Editing John Mills (section)

===Character actor===
Mills began to move into character roles, supporting [[Hugh O'Brian]] in ''[[Africa Texas Style]]'' (1967) and [[Rod Taylor]] in ''[[Chuka (film)|Chuka]]'' (1967). He went to Italy for a giallo, ''[[A Black Veil for Lisa]]'' (1968) and played [[William Hamilton (diplomat)|William Hamilton]] in ''[[Emma Hamilton (film)|Emma Hamilton]]'' (1968).

Mills had a cameo in ''[[Oh! What a Lovely War]]'' (1969) for director Richard Attenborough and supported [[Mark Lester]] (though he was top billed) in ''[[Run Wild, Run Free]]'' (1969). He went to Australia to star in a convict drama, ''[[Adam's Woman]]'' (1970).
 
For his role as the village idiot in ''[[Ryan's Daughter]]'' (1970)—a complete departure from his usual style—Mills won a [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor|Best Supporting Actor Oscar]].

He was in ''[[Dulcima]]'' (1971), then had support roles in ''[[Young Winston]]'' (1972) for Attenborough, ''[[Lady Caroline Lamb (film)|Lady Caroline Lamb]]'' (1972) and ''[[Oklahoma Crude (film)|Oklahoma Crude]]'' (1973). On stage he did ''Veterans'' at the Royal Court, ''At the End of the Day'' (1973), ''The Good Companions'' (1974), ''[[Great Expectations (musical)|Great Expectations]]'' (1975) and ''Separate Tables'' (1977).

Also on the small screen, in 1974 he starred as Captain Tommy "The Elephant" Devon in the six-part television drama series ''[[The Zoo Gang]]'', about a group of former underground freedom fighters from the Second World War, alongside [[Brian Keith]], [[Lilli Palmer]] and [[Barry Morse]].

In the late 1970s Mills could still get lead roles in films, as shown by ''[[The "Human" Factor (1975 film)|The "Human" Factor]]'' (1975), ''[[Trial by Combat (film)|Trial by Combat]]'' (1976) and ''[[The Devil's Advocate (1977 film)|The Devil's Advocate]]'' (1977). He had filmed supporting roles in ''[[The Big Sleep (1978 film)|The Big Sleep]]'' and ''[[The Thirty Nine Steps (1978 film)|The Thirty Nine Steps]]'' (both 1978).

His most famous television role was probably as the [[Bernard Quatermass|title character]] in ''[[Quatermass (TV serial)|Quatermass]]'' for [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] in 1979. He followed this with a sitcom in ''[[Young at Heart (1980 TV series)|Young at Heart]]'' (1980–82).

On the big screen he was now mainly playing upper-crust types as in ''[[Zulu Dawn]]'' (1979), ''[[Gandhi (film)|Gandhi]]'' (1982) and ''[[Sahara (1983 film)|Sahara]]'' (1983). He performed ''Goodbye Mr Chips'' on stage (1982) followed by ''Little Lies'' (1983).