Kelly McGillis

Kelly McGillis
McGillis at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival
Born	Kelly Ann McGillis (1957-07-09) July 9, 1957 Newport Beach, California, U.S.
Alma mater	Juilliard School Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts
Occupation	Actress, producer, teacher, restaurateur
Years active	1983–present
Employer	NYS3: The Meisner Acting Conservatory for the Southeast
Notable work	Witness (1985 film) Top Gun Made in Heaven (1987 film) The Accused (1988 film)
Spouse(s)	Boyd Black (m. 1979; div. 1981) Fred Tillman (m. 1989; div. 2002)
Partner(s)	Melanie Leis (2010–2011) civil union
Children	2
Website	Kelly's Caribbean Bar, Grill and Brewery

Kelly Ann McGillis (born July 9, 1957)^[1] is an American actress. She has found fame for her acting roles in several films since the 1980s including: her role as Rachel Lapp in Witness (1985) with Harrison Ford, for which she received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations, the role of Charlie in the huge blockbuster hit Top Gun (1986) with Tom Cruise, and the role of attorney Kathryn Murphy in The Accused (1988), with Jodie Foster.

Early life

Kelly 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 general practitioner of medicine.^[2][3]

McGillis was raised in Los Angeles, and attended the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Santa Maria, California.^[4] After graduating from high school in 1975, she moved to New York City to study acting at the Juilliard School,^[5] where she graduated in 1983.^[4][6] While at Juilliard she performed in William Congreve's Love for Love, directed by John Bletchley.^[7]

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.^[8][9] McGillis appeared in dozens of television and film roles throughout the 1990s before taking a break from acting for a few years.

In 1992, Ms. McGillis plays a Ziegfeld Follies showgirl who becomes Babe Ruth's (played by John Goodman) second wife. She prepared for the role by reading Billie Burke's autobiography about her career with the Follies, "With a Feather on My Nose".^[10]

Since her graduation, McGillis has performed live theatre, including classics by Chekov, Shaw, Ibsen, Shakespeare and O’Neill. She has often appeared in starring roles with the Shakespeare Theatre Company of Washington, DC.^[11]

In 2004, she appeared in the stage play The Graduate as Mrs. Robinson, touring the United States.^[12] 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.^[13] McGillis starred in a Pasadena Playhouse stage production of Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman in May 2009, co-starring with Julia Duffy.^[14]

She had a role in the 2010 vampire film Stake Land,^[15] directed by Jim Mickle.^[16] She stars alongside Nick Damici, Connor Paolo and Danielle Harris.^[17] McGillis was featured in a breast cancer docu-drama titled 1 a Minute, released in 2010.^[18]

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.^[19] She starred in Ti West's 2011 thriller The Innkeepers.^[20]

Personal life

McGillis married fellow Juilliard student Boyd Black in 1979, but the couple divorced in 1981.^[21]

In February 1982, McGillis and her live-in girlfriend were assaulted, verbally abused, and raped at knifepoint by two men who broke into their New York apartment. This experience encouraged the actress to pursue her film role as the lawyer who supports Jodie Foster's character in The Accused.^[22]

McGillis married Fred Tillman in 1989, and they have two daughters. The couple divorced in 2002.^[23]

McGillis came out as a lesbian in April 2009 during an interview with SheWired.^[24][25] 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 with the aforementioned rape incident.^[24][25] In 2010, 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 "Kellys' Caribbean Bar Grill & Brewery" in Key West, Florida, which McGillis owned with her then-husband Fred Tillman.^[26] 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.^[27]

McGillis currently lives in Hendersonville, North Carolina. She teaches acting at The New York Studio for Stage and Screen NYS3 in Asheville, North Carolina.^[28]

McGillis was reportedly assaulted by a stranger who broke into her North Carolina home on June 17, 2016.^[29] She said the attack, as well as others she has experienced in the past, has led her to decide to apply for a concealed carry gun permit to protect herself.^[30]

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

References

Bibliography

• Stotsky, Sandra (2000). What's at Stake in the K-12 Standards Wars. Peter Lang International Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-0-82044-490-1. 

External links

• Kelly's Caribbean Bar, Grill and Brewery
• Kelly McGillis at the Internet Movie Database
• Kelly McGillis at the Internet Broadway Database