Kelly McGillis

Kelly McGillis (born July 9, 1957) is an American stage and screen actress widely known for her film roles, such as Rachel Lapp in Witness (1985) with Harrison Ford, for which she received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations; Charlie in Top Gun (1986) with Tom Cruise, and Kathryn Murphy in The Accused (1988) with Jodie Foster.[1]

Kelly McGillis
Born
Kelly Ann McGillis

(1957-07-09) July 9, 1957
Newport Beach, California, U.S.
EducationAllan Hancock College
Juilliard School (BFA)
Occupation
Years active1976–present
Notable work
Filmography
Spouse(s)
Boyd Black
​
(
m. 1979; div. 1981)

Fred Tillman
​
(
m. 1989; div. 2002)
Partner(s)Melanie Leis (2010–2011) civil union, annulled
Children2

Early life

McGillis was born July 9, 1957, in Newport Beach, California, the daughter of Virginia Joan (née Snell), a homemaker, and Dr. Donald Manson McGillis, a doctor.[2][3] McGillis is of Scots-Irish descent from her father's side, and German from her mother, and Welsh also.[4] She attended Newport Harbor High School.

McGillis was raised in Los Angeles, and attended the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, California.[5] After getting her GED after dropping out of high school in 1975, she moved to New York City to study acting at the Juilliard School,[6] where she graduated in 1983, Group 12.[5][7]

Career

Film

After making her film debut in Reuben, Reuben[8] in 1983, McGillis' breakout role was that of an Amish mother in Witness (1985) with Harrison Ford, for which she received Golden Globe and BAFTA award nominations. Her next high-profile role was that of flight instructor Charlotte Blackwood (call sign "Charlie") in the 1986 fighter-pilot film Top Gun with Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer.[9]

In 1987, McGillis acted in the fantasy-comedy film Made in Heaven, directed by Alan Rudolph, which was produced by Lorimar Productions. The film also co-stars Oscar winner Timothy Hutton.[10]

McGillis played the part of caretaker for Miss Venable (Jessica Tandy) in 1988's The House on Carroll Street, which also starred Jeff Daniels. She overhears a suspicious conversation in the house next door and suspects that she's stumbled on a conspiracy to smuggle Nazi war criminals into the United States.

After 1988's The Accused, she appeared in Cat Chaser with Peter Weller, a film she despised and which discouraged her from pursuing an acting career.[11][12] McGillis appeared in dozens of television and film roles throughout the 1990s before taking a break from acting for a few years.

McGillis played the part of Babe Ruth's second wife, Claire Merritt Ruth, in The Babe (1992). From the late 1980s to the mid 1990s, McGillis appeared in Winter People (1989), and North (1994), her 2nd Amish part in television or film, as well as several made-for-TV films.

In 1999, McGillis co-starred with Val Kilmer (who plays Virgil, a blind man), for a second time as his over protective sister in At First Sight.[13]

She played the suspect in the disappearance of a young woman starring Susie Porter in The Monkey's Mask, an international lesbian cult film from 2000. The film is based on the verse novel of the same name by Australian poet Dorothy Porter.[14]

Television

McGillis' early television roles included a part on the daytime soap One Life to Live in 1984.

She also starred in television movies with Alec Baldwin in 1984's Sweet Revenge, which was re-titled at some point.

Other television films during the 1980s included Private Sessions in 1985, and as a narrator in Santabear's First Christmas. She also narrated the documentary Out of Ireland for PBS in 1995.

Stage

While at Juilliard she performed in William Congreve's Love for Love, directed by John Bletchley.[15] She appeared in a couple of off-broadway and Broadway theater productions during the 1980s in New York City.

During the late 1980s[16] and through the mid 2000s, McGillis was a featured actress at the prestigious Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington DC.[17] In 2002, she appeared in production of John Webber's play "The Duchess of Malfi" at the Shakespeare Theatre, Washington, DC.

In 2004, she appeared in the stage play The Graduate as Mrs. Robinson, touring the United States.[18] McGillis starred in a Pasadena Playhouse stage production of The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman in May 2009, co-starring with Julia Duffy.[19]

Her stage work includes: Don Juan (1982), The Sea Gull (1985), Peccadillo (1985), The Merchant Of Venice (1988), Twelfth Night (1989), Mary Stuart (1990), The Merry Wives of Windsor (1990), Hedda Gabler (1994), Mourning Becomes Electra (1997), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999), Measure for Measure (1999) and The Graduate (2004), together with additional roles in Love for Love, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Three Sisters and The Winter's Tale.

