Kelly McGillis Biography

Kelly Ann McGillis (born July 9, 1957) is an American actress. She found fame for her roles in several films throughout the 1980s including her roles as Rachel Lapp in Witness (1985) for which she received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations, Charlie in Top Gun (1986) and Kathryn Murphy in The Accused (1988). After her appearance in Cat Chaser (1989), she was discouraged from acting and took a break for a few years.

Early life and education

McGillis was born in Newport Beach, California, the daughter of Virginia Joan (née Snell), a homemaker, and Donald Manson McGillis, a general practitioner of medicine.

She attended the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Santa Maria, California. In 1979, she moved to New York City to study acting at the Juilliard School, where she graduated in 1983. While at Juilliard she performed in William Congreve's Love for Love, directed by John Blatchley.

Career

Her breakout role was that of an Amish mother in the 1985 film Witness with Harrison Ford, for which she received Golden Globe and BAFTA award nominations. Her next high profile role was that of flight instructor Charlie in the 1986 fighter-pilot film Top Gun with Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer. 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. McGillis appeared in dozens of television and film roles throughout the 1990s before taking a break from acting for a few years.

In 2004, she appeared in the stage play The Graduate as Mrs. Robinson, touring the United States. She began working in television again in 2006, then in 2007, she joined the cast of Showtime's The L Word for its fifth season. McGillis starred in a Pasadena Playhouse stage production of Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman in May 2009, co-starring with Julia Duffy.

She had a role in the 2010 vampire film Stake Land, directed by Jim Mickle. She stars alongside Nick Damici, Connor Paolo and Danielle Harris. McGillis was featured in a breast cancer docu-drama titled 1 a Minute, released in 2010. 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. She starred in Ti West's 2011 thriller The Innkeepers.

Personal life

McGillis married Boyd Black in 1979, divorcing in 1981.

She and a female friend were assaulted, bombarded with racial slurs, and raped in February of 1982 at knifepoint by two men who broke into her New York Apartment. One of the rapists was 15-year-old Leroy Johnson, a young boy on the run from juvenile detention. This experience encouraged the actress to pursue her film role as the lawyer who supports Jodie Foster's character in The Accused.

She married Fred Tillman in 1989, and they had two daughters: Kelsey and Sonora. The couple divorced in 2002. She also has two grandchildren.

She came out as a lesbian in April 2009 during an interview with SheWired.com, an LGBT-oriented web site. McGillis said that coming to terms with her sexual orientation has been an ongoing process since age 12, and she was long convinced that God was punishing her for being homosexual. In 2010, Kelly McGillis entered into a civil union with Melanie Leis, a Philadelphia based sales executive; she and McGillis met in 2000 when Leis was a bartender at the restaurant she owned with her then-husband.

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.

McGillis lives in North Carolina, where she teaches acting at The New York Studio for Stage & Screen in Asheville. She lives with her partner Lynn Bennett, who works at Pavillon International, a rehab facility in Mill Spring, NC.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983	Reuben, Reuben	Geneva Spofford
1985	Witness	Rachel
1986	Top Gun	Charlie
1987	Unsettled Land	Anda
1987	Made in Heaven	Annie Packert / Ally Chandler
1988	'	Emily
1988	'	Kathryn Murphy
1989	Rabbit Ears: Thumbelina	Storyteller	Video short
1989	Winter People	Collie Wright
1989	Cat Chaser	Mary DeBoya
1991	Grand Isle	Edna Pontellier
1992	'	Claire Hodgson Ruth
1994	North	Amish Mom
1998	Painted Angels	Nettie
1998	Ground Control	Susan Stratton
1999	At First Sight	Jennie Adamson
1999	'	Ellie / Fake Barbara
2000	'	Prof. Diana Maitland
2001	No One Can Hear You	Trish Burchall
2001	Morgan's Ferry	Vonnie Carpenter
2007	Supergator	Kim Taft	Video
2010	Stake Land	Sister
2011	What Could Have Been	Margaret
2011	'	Leanne Rease-Jones
2013	We Are What We Are	Marge
2013	Tio Papi	Elizabeth Warden
2013	Grand Street	Isabelle	Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	Sweet Revenge	Katherine Dennison Breen	TV film
1984	One Life to Live	Glenda Livingston	TV series
1985	Live from the Lincoln Center	Host	Episode: "Juilliard at 80"
1985	Private Sessions	Jennifer Coles	TV film
1986	Santabear's First Christmas	Narrator (voice)	TV film
1987	Santabear's High Flying Adventure	Missy Bear (voice)	TV short
1992	Perry Mason: The Case of the Fatal Framing	Mrs. Winston Hope	TV film
1993	Bonds of Love	Rose Parks	TV film
1994	In the Best of Families: Marriage, Pride & Madness	Susie Lynch	TV film
1995	Dark Eyes	Mila McGann	Episode: "Pilot"
1995	Remember Me	Menly Nichols	TV film
1996	We the Jury	Alyce Bell	TV film
1997	'	Dr. Jean "Jeannie" Ferrami	TV film
1998	Storm Chasers: Revenge of the Twister	Jamie Marshall	TV film
1998	Perfect Prey	Audrey Macleah	TV film
2000	'	Winema (voice)	Episode: "Pack of Thornberrys"
2000	'	Nicole Whitley	Episode: "Final Appeal"
2000	Buzz Lightyear of Star Command	Gorgeous Woman (voice)	Episode: "Planet of the Lost"
2006	Cold Shoulder		TV film
2006	Black Widower	Nancy Westveld	TV film
2008	'	Col. Gillian Davis	Episodes: "Lesbians Gone Wild", "Lay Down the Law"
2014	Love Finds You in Sugarcreek, Ohio	Bertha Troyer	TV film (filming)