Michelle Phillips | |
|---|---|
 Phillips in 1977 | |
| Born | Holly Michelle Gilliam (1944-06-04)June 4, 1944 (age 81) Long Beach, California, U.S. |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1965–present |
| Spouses | |
| Partners |
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| Children | 3, includingChynna Phillips |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | |
| Instrument | Vocals |
| Labels | A&M |
| Formerly of | The Mamas & the Papas |
Musical artist | |
| Signature | |
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Holly Michelle Phillips (néeGilliam; born June 4, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Described byTime magazine as the "purestsoprano in pop music",[1] she rose to fame in the mid-1960s with thefolk rock vocal groupthe Mamas & the Papas. After their disbandment, she started a successful acting career in film and television in the 1970s.
A native ofLong Beach, California, she spent her early life in Los Angeles and Mexico City, raised by her widowed father. While working as a model inSan Francisco, she met and marriedJohn Phillips in 1962 and went on to co-found the Mamas & the Papas in 1965. The band rose to fame with their popular singles "California Dreamin' " and "Creeque Alley", both of which she co-wrote. They released five studio albums before their dissolution in 1970. While married to John Phillips, she gave birth to their daughter, singerChynna Phillips. Michelle Phillips is the last surviving original member of the band.
After the breakup of the Mamas & the Papas and her divorce from John Phillips, she transitioned into acting, appearing in a supporting part inThe Last Movie (1971) before being cast asBillie Frechette in the critically acclaimed crime biopicDillinger (1973), for which she was nominated for aGolden Globe Award forMost Promising Newcomer. In 1974, she had lead roles in two television films: the crime featureThe Death Squad, and the teen dramaThe California Kid, in the latter of which she starred oppositeMartin Sheen. She went on to appear in a number of films throughout the remainder of the 1970s, includingKen Russell'sValentino (1977), playingNatacha Rambova, and the thrillerBloodline (1979). She released her only solo album,Victim of Romance, in 1977.
Phillips's first film of the 1980s was the comedyThe Man with Bogart's Face (1980). The next year she co-starred withTom Skerritt in the nature-themed horrorSavage Harvest (1981), followed by the television filmsSecrets of a Married Man (1984) andThe Covenant (1985). In 1987, she joined the seriesKnots Landing, portraying Anne Matheson, the mother of Paige Matheson (portrayed byNicollette Sheridan), until the series's 1993 conclusion.
Phillips later had supporting roles in the comedy filmLet It Ride (1989) and the psychological thrillerScissors (1991). In 1998, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Mamas & the Papas. Phillips appeared in independent films in the 2000s, with supporting parts inJane White Is Sick and Twisted (2002) andKids in America (2005) and had recurring guest roles in the television seriesThat's Life (2001–2002) and7th Heaven (2001–2004).
Phillips was born Holly Michelle Gilliam on June 4, 1944, inLong Beach, California, the second child of Joyce Leone (née Poole),[2][3] a Canadian-born accountant, and Gardner Burnett Gilliam,[4] a merchant mariner fromSan Diego.[4][5] She had one older sister, Russell Ann.[5][6] Phillips's paternal grandfather, Marcus Gilliam, was fromWalla Walla, Washington,[7] and worked as a miner and hotelier inErie, British Columbia.[8]Gilliam County, Oregon, takes its name from her paternal ancestors.[8] Her mother suffered heart problems stemming from a childhood bout withrheumatic fever, includingsubacute endocarditis,[9] and died of a relatedIntracerebral hemorrhage when Phillips was five years old.[10] Reflecting on her mother's illness, Phillips said: "They knew it was only a matter of time ... She would lie on the couch in the evenings, listening as my father read to her. One night, after my sister and I had been put to bed, my mother just raised her head, fell unconscious on the couch, and that was it."[9]
Following his wife's death, Phillips's father, wanting a change of scenery, relocated the family toBuffalo, New York, where they lived for nine months while he worked as a bartender.[11] They subsequently returned to California, settling inPasadena.[12] In June 1951, two days after Phillips's seventh birthday, the family relocated again toMexico City, where her father had enrolled to study sociology on theGI Bill atMexico City College.[13] Phillips spent the following six years in Mexico, where she attended public schools and became fluent in Spanish.[14] Throughout her childhood, Spanish remained Phillips's primary written language, though she later learned to write in English.[15] She resided with her father and sister in theRoma Sur district ofCuauhtémoc.[15] Phillips recalled that her and her sister's experiences living in a different culture "helped us get over my mother's death, and instead of grieving, we became very strong, independent, and free".[15]