She also appeared in a production of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune by Terrence McNally, which toured the United Kingdom in 2010.[20]

Return to film and TV

Upcoming

McGillis has been cast in the lead in the biographical film Annie Cook,[29] and also filmed Mother of All Secrets in early 2017 in Bermuda, and that trailer has already been released.[30][31]

Personal life

McGillis married fellow Juilliard student Boyd Black in 1979, but the couple divorced in 1981.[32] She married Fred Tillman in 1989, and they have two daughters.[33] The couple divorced in 2002.

In 1982, McGillis was raped by two men in her New York apartment. The pair took turns to assault and stab her, as well as spit on her. Leroy Johnson, who was 15 years old at the time, was sentenced to three years in prison. The other man had all charges dropped through lack of corroborative evidence.[34]

McGillis came out as a lesbian in April 2009 during an interview with SheWired.[35][36] In 2010, McGillis entered into a civil union with Melanie Leis, a Philadelphia sales executive; she and McGillis met in 2000 when Leis was a bartender at Kelly's Caribbean Bar Grill & Brewery[37] in Key West, Florida,[38] which McGillis owned with her then-husband Fred Tillman.[39] They sold the restaurant in June 2017. Leis and McGillis broke up in 2011.

McGillis worked full-time with drug addicts and alcoholics at Seabrook House Drug Alcohol Rehab Center, a rehabilitation center in Bridgeton, New Jersey, when she and Leis shared a home in Collingswood.[40]

McGillis currently lives in Hendersonville, North Carolina. She teaches acting at The New York Studio for Stage and Screen NYS3 in Asheville, North Carolina.[41]

June 2016 home invasion

McGillis was left scratched and bruised after being reportedly assaulted by a woman who broke into her North Carolina home on June 17, 2016.[42] She said the attack, as well as others she has experienced in the past, led her to apply for a concealed carry gun permit to protect herself. Following the incident, a 38-year-old woman, Laurence Marie Dorn, was charged with second-degree burglary, misdemeanor larceny, misdemeanor stalking, assault and battery, and interfering with emergency communication.[42] Dorn was later convicted of misdemeanor breaking and entering.[43]

Filmography
Main article: Kelly McGillis filmography

Awards and nominations
Year Association Category Nominated work Result
1986 Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture Witness Nominated
1986 BAFTA Award Best Actress Witness Nominated
1986 Bravo Otto Best Actress Top Gun Won
1987 Bravo Otto Best Actress Made in Heaven Won
1987 Golden Ciak Best Actress Made in Heaven Won
1988 Bravo Otto Best Actress The Accused Bronze
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gollark: Ooh, or the krist API client.

References
  1. "Cover Story: Memoir of a Brief Time in Hell – Vol. 30 No. 20". PEOPLE.com. November 14, 1988. Archived from the original on September 6, 2017. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
  2. "Kelly McGillis Biography (1957-)". filmreference.com. Archived from the original on May 14, 2008. Retrieved January 27, 2008.
  3. "Miss Snell Picks Date". Los Angeles Times. December 10, 1955. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved September 29, 2018.
  4. Kelly McGillis 'Out Of Ireland' - PBS
  5. Stark, John (February 18, 1985). "Kelly McGillis Plays the Amish Love of Harrison Ford in Witness—and Kisses Waitressing Goodbye". People. Archived from the original on November 20, 2012. Retrieved April 13, 2012.
  6. McGillis, Kelly (November 14, 1988). "Memoir of a Brief Time in Hell". People. Archived from the original on April 23, 2012. Retrieved April 13, 2012.
  7. Cruz, Alicia (May 23, 2011). "'Top Gun' actress Kelly McGillis working for N.J. rehab, enjoying life". NewJerseyNewsRoom.com. Archived from the original on February 12, 2013.
  8. Simpson, Paul (May 26, 2011). "Movie Lists: 397 Ways to Pick a DVD". Profile Books. Archived from the original on July 28, 2018. Retrieved July 28, 2018 – via Google Books.
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  10. Ebert, Roger. "Made in Heaven Movie Review & Film Summary (1987) | Roger Ebert". www.rogerebert.com. Archived from the original on June 30, 2017. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
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  12. Davis, Steven Paul (2001). The A-Z of Cult Films and Film-makers. Batsford. ISBN 978-0-7134-8704-6.
  13. "Val Kilmer - At First Sight - Interview with Mr. Showbiz". December 21, 2005. Archived from the original on December 21, 2005. Retrieved June 4, 2017.
  14. Scott, A. O. (July 27, 2001). "FILM IN REVIEW; 'The Monkey's Mask'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on March 16, 2016. Retrieved June 4, 2017.
  15. Stotsky 2000, p. 262.
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  43. LaVorgna, Brandon (May 17, 2017). "Jury convicts woman for breaking into Top Gun actress's home". Fox Carolina. Archived from the original on June 20, 2018. Retrieved September 29, 2018.
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