Michelle Phillips

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Michelle Phillips (born Holly Michelle Gilliam, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress.

In the 1960s, she came to prominence as a vocalist in the musical quartet "The Mamas and Papas."

Phillips' voice, which was dubbed by Time magazine as the "purest soprano in pop music," earned critical praise for her work. In the 1970s, she made a name for herself as an actress on film and television.

Phillips is the last living original member of the Mamas and Papas. She was born in Long Beach, California, and her late father raised her in Los Angeles and Mexico City.

She began meeting and marrying John Phillips in 1962 and then went on to co-found the Mamas and Papas in 1965 while being a model in San Francisco.

The band came to fame with their hit singles "California Dreamin" and "Cereque Alley," both of which she co-wrote.

They had five studio albums before they dissolution in 1970.

Chynna Phillips, a singer who was born in John Phillips, gave birth to a daughter. After the breakup of the Mamas and Papas, as well as her divorce from John Phillips, she transitioned to acting in The Last Movie (1971), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.

She went on to appear in many films throughout the 1970s, including Ken Russell's Valentino (1977), portraying Natacha Rambova (1979), and the thriller Bloodline (1979).

In 1977, she released Victim of Romance, her only solo album. Phillips appeared in Knots Landing from 1987 to 1993, portraying Anne Matheson, the mother of Paige Matheson (portrayed by Nicollette Sheridan).

She appeared in Let It Ride (1989) and Scissors (1991), both supporting roles.

She continued to appear in independent films after the millennium, with supporting parts in Jane White's Sick and Twisted (2002) and Kids in America (2005), and appeared in the television series That's Life (2001–2004).

She was a vocal critic of the Bush administration in the mid-2000s and has also advocated for the legalization of recreational marijuana.

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Life and career

Phillips was born Holly Michelle Gilliam, the second child of Joyce Leone (née Poole), a Canadian-born accountant, and Gardner Burnett Gilliam, a merchant mariner from San Diego, on June 4, 1944. Russell Ann, Russell Ann, was her one older sister. Marcus Gilliam, Phillips' paternal grandfather, was from Walla Walla, Washington, and he worked as a miner and hotelier in Erie, British Columbia. Gilliam County, Oregon, derives from her paternal ancestors. Her mother suffered with heart disease from her childhood bout with rheumatic fever, including subacute endocarditis, and died of a corresponding brain hemorrhage when Phillips was five years old. Phillips reflected on her mother's illness: "They knew it was only a matter of time." "They would lie on the couch in the evenings, watching my father read to her." My mother just lifted her head on the couch one night after my sister and I had been put to bed. And that was it."

Following his wife's death, Phillips' father, wanting a change of scenery, moved the family to Buffalo, New York, where they lived for nine months as he served as a bartender for nine months. They then returned to California, settling in Pasadena. The family migrated to Mexico City, Mexico, where her father, who had enrolled to study sociology on the GI Bill at Mexico City College, in June 1951, two days after Phillips' seventh birthday. Phillips spent the next six years in Mexico, where she attended public schools and became fluent in Spanish. Throughout her childhood, Spanish remained Phillips' primary written language, though she later learned to write in English. She and her father and sister were born in Cuauhtémoc's Roma Sur district. Phillips recalled that she and her sister's experience in a different culture "helped us get over my mother's death," and instead of mourning, we became strong, independent, and free."

Phillips, a 13-year-old woman, and her sister, who immigrated to the United States, settling in Los Angeles with her father and sister. There, she became Sue Lyon's childhood friend. Phillips attended many high schools in Los Angeles, including Alexander Hamilton High School and Marshall High School. Phillips played many sports and studied guitar, bass, and cello as a student. Phillips was suspended from Marshall High School and transferred to Eagle Rock High School in sophomore year after being caught skipping classes and later forging absence permission slips.

Phillips died in mid-1961 at the age of 17, when she met Tamar Hodel and began modeling in San Francisco. She appeared in a billboard advertisement for Lucky Lager beer as well as in Cole bathing suits in print ads. "Tamar and I loved going out and showing off" in San Francisco's countercultural music scene and nightlife, quickly. We had a friend, Eddie, Tamar's hairdresser, who was a flaming homosexual and proud of it. This was before gay rights were widely understood, so it was understandable. Eddie was the first I knew and loved who was blatant. He loved to do our hair, make my face up, and dress me... But we didn't have much money, but I only went to bed hungry." She met John Phillips while touring California with his band The Journeymen in July 1961, and the two began a whirlwind romance. On December 31, 1962, when Michelle was 18 years old, he divorced his first wife and married Michelle.

The Phillips newlyweds moved to New York City, where they began writing songs and formed the Mamas and Papas in 1965. Michelle co-wrote some of the band's hits, including "California Dreamin," which appears on the band's debut album, If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears (1966).