At the age of 13, Phillips returned to the United States with her father and sister, settling again in Los Angeles.[10] There, she became a childhood friend ofSue Lyon.[16] Phillips attended several high schools in Los Angeles, includingAlexander Hamilton High School[17] andMarshall High School.[18] While a student, Phillips played several sports and studied piano, guitar, and cello.[10] During hersophomore year, after being caught skipping classes and subsequently forging absence permission slips, Phillips was expelled from Marshall High School[19] and transferred toEagle Rock High School.[19]
In mid-1961, at age 17, Phillips relocated toSan Francisco to live with her friend Tamar Hodel and began working as a model.[20] She appeared in a billboard advertisement forLucky Lager beer and in print ads forCole bathing suits.[21] Phillips quickly became immersed in San Francisco's countercultural music scene and nightlife, recalling: "Tamar and I loved going out and showing off. We had a friend, Eddie, Tamar's hairdresser, who was a flaming homosexual and proud of it. Remember that this was early for gays to be obvious. Eddie was the first I knew and loved who was blatant. He loved to do our hair and make my face up and dress me ... We didn't always have a lot of money, but I only once went to bed hungry."[22] At a club in San Francisco in July 1961, she metJohn Phillips while he was touring California with his bandthe Journeymen, and the two began a whirlwind romance.[23] He divorced his first wife and married Michelle on December 31, 1962, when she was 18 years old.[24]
The Phillips newlyweds relocated to New York City, where they began writing songs together[20] and formed the Mamas and the Papas in 1965.[25] Michelle co-wrote some of the band's hits, including "California Dreamin'", which appears on the group's debut album,If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears (1966).
Recording of the Mamas and the Papas' second album, titledThe Mamas and the Papas (1966) was interrupted when Michelle Phillips's affair withGene Clark ofthe Byrds was revealed.[26][27] An affair the previous year between Phillips and bandmateDenny Doherty[28] had been forgiven; Doherty and John Phillips had reconciled and ostensibly written "I Saw Her Again" (1966) about the episode,[29][30] although they later disagreed about how much Doherty had contributed to the song.[31] This time, John Phillips was determined to fire his wife.[32] After consulting their attorney and record label, John Phillips, Cass Elliot, and Denny Doherty served Michelle Phillips with a letter expelling her from the group on June 4, 1966.[33] However, she was rehired on August 23 after the remaining band members concluded that her replacement,Jill Gibson,[34] lacked her predecessor's "stage charisma and grittier edge".[35][36] After Phillips's reinstatement, the band embarked on a brief tour of the East Coast, playing a series of shows in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and atFordham University in New York City.[37]
After returning to California and settling in Los Angeles, the group recorded their third album,The Mamas & The Papas Deliver (1967). In June 1967, Phillips performed with the group at theMonterey Pop Festival in Monterey, California, an event organized by John Phillips andLou Adler.[38] The festival also featured other prominent California-based counterculture musicians and psychedelic rock acts, includingJefferson Airplane,Big Brother and the Holding Company (featuringJanis Joplin) andJimi Hendrix. Recounting the experience, Phillips said: "[It was like] aRenaissance Fair. It was convenient for the artists and the audience. Practically everyone had a seat, and if not, people were lining up against the fence, and they could see and hear. Or people were sitting outside, you could hear it outside, too ... It was lovely."[39]
In August 1967, the band played what would be their final live performance at theHollywood Bowl.[40] Phillips would go on to record a fourth and final album with the band,The Papas & The Mamas (1968), before going on a hiatus. In February 1968, she gave birth to their daughter,Chynna Phillips, who later became a vocalist with the 1990s pop trioWilson Phillips.[41] Michelle and John, whose marriage was failing at the time, filed for divorce in a Los Angeles County court in May 1969.[42] The Mamas and the Papas officially disbanded in 1971 before the release of their final album,People Like Us, which was recorded to fulfill contract obligations with their record label.[43]
