Biography
Teenaged model Millie Perkins was brought to Hollywood in a torrent of publicity when she was selected over hundreds of other applicants to play the starring role in
George Stevens' 1959 filmization of
Diary of Anne Frank. A 20th Century Fox contract resulted from this auspicious debut, but
Diary remained her career high point. Periodically retiring from films in the 1960s, Perkins was briefly brought back before the cameras for 1968's
Wild in the Streets, which was scripted by her second husband, Robert Thom, (her first was
Dean Stockwell). Millie Perkins continued to make sporadic film appearances into the 1990s, notably as
Charlie Sheen's mother in
Wall Street (1987); she also played the mother of
Elvis Presley (with whom she co-starred in 1961's
Wild in the Country) on the 1990 TV series
Elvis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide