Alley Mills

Allison (Alley) Mills was born on May 9, 1951 in Chicago, Illinois. Her father is television executive, Ted Mills. Mills was just eight years old when she had her first television role on The Patty Page Show. She attended Bennington College in Vermont, then transferred to Yale, and later went to London to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Mills continued her acting career in New York City, where she found work in off-Broadway plays. She eventually made the move to Los Angeles, where she got some smaller parts and roles in TV-movies. She won some recognition in 1982 starring as drama teacher Sara Conover on the sitcom Making the Grade. She did a brief guest stint on Hill Street Blues among other shows, and the got the role she is most famous for, playing Norma Arnold on the popular coming-of-age sitcom, The Wonder Years. After that show ended she played Dr. Quinn’s sister, Marjorie, on the drama, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. She continues to work in television and in theater, most recently on the daytime drama, The Bold and the Beautiful.

Mills is married to actor Orson Bean.