In 1969, while still a member of the Mamas and the Papas, Phillips acted inGram Parsons's science fiction filmSaturation 70 alongsideNudie Cohn,Anita Pallenberg, and Julian Jones, the five-year-old son ofRolling Stones guitaristBrian Jones.[44] The film was never finished, and became alost film.[44] The following year, after the breakup of the Mamas and the Papas, she enrolled in acting classes in Los Angeles and has said that she had intended to start her acting career "from scratch", stating that the royalties from the band's records provided her a sustained income while she began to venture into film.[43] She studied acting withPeggy Feury.[45]
Phillips's first film role came inDennis Hopper's filmThe Last Movie (1971), in a minor part; she and Hopper married on October 31, 1970,[46] shortly after the production, but the union lasted only eight days.[47] Two years later, she was cast in a lead role in the thriller filmDillinger (1973) asJohn Dillinger's girlfriend,Billie Frechette. Phillips claimed she got cast by pretending to be halfCherokee, like her character.[48] The film was critically acclaimed, andVariety said of her performance: "Phillips, making her film bow after having been a member of the Mamas & the Papas singing group, scores heavily as Dillinger's girlfriend",[49] while theNew York Times noted it as "mildly effective".[50] Phillips was nominated for aGolden Globe Award forMost Promising Newcomer for her performance.[51] Reflecting on the film, Phillips said: "I was so lucky to have been surrounded by really great actors. Everybody in that movie was a real actor:Warren Oates,Ben Johnson,Cloris Leachman,Richard Dreyfuss,Harry Dean Stanton. It was just a wonderful, wonderful experience for me and I had so much support and so much help and so much encouragement. That was really my first movie. Dennis' movie [The Last Movie] was a lot of improvisation and craziness."[52] Phillips remained a lifelong friend of co-star Stanton.[53]
That same year, Phillips recorded vocals as a cheerleader along withDarlene Love for theCheech & Chong singleBasketball Jones, which peaked at No 15 on theBillboard singles chart. In 1974, she was featured in the action-horror television filmThe California Kid oppositeMartin Sheen. She had a cameo appearance in a party scene with then-boyfriendWarren Beatty inShampoo (1975).[54] She would later state that she considered Beatty the love of her life.[55] In 1975, Phillips signed a solo recording contract withA&M Records and released a promo single,Aloha Louie, a song she wrote with ex-husband John Phillips. Phillips released her first solo single in 1976, "No Love Today", which appeared on theMother, Jugs & Speed movie soundtrack.
In 1977, Phillips released her first and only solo album,Victim of Romance, produced byJack Nitzsche forA&M Records.[56] Commenting on the record, she said: "I didn't do it earlier because I never felt secure enough as a vocalist. I'm good, but Cass was always better." Phillips also commented on her involvement in its production, saying that she had been involved in "every aspect, from mixing to putting together the package and cover myself".[47] Her first two solo singles from the album failed to make the U.S. music charts. Concurrent with her solo album release, she sang backup vocals with former stepdaughterMackenzie Phillips onZulu Warrior for her ex-husband's second solo album,Pay Pack & Follow. Around the same time, she starred asRudolph Valentino's second wifeNatacha Rambova inKen Russell's filmValentino (1977). The film received mixed reviews, withTime Out London saying: "Structured as a series of flashbacks from Valentino's funeral to his early years in America, the first hour or so of this biopic is Russell's sanest and most controlled work in several years, despite its hollow cynicism."[57] The following year, Phillips married radio executive Robert Burch,[58] though their marriage ended in 1979.[59]
In 1979, she appeared in the film adaptation of theSidney Sheldon novelBloodline (1979), a thriller starringAudrey Hepburn andBen Gazzara. Released in June 1979,Bloodline received negative reviews from critics,[60] and Phillips's performance (along with those ofJames Mason andMaurice Ronet) was criticized byVariety as being "drab".[61] The same year, she recorded the songForever for the movie soundtrack ofCalifornia Dreaming, a surf film unrelated to her former group despite its title.
