Facts
Michelle Phillips originally intended to pursue a career as a model but in 1962 met and married musician John Phillips. They first joined the
singing group The Journeymen and later re-formed the group
as the New Journeymen when Denny Doherty
joined. By the mid-60s, with the addition of
Cass Elliott, the Mamas and the Papas were born.
Almost immediately, the group had a Number One hit
with Monday, Monday. Their appearance at the
1967 Monterey Pop Festival was filmed and included
in the 1968 documentary Monterey Pop. By that time, internal
strains had begun to cause rifts within the group
and as it dissolved
so did her marriage to Phillips.
The newly
divorced Phillips landed her first film
role in Dennis Hopper's all-but-unwatchable The
Last Movie (1970) set in the jungles of Peru. Although she
spent eight days married to Hopper, Phillips
hardly made an impression in her debut. She fared somewhat better
as the moll to Warren Oates' Dillinger (1973) and
slowly began to make inroads as a guest
performer on the small screen. Phillips
looked smashing as the lesbian Natasha Rambova
holding power over Valentino (1977) in Ken Russell's
extravagant biopic and held her own
opposite
James Mason
in Bloodline (1979). She later portrayed the
mother of gymnast Mitch Gaylord
in the underperforming American Anthem (1986) and was relegated to forgettable fare in the 90s (i.e.,
Scissors 1991; Army of
One 1993).
But the small screen proved
more receptive and Phillips earned, if not
superstardom, status as a working actor. Among her
early roles were as love interest to Robert Forster
and daughter to Melvyn Douglas in the faux-Eastwood
TV offering The Death Squad (ABC, 1974)
and the female lead in The California Kid (ABC, 1974).
In 1977, she was featured in the NBC
miniseries Aspen and the following year
lent her allure to the role of the sexual
plaything daughter of a
fading movie star (Tony Curtis) in
The Users (ABC). Phillips has been tagged by
executive producer Jay Bernstein
for several Mickey Spillane TV-movies,
including Murder Me, Murder You (CBS, 1983),
and Murder Takes All (CBS, 1989).
By the mid-80s, the actress landed her
first recurring role on a series as Elizabeth Bradshaw Cabot,
a nemesis for manager James Brolin in Hotel (ABC).
But it was her stint as the conniving vixen
and perpetual loser Anne Mathison
on the CBS serial Knots Landing
that solidified her reputation. She originated the part
in 1987 and returned to it from 1990 to 1993,
reprising the role in the reunion movie
Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac (CBS, 1997).
Phillips had less luck in her
subsequent series, both of which were
short-lived ( Second Chances,
CBS, 1993-94, and Malibu Shores, NBC, 1996). More
recently, she was seen in the recurring role of
mother to Valerie Malone (
Tiffani-Amber Thiessen) on Fox's Beverly
Hills, 90210.
