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Kelly McGillis
Age: 52
Height: 5' 10"
Birth Place: Newport Beach, California, USA
Born: Jul. 9th, 1957
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Kelly McGillis' Main TV Roles
NOTE: Complete List of Works can be found at
IMDB
BIOGRAPHY: Kelly McGillis was born in Newport Beach, California to Joan, a homemaker, and Donald McGillis, a general practitioner of medicine. She decided to drop out of high school to pursue a career as an actor and eventually attended Juilliard in Manhattan and Pacific Conservatory of Performing Arts, Santa Monica.
Primarily waiting tables and other petty jobs, McGillis was a novice in acting, only doing a few stage roles when she managed to win a supporting role in the Academy Award nominated film Reuben, Reuben (1983). This led to work on numerous TV projects and a lead role opposite Harrison Ford (I) in the highly acclaimed thriller Witness (1985). This box office hit, directed by Peter Weir got her noticed around Hollywood and movie producers took note of her. One of the producers was Jerry Bruckheimer who cast her in the highly recognized and career breakthrough in McGillis' career, Charlie Blackwood in Top Gun (1986) which became the highest grossing film of the year.
Ironically, her breakthrough role didn't help her career in terms of high profile work. She did however managed to play Kathryn Murphy in The Accused (1988) with Jodie Foster whom won an Academy Award for her role, but unfortunately for McGillis she was overlooked for any major nomination. Never interested in being box office gold, McGillis remained loyal to the theater, even after establishing herself in her heyday of the mid to late 1980s, portraying various roles in numerous Shakespearean productions including 'The Merchant of Venice', 'Don Juan', 'Twelfth Night', 'The Merry Wives of Windsor', 'Mourning Becomes Electra' and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. In 1994, she scored the title role of Broadway's 'Hedda Gabler' but unfortunately only played for 33 public performances.
Having two daughters born in the early '90s, McGillis worked more sporadically on TV and film so she could spend time with her family and owned her own restaurant in Florida. She worked on Winter People (1989), Cat Chaser (1989), The Babe (1992),North (1994), At First Sight (1999) and The Monkey's Mask (2000) as well as a string of made for prime time TV films.
Recently she completed a national stage tour of 'The Graduate' portraying the infamous Mrs. Robinson, she continues to act as she begins study on Addiction Studies and looking after her children in Pennsylvania, USA.
TRIVIA:
- Is also a professional counselor, primarily concerning substance abuse.
- Has two daughters: Kelsey Lauren (b. May 24th 1990) and Sonora Ashley (b. April 10th 1993).
- Daughter of Joan, a homemaker, and Donald, a general practitioner of medicine.
- Sisters: Karen (b. July 1959) and Kathleen (b. August 1961).
- Claimed that she was a lonely, overweight adolescent.
- Kelly McGillis actually had to return to employment waiting tables after having been a prominent character in an Oscar nominated film (her first movie, Reuben Reuben).
- Listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1984" in John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 36.
- Wanted to play the role of "Kathryn Murphy", the district attorney in _The Accused (1988)_ (qv), because she and her roommate were assaulted and raped by two men in their apartment in 1982.
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