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Phillips's other film credits during this period include roles in the comedyThe Man with Bogart's Face (1980),[62] the nature horror filmSavage Harvest (1981), about a family being attacked by a pride of lions,[63] andAmerican Anthem (1986). On television, Phillips played themermaid princess Nyah in three episodes ofFantasy Island and Leora Van Treas inMike Hammer: Murder Takes All (1983), starringStacy Keach in the title role.[64] She appeared in TV miniseries such asAspen (1977) andThe French Atlantic Affair (1979).
During this time, Phillips began dating actorGrainger Hines; she gave birth to their son, Austin Deveraux Hines, on March 3, 1982.[65] The following year, she joined the cast ofHotel as the concierge, the daughter of hotel owner Victoria Cabot's rival, who plants his daughter as a spy to further his aim of acquiring control of the St. Gregory. Phillips continued to appear in the series until 1986.[66] She also had a leading role in the television horror filmThe Covenant (1985) oppositeJudy Parfitt andJosé Ferrer.[67] Her relationship with Hines ended in 1984.[68]
In 1986, Phillips wrote an autobiography,California Dreamin': The True Story of the Mamas and the Papas, released just weeks after her former husband's autobiography,Papa John.[69] In it, she describes events such as her first meeting withCass Elliot, winning 17 straight shoots at a craps table in San Juan, Puerto Rico when the band was broke and could not afford the airfare back to the United States mainland, and how her writing credit on "California Dreamin'", which still nets herroyalties, was "the best wake-up call" she ever had; she was asleep in a New York hotel room when husband John Phillips woke her to help him finish the new song that he was writing.[70]
Beginning in 1987, Phillips starred onKnots Landing as the constantly schemingAnne Matheson Sumner, the mother of starNicollette Sheridan's characterPaige Matheson, becoming a series regular in 1989.[45] Phillips continued to appear in the role until the series's 1993 conclusion.[66]
On December 2, 1987, Phillips was arrested inAmarillo, Texas, formarijuana possession after being pulled over for speeding.[71] Phillips was a passenger in the car with boyfriend Geoffrey Tozer, and the marijuana was discovered after police searched the couple's vehicle.[71] Phillips was booked and released on $500 bond.[72] Also in late 1987, Phillips sang backup vocals onBelinda Carlisle's studio albumHeaven on Earth, as well as its number-one single "Heaven Is a Place on Earth".[73] The following year, she appeared in theStar Trek: The Next Generation first-season episode "We'll Always Have Paris" as Jenice Manheim, wife of the scientist Paul Manheim.[74] Phillips and Tozer got engaged on February 29, 1988.[75] The couple took in Aron Wilson, a friend of her son Austin's, whom they legally adopted and raised.[76]
While starring onKnots Landing, Phillips continued to appear in films, including a supporting role in 1989's gambling-themedLet It Ride, co-starring withRichard Dreyfuss andTeri Garr, playing whatKevin Thomas of theLos Angeles Times characterized as a "deliciously blonde society tramp".[77] She had a supporting role in the thrillerScissors (1991), oppositeSharon Stone, playing the politician wife of a therapist treating a mentally unstable woman (Stone).[78] Next, she had a supporting role as the wife of a former race-car driver in the action thrillerJoshua Tree (1993), starringDolph Lundgren.[66]
Following the 1993 conclusion ofKnots Landing, Phillips starred in the short-lived drama seriesSecond Chances (1993–1994) oppositeConnie Sellecca andJennifer Lopez.[79] She also had the lead role in the 1993 television thriller filmRubdown, playing a woman at the center of a divorce plot in which her husband pays a masseur to have an affair with her.[80] Denise McIver ofVariety panned the film, writing: "The most disturbing thing about this two-hour cable telefilm is its cynicism and the fact that none of the characters seemed redeemed, or at least changed, by their experiences. This is not to say it won't hold one's interest, if only for the scenario, which delivers lots of bare backs, naked legs and superficially steamy sex scenes."[80] In late September 1993, Phillips and her friend Aloma Ichinose were robbed at gunpoint outside a restaurant inWest Hollywood, California.[81]
Phillips played Laura Collins in the television drama filmNo One Would Tell (1996),[82] and also supplied the voice of Raven, a television host, onRalph Bakshi'sHBO animated seriesSpicy City (1997).[83] Beginning in 1997, she portrayed Abby Malone, mother ofValerie Malone (Tiffani Thiessen) onFox'sBeverly Hills, 90210,[84] and in the same year reprised her role of Anne Matheson in the television filmKnots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac.
