Millie Perkins

Millie Perkins (1936 or 1938) is an American actress and model. She is known for her debut film role as Anne Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), and for her supporting actress roles in the modestly budgeted Westerns, The Shooting (1966) and Ride in the Whirlwind (1966), both directed by Monte Hellman and co-produced by Jack Nicholson.


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 4027. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Millie Perkins in The Diary of Anne Frank (George Stevens, 1959).


French postcard by E.D.U.G. (Editions du Globe), Paris, no. 49.


Italian postcard by Cecami, no. 228.

A Dutch Jewish diarist and Holocaust victim

Mildred Frances Perkins was born in Passaic, New Jersey, in 1938. Perkins was working as a receptionist at a New York City advertising agency when she caught the eye of a visiting photographer. It resulted in a career as a model.

By 1958, Perkins was an international cover girl. Her engagements took her as far as Paris. This brought her to the attention of Hollywood director George Stevens, who was looking for a leading actress for his next film after Audrey Hepburn and Natalie Wood rejected the role. Despite her total lack of acting experience, Perkins won out over 10,000 other hopefuls.

At the age of 21, Perkins got the role of Dutch Jewish diarist and Holocaust victim Anne Frank in the biographical film The Diary of Anne Frank (George Stevens, 1959). This first film adaptation of 'The Diary of Anne Frank' won three Oscars and Perkins received almost universally excellent reviews for her portrayal of Frank. However, the film was less of a box-office success than expected.

20th Century Fox signed her. However, her tenure at the studio turned out to be brief, prematurely ending in her suspension for refusing to play the lead in the rural drama Tess of the Storm Country (1960), which she viewed as a retrograde step in her career.

She starred opposite Elvis Presley and Hope Lange in Wild in the Country (Philip Dunne, 1961). Joshua Logan personally selected Perkins for the female lead in the film Ensign Pulver (Joshua Logan, 1964), but the film was a failure. Perkins would not appear in another mainstream film release for almost 20 years.


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3801. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Publicity still for The Diary of Anne Frank (George Stevens, 1959). The card was sent by mail in 1958.


Yugoslavian postcard by Kolor-Studio, Sombor. Sombor is a city in present-day Serbia.


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Millie Perkins in The Diary of Anne Frank (George Stevens, 1959).

Elvis Presley's mother

Millie Perkins' career contained a few more peaks. In 1966, Monte Hellman directed her and Jack Nicholson in the off-beat Westerns The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind, which both have since acquired a certain cult status.

Perkins appeared in another cult classic, Wild in the Streets (Barry Shear, 1968), for which her then-husband Robert Thom had written the screenplay. In addition to film roles, she continued to act in theatre and model. After the birth of her children, she limited her professional activities.

She starred in the psychological Horror film The Witch Who Came from the Sea (1976) produced and directed by Matt Cimber. The film was written by her husband Robert Thom, who was undergoing extensive medical care at the time. Thom's hospital bills had become a financial burden for the couple, so Thom devised the screenplay for the film, for Perkins to star. On television, she made appearances in television series like Knots Landing (1983–1990) and fourteen episodes of Any Day Now (1998–2002).

In 1983, Perkins returned to feature films to play Jon Voight's ex-wife in Table for Five (Robert Lieberman, 1983). She then played 'mother roles' for the next 20 years. She was Sean Penn's mother in the fact-based film At Close Range (James Foley, 1986), the mother of Charlie Sheen's character in Wall Street (Oliver Stone, 1987), the bereft Jewish mother in the thriller The Chamber (James Foley, 1996), and Andy García's mother in The Lost City (Andy Garcia, 2005). In 1990, she also played Elvis Presley's mother Gladys in the television mini-series Elvis (Steve Miner, a.o., 1990) a biopic of the star's early life with Michael St. Gerard as Presley.

Millie Perkins retired from screen acting in 2006. Perkins was married twice. Her first marriage to actor Dean Stockwell between 1960 and 1962 ended in divorce. In 1964, she married the author Robert Thom. They had two daughters, Hedy Thom and Lillie Thom, and remained married until Thom died in 1979, although they had separated several years earlier. Perkins later had a long relationship with actor Richard Bradford until he died in 2016.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, offered by Les Carbones Korès "Carboplane", no. 944. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Millie Perkins in The Diary of Anne Frank (George Stevens, 1959).


Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 847.


West German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 4546. Photo: Ufa.


German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. 358. Photo: Centfox / Filmpress Zürich.

Sources: I.S. Mowis (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.