When Michelle Phillips' relationship with Gene Clark of the Mamas and the Papas (1966), was revealed, recording of the Mamas and the Papas (1966) was interrupted. Phillips and drummer Denny Doherty's affair the previous year had been forgiven; Doherty and John Phillips had reconciled and ostensibly written "I Saw Her Again" (1966), although they later disagreed about how much Doherty contributed to the song. This time, John Phillips was determined to murder his wife. After reviewing their lawyer and record label, John Phillips, Elliot and Doherty served Michelle Phillips with a letter excluding her from the organization on June 4, 1966. However, she was recalled on August 23 after the remaining band members decided that her replacement, Jill Gibson, lacked her predecessor's "stage charisma and grittier edge." Following Phillips' return to action, the band embarked on a short tour of the East Coast, appearing in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Maryland, and Fordham University in New York City.

The Mamas & The Papas Deliver (1967), the group's third album, since returning to California and settling in Los Angeles. Phillips appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, a Monterey Pop Festival fundraiser hosted by John Phillips and Lou Adler. Other well-known California-based counterculture players and experimental rock bands, including Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother, and the Holding Company, were also on display at the festival, including Janis Joplin (featuring Janis Joplin) and Jimi Hendrix. Phillips recalled the experience: "It was like] a Renaissance Fair." It was both a benefit for the artists and the audience. Everyone had a seat, and if not, people were lining up against the fence, and they could see and hear. If people were outside, you could hear it outside too... It was so lovely.

The band appeared in August 1967 at what would be their final live performance at the Hollywood Bowl. Phillips will release The Papas & The Mamas (1968), their fourth and final album before going on hiatus. Chynna Phillips, a daughter who later became a vocalist with the 1990s pop band Wilson Phillips, gave birth in February 1968. In May 1969, Michelle and John, who were still married but not well off at the time, applied for divorce in a Los Angeles County courthouse. In 1971, the Mamas and Papas officially disbanded, just days before the release of their final album, People Like Us, which was an attempt to fulfill contract obligations with their record label.

Phillips appeared in Gram Parsons' science fiction film Saturation 70, the five-year-old son of Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones, although still a member of the Mamas and Papas. The film was never finished, and it became a lost film. She began enrolling in acting lessons in Los Angeles and said she wanted to start her acting career "from scratch" after the band's breakup, and that the royalties from the band's albums gave her a steady income when she began to pursue film. Peggy Feury studied acting.

Phillips' first film role came in Dennis Hopper's film The Last Movie (1971), a minor role; she and Hopper married on October 31, 1970, shortly after the production ended, but the relationship lasted just eight days. Billie Frechette, John Dillinger's girlfriend, appeared in a lead role in the 1971 film Dillinger (1973). Phillips said she was portrayed by pretending to be half Cherokee, as her character. Variety said of her performance: "Phillips, making her film debut after being a member of the Mamas & the Papas singing group, does well as Dillinger's girlfriend," the New York Times described it as "mildly popular." Phillips was nominated for the Most Promising Newcomer award by the Golden Globe Awards for her work. Phillips wrote about the film, saying, "I was so lucky to have been surrounded by such talented actors." Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, Richard Dreyfuss, Harry Dean Stanton, and Warren Oates were all actors in the film. It was just a wonderful, magical holiday for me, and I had so much help, so much help, and so much love. It was actually my first film. Dennis' film [The Last Movie] was a lot of experimentation and craziness." Phillips remained a lifelong fan of co-star Stanton.

Phillips and Darlene Love, a cheerleader on the Cheech & Chong single Basketball Jones, which reached No. 15 on the Billboard singles chart in the same year, debuted as a cheerleader. In 1974, she appeared in Martin Sheen's action-horror television film The California Kid. She appeared in Shampoo (1975), making her comeo appearance in a party scene with then-boyfriend Warren Beatty. She would later state that Beatty was the love of her life. Phillips signed a solo recording contract with A&M Records in 1975, releasing Aloha Louie, a song she wrote with ex-husband John Phillips. Phillips released No Love Today, her first solo album in 1976, which appeared on the Mother, Jugs & Speed film soundtrack.

Phillips' first and only solo album, Victim of Romance, was released in 1977 by Jack Nitzsche for A&M Records. "I didn't do it earlier because I never felt confident enough as a singer," she said on the record. I'm fine, but Cass was always better." Phillips continued to be interested in its manufacture, saying she had been active in "every aspect of it, from mixing to putting the box together and covering yourself." Her first two solo singles from the album failed to make it to the US music charts. She appeared on her solo album alongside former stepdaughter Mackenzie Phillips on Zulu Warrior for her ex-husband's second solo album, Pay Pack & Follow. Natacha Rambova, Rudolph Valentino's second wife, appeared in Ken Russell's film Valentino (1977). Despite the film's superficial cynicism, it earned mixed praise, with Time Out London describing it as "structured as a sequence of flashbacks from Valentino's birth to his early years in America" during the first hour or so of this biopic. Phillips married radio executive Robert Burch in 1981, but their union was ended in 1979.

