Kelly McGillis (born July 9, 1957) is an American actress, whose notable movies include Witness (for which she received a Golden Globe nomination), Top Gun, and The Accused.

Biography

Kelly attended the Juilliard School's Drama Division, where she performed in William Congreve's "Love for Love", directed by John Blatchley. She graduated in 1983 and began landing acting roles shortly thereafter. Her breakout role was that of an Amish mother in the movie Witness with Harrison Ford, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe award. Her next high profile role was that of flight instructor, Charlie, in the 1986 fighter-pilot movie Top Gun with Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer. After 1988's The Accused, Kelly appeared in dozens of television and movie roles throughout the 1990s and then took a break from television and film for a few years. In 2004, she appeared in the stage play The Graduate as Mrs. Robinson, touring the United States. In 2006, she began working in television again, and then in 2007 she joined the cast of Showtime's The L Word for its fifth season.

From May 22 through June 28th, Ms. Kelly can be seen on stage at the Pasadena Playhouse in California, performing the lead role of Regina in the Lillian Hellman play "The Little Foxes".

Kelly was born in Newport Beach, California, the daughter of Joan (née Snell), a homemaker, and Donald McGillis, a general practitioner of medicine. Kelly McGillis married Boyd Black in 1979, divorcing in 1981. She married Fred Tillman in 1989, and they had two daughters: Kelsey and Sonora. The couple divorced in 2002 and she is currently single. Kelly McGillis and her daughter Sonora live in Mohnton, Pennsylvania.

In 1982, Kelly was assaulted and raped in her home by the escaped rapist Leroy Johnson after Kelly came home from work. This experience encouraged the actress to pursue her film role as the lawyer who supports Jodie Foster's character in The Accused. Kelly was originally approached for the role of the rape victim in that film. She turned it down, feeling it would be too close to her real life ordeal. The part eventually went to Jodie Foster, who won an Oscar for her performance.

Kelly had once owned Kelly's, a restaurant in Key West, Florida, that she and her ex-husband founded. Although the restaurant is still open, she says she is "no longer a part of that restaurant at all," since her second divorce, according to a 2006 TV interview on "Good Day Sacramento".

McGillis, long rumored to be a lesbian, came out in April 2009 during an interview with SheWired.com, an LGBT-oriented web site. She 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 gay.

This Kelly McGillis Biography Page is Copyright © 2004 - 2009 Chuck Ayoub