life in recipes". Archived from the original on 20 July 2008. Retrieved 4 August 2009.
  6. ^ "Cooking up a storm: Hugh Millais, a life in recipes". Reuters. 28 November 2007.
  7. ^ "Hugh Millais actor in Robert Altmans film Images". The Times. London. 17 July 2009. Archived from the original on 24 May 2010.
  8. ^ "Hugh Millais actor in Robert Altmans film Images". The Times. London. 17 July 2009. Archived from the original on 24 May 2010.
  9. ^ "Joshua Millais Photography". www.joshuamillais.com.
  10. ^ England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005, Kensington & Chelsea, Greater London, Apr 1988, Vol. 13, page 1406.
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