Article: LONDON CALLING - ROOTS; Sir John Mills moved to the city seeking fame and fortune. Losing his job as a toilet paper salesman turned out to be his first big break.

Byline: CLAIRE ATHERTON

From the age of seven I knew I wanted to be on the stage. My sister Annie, who was 15 years older than me and whose real name was Mabel, was a professional dancer in a show that brought the charleston over from New York to London. For a while, she worked at a London nightclub with her dancing partner, Bobby Sielle. I absolutely adored her. She taught me how to do the sailor's hornpipe and we performed it together at an annual concert in the local village hall. When I walked on to the stage that night, I just knew that show business was the life for me, and I never looked back.

When I was a boy, my father was headmaster of a ...

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