Michelle Phillips
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Michelle Phillips (born June 4, 1944) is an American singer and actress. The blonde beauty was born Holly Michelle Gilliam in Long Beach, California. She gained fame as a member of the popular 1960s singing group The Mamas & the Papas.
Michelle married John Phillips in 1962 when she was 17 years of age. She helped him co-write some of the band's most popular hits, including "Creeque Alley" and "California Dreamin'." They later had one child together, Chynna Phillips, who went on to found the singing group Wilson Phillips (along with Beach Boys children Wendy and Carnie Wilson). The couple divorced in 1970 after her infidelity with co-band member Denny Doherty and others.
Phillip's infidelity, ultimately, led to her being fired from the The Mamas & the Papas in early June 1966. After Michelle started dating Gene Clark, a member of the rival band The Byrds, she was kicked out of the band and replaced by Lou Adler's girlfriend Jill Gibson. Fellow band member, Cass Elliot (the other "Mama"), was in love with Doherty, a fact Michelle was well aware of, so her earlier affair with Doherty in 1965, was a betrayal to half of the band. Michelle's presence in the band was missed by some fans, mostly by John, so she was invited back into the group in late August while Jill Gibson was given a lump sum for her two and a half months as a "Mama". Gibson later would say that she felt betrayed by John, Cass, and Denny. The ill-will between the original members was so embedded, that the band continued to have problems even after Michelle's return. The Mamas and the Papas finally called it quits in 1968.
Phillips married actor Dennis Hopper in 1970 for eight days. Of that marriage, Phillips said: "I will say this about Dennis Hopper: We were married for eight days and truly... they were the happiest days of my life."
In 1986 she penned her autobiography, "Califorina Dreamin': The True Story of the Mamas and Papas", released just weeks after her former husband John Phillip's autobiography "Papa John". In it Phillips describes such events as the first meeting between she and fellow Mama, Cass Elliot (Phillips had just taken acid for the first time, and "came on" to it just as she opened the door), winning 17 straight shoots at a crap table in the Bahamas when the band was broke and couldn't afford plane fare back to the states (winning enough for first class, no less), and how her writing credit on the "California Dreamin'" song, which still nets her royalties, was "the best wake-up call" she ever had (she was asleep on the tour bus and John Phillips woke her long enough for her to transcribe the words he had just composed).
Phillips continues to act in movies and in television today. She is best known to modern television audiences for her roles as mother to two prime-time vixens. She starred for several seasons on the "Dallas" spin-off Knots Landing as Anne W. Matheson Sumner, playing the mother of future Desperate Housewives star Nicolette Sheridan (a role which Phillips returned to for the 1997 TV-Movie Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac). In the mid-1990's she gained a whole new generation of fans for playing Abby Malone, mother of Tiffani-Amber Thiessen on Fox's Beverly Hills, 90210. Phillips most recent acting job has been a recurring role on the hit WB drama 7th Heaven as Lily Jackson, sister of family matriarch Annie Jackson (Catherine Hicks).
Phillips is renowned for her pulchritude and youthful appearance which she attributes, in part, to staying completely away from direct sunlight.
External links
- Template:Imdb name
- Phillips article on Swingin' Chicks of the '60s (http://www.swinginchicks.com/michelle_phillips.htm) (includes photos)nl:Michelle Phillips