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This leading lady’s first two film appearances, as the love interest to a drunken writer in “Reuben, Reuben” (1982) and the soft-spoken Amish widow in “Witness” (1985), displayed a promising mix of talent and earthy beauty. Kelly McGillis’ career, however, stumbled a bit after playing Tom Cruise’s love interest in “Top Gun” (1986) as her forays into straightforwardly glamorous roles have earned relatively lukewarm critical responses.

McGillis dropped out of high school to pursue a career as an actor and eventually attended Juilliard in Manhattan. She understudied the role of Dona Elvire in a New York Shakespeare Festival production of “Don Juan” but had little other professional experience when director Robert Ellis Miller “discovered” her and cast her opposite Tom Conti in “Reuben, Reuben”. Notices were good, and McGillis then moved to “Witness” and “Top Gun.” (In the latter, her 5′10″ height was quite evident as she stood next to the shorter Tom Cruise.) Attempts to put her in the position to carry a picture resulted in “Made in Heaven” (1986), in which McGillis was matched with Timothy Hutton as the as-yet-unborn beauty he meets in heaven, who is yet unborn, and “The House on Carroll Street” (1988), in which McGillis was a blacklisting victim who stumbles on an espionage plot. Both films were box office disappointments. “The Accused” (1988) had McGillis as the assistant district attorney who is moved to put three rapists behind bars by the pathos of Jodie Foster, but it was Foster who got the reviews–and the Oscar. McGillis then did “Winter People” (1989), an Ozark-based Sturm und Drang, which also flopped. In 1991, she produced the film “The Awakening”, which did not receive wide-spread release, and the following year played the woman who marries and tries to tame John Goodman’s “The Babe”. McGillis joined “Witness” co-star Alexander Godunov in reprising their characters in a brief, amusing cameo for “North” (1994).

McGillis appeared in her first TV-movie in 1984, playing a sister who seeks to punish her sister’s tormentor in “Sweet Revenge” (CBS). She followed with “Private Sessions” (NBC, 1985), a busted pilot. In 1993, McGillis played a woman in love with a retarded man in “Bonds of Love” (CBS) and in the 1994 CBS miniseries “In the Best of Families: Marriage, Pride and Madness”, she was a woman obsessed with destroying her ex-husband.

McGillis’ theater career was interrupted by “Reuben, Reuben”, but she returned to the stage in 1988 playing Portia in the Folger Shakespeare Theatre production of “The Merchant of Venice.” She has since continued an association with that company, appearing in “Twelfth Night”, “Mary Stuart” and “Measure for Measure”, among others. In 1994, McGillis made her Broadway debut in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of “Hedda Gabler”.

• Also Credited As:
  Kelly McGillis
• Born:
  on 07/09/1957 in Newport Beach, California
• Job Titles:
  Actor, Restaurateur

Education

• The Juilliard School, New York, New York, drama
• Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, California

Milestones

• 1982 Was victim of rape in her Manhattan apartment; one of the two rapists went to prison for the crime; also was understudy for role of Dona Elvire for New York Shakespeare Festival production of “Don Juan”
• 1983 Made feature film debut in “Reuben, Reuben”
• 1984 Made TV-movie debut in “Sweet Revenge”
• 1985 Had breakthrough role opposite Harrison Ford in “Witness”
• 1986 Starred with Tom Cruise in “Top Gun”
• 1991 Produced and starred in “The Awakening”
• 1994 Made Broadway debut in a revival of “Hedda Gabler”
• 1994 Made miniseries debut in “In the Best of Families: Marriage, Pride and Madness”
• 1999 Had supporting role of Val Kilmer’s sister in “At First Sight”
• 2000 Cast as a lesbian in the thriller “The Monkey’s Mask”
• Won first acting award for “The Serpent” (high school production) at age 15