Having split with Tozer in 1996, Phillips began dating plastic surgeon Steven Zax in 1999.[20] Zax was a divorced father of three sons from his marriage toCorinna Tsopei. From 1999 to 2000, Phillips had a guest role on the television seriesThe Magnificent Seven, on which she played Maude Standish, the mother of one of the Seven. After the millennium, Phillips continued to occasionally appear in films. She had a supporting role in the comedyJane White Is Sick & Twisted (2002),[66] the controversial gay-themed dramaHarry + Max (2004), and as a waitress in the independent comedyUnbeatable Harold (2006).[85] Between 2001 and 2004, Phillips also appeared on television in a recurring role onThe WB drama7th Heaven as Lily Jackson, sister of family matriarch Annie Jackson Camden (Catherine Hicks).[86]
In 2009, Phillips appeared at the annualTV Land Awards for the 30th-year celebration ofKnots Landing.[87] She also appeared in a minor role in the Norwegian historical filmBetrayal, which chronicles theGerman occupation of Norway.[88]
In 2017, Zax, Phillips's long-term partner of eighteen years, died.[89] In 2019, Phillips appeared as an interview subject in Andrew Slater'sEcho in the Canyon, a documentary on the Laurel Canyon music scene of the 1960s.[90]
Phillips has been noted for hersoprano vocals, and was once deemed byTime as "the purest soprano" in pop music.[1] A 1977Billboard review described Phillips's vocals as "both spirited and smooth".[91] Despite having received critical acclaim for her singing, Phillips has admitted to being self-conscious about her voice, and stated thatCass Elliot encouraged her during their tenure in the Mamas & the Papas.[1] She recalled in 2004: "I've yet to meet another woman as strong, funny and fiercely independent as Cass was. She was very generous vocally, too. John would give us these impossibly high parts to sing because he loved the sound of girls in the clouds. Cass would tell me, 'Just go for it, Mich! You know I'm gonna make it—come and join me!'"[1]
During a 1991 interview withArsenio Hall, Phillips advocated providing teenagers with a pragmatic education on drugs, specifically to distinguishpsychedelics andmarijuana from more addictive substances such ascocaine andheroin.[92] Though she admitted to having usedLSD and marijuana in her youth, Phillips maintained that she never had experimented with other drugs, crediting the education her father instilled in her and her sister on drugs and addiction.[92] She also spoke of her belief that parents should provide their children withcondoms and othercontraceptives once they are aware their children are sexually active.[92] Phillips said that she raised her children this way: "At that time, it wasn't even a question ofAIDS. It was a pregnancy issue, and venereal disease ... I raised [my children] in the same way that I was raised myself: When I was a young girl, my father said, 'When you become sexually active, let me know, so that we can arrange for you not to get pregnant.' I was raised in a very pragmatic household, and I believe that if you know your children are sexually active, then you have to try to protect them."[92]
In 2008, Phillips advocatedlegalization of marijuana, crediting it with helping her quit smoking cigarettes: "When I really, really, really wanted a cigarette, I would take a puff of pot, and the cravings would go away."[93]
The Mamas & the Papas
Solo
Solo singles
| Single | Year | Ref. |
|---|---|---|
| "Aloha Louie" | 1975 | [94] |
| "No Love Today" | 1976 | [94] |
| "Aching Kind" | 1977 | [95] |
| "There She Goes" | 1978 | [95] |