Audrey Hepburn and Ben Gazzara appeared in the film version of the Sidney Sheldon novel Bloodline (1979), a drama starring Audrey Hepburn and Ben Gazzara in 1979. Bloodline's debut in June 1979 received critical feedback from critics, but Phillips' appearance (along with those of James Mason and Maurice Ronet) was dubbed by Variety as "drab." Despite its name, she recorded Forever on the soundtrack of California Dreaming, a surf film unrelated to her former company.

Phillips also appeared in The Man with Bogart's Face (1980), the nature horror film Savage Harvest (1981), about a family being attacked by a lion pride, and American Anthem (1986). Phillips appeared in three episodes of Fantasy Island and Leora Van Treas (1983), starring Stacy Keach in the title role. She appeared in television miniseries such as Aspen (1977) and The French Atlantic Affair (1979).

During this period, Phillips began dating actress Grainger Hines, with whom she gave birth to her son Austin Deveraux Hines on March 3, 1982. The following year, she joined Hotel as the concierge, the daughter of hotel owner Victoria Cabot's sister who disguises his son as a spy in an attempt to gain control of the St. Gregory. Phillips didn't appear in the series until 1986. Judy Parfitt and José Ferrer appeared in The Covenant (1985) television horror film. In 1984, Hines' friendship came to an end.

Phillips wrote a book called 'The Real Story of the Mamas and Papas,' which appeared just weeks after her ex husband's autobiography, Papa John, was published. She explains events such as her first meeting with Cass 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 mainland United States mainland, and how her book "California Dreamin'," which still earns her royalties, was "the best wake-up call" she had; she was asleep in a New York hotel room as husband John Phillips called her

Phillips appeared on Knots Landing as Anne Matheson Sumner, the mother of actress Nicollette Sheridan's character Paige Matheson, beginning in 1989 and becoming a series regular. Phillips continued to appear in the role until the series's conclusion in 1993.

After being pulled over for speeding, Phillips was arrested in Amarillo, Texas, for marijuana possession on December 2, 1987. Phillips was a passenger in the vehicle with boyfriend Geoffrey Tozer, and the marijuana was discovered after police searched the couple's car. Phillips was booked and released on a $500 bond. Phillips performed backup vocals on Belinda Carlisle's album Heaven on Earth in late 1987, as well as its number one single "Heaven Is a Place on Earth." Jenice Manheim, the wife of the scientist Paul Manheim, appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generation first-season episode "We'll Always Have Paris" in the following year. Phillips and Tozer were engaged on February 29, 1988. Aron Wilson, a friend of her son Austin's, who was legally adopted and raised, was taken in by the couple.

Phillips continued to appear in films, including a supporting role in 1989's Gambling themed Let It Ride, co-starring Richard Dreyfuss and Teri Garr, playing what Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times described as a "deliciously blonde tramp." She appeared in the thriller Scissors (1991), opposite Sharon Stone, portraying the politician wife of a therapist treating a mentally fragile woman (Stone). She had a supporting role as the wife of a former racer in the action thriller Joshua Tree (1993), starring Dolph Lundgren.

Phillips starred in the short-lived drama series Second Chances (1993–1994) opposite Connie Sellecca and Jennifer Lopez following Knots Landing's 1993 closure. She appeared in the 1993 television drama Rubdown, playing a woman at the center of a divorce case in which her husband pays a masseur to have an affair with her. Variety's Denise McIver wrote about the film: "The most disturbing part of this two-hour cable television film is the fact that none of the characters seemed redeemed, or at least changed by their experiences." This isn't to say that one will not hold one's interest, but only for the situation, which features a lot of bare backs, naked legs, and especially steamy sex scenes." Phillips and her companion Aloma Ichinose were robbed at gunpoint outside a West Hollywood restaurant in late September 1993.

In 1996, Phillips played Laura Collins in the television drama film No One Would Tell (1996), and he also appeared on Ralph Bakshi's HBO animated series Spicy City (1997). Abby Malone, mother of Valerie Malone (Tiffani Thiessen), appeared on Fox's Beverly Hills, 90210, and in the same year reprised her role as Anne Matheson in the television film Knots Landing: Return to the Cul-de-Sac.

Phillips began dating plastic surgeon Steven Zax in 1999 after breaking with Tozer in 1996. She appeared on The Magnificent Seven, from 1999 to 2000, on which she played Maude Standish, the mother of one of the Seven. Phillips continued to appear in films after the millennium. Jane White Is Sick & Twisted (2002), the tense gay-themed drama Harry + Max (2004), and as a waitress in the independent film Unbeatable Harold (2006). Phillips appeared on television between 2001 and 2004 as Lily Jackson, the niece of family matriarch Annie Jackson Camden, sister of cadastro Patriarch Annie Jackson Camden (Catherine Hicks).

Phillips appeared at the annual TV Land Awards for the 30th anniversary of Knots Landing in 2009. She appeared in a small role in Betrayal, Norway's oldest film that chronicles the German occupation of Norway.

In 2017, Zax, Phillips' long-serving spouse of eighteen years, died. Phillips appeared in Andrew Slater's Echo in the Canyon, a documentary about the Laurel Canyon music scene of the 1960s, in 2019.

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