By Hannah Jane Farron
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FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Holly Michelle Phillips (née Gilliam; born June 4, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Described by Time magazine as the “purest soprano in pop music”, she rose to fame in the mid-1960s with the folk rock vocal group the Mamas & the Papas. After their disbandment, she started a successful acting career in film and television in the 1970s.
A native of Long Beach, California, she spent her early life in Los Angeles and Mexico City, raised by her widowed father. While working as a model in San Francisco, she met and married John 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, singer Chynna 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 in The Last Movie (1971) before being cast as Billie Frechette in the critically acclaimed crime biopic Dillinger (1973), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer. In 1974, she had lead roles in two television films: the crime feature The Death Squad, and the teen drama The California Kid, in the latter of which she starred opposite Martin Sheen. She went on to appear in a number of films throughout the remainder of the 1970s, including Ken Russell‘s Valentino (1977), playing Natacha Rambova, and the thriller Bloodline (1979). She released her only solo album, Victim of Romance, in 1977.
Phillips’s first film of the 1980s was the comedy The Man with Bogart’s Face (1980). The next year she co-starred with Tom Skerritt in the nature-themed horror Savage Harvest (1981), followed by the television films Secrets of a Married Man (1984) and The Covenant (1985). In 1987, she joined the series Knots Landing, portraying Anne Matheson, the mother of Paige Matheson (portrayed by Nicollette Sheridan), until the series’s 1993 conclusion.
Phillips later had supporting roles in the comedy film Let It Ride (1989) and the psychological thriller Scissors (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 in Jane White Is Sick and Twisted (2002) and Kids in America (2005) and had recurring guest roles in the television series That’s Life (2001–2002) and 7th Heaven (2001–2004).
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS TODAY
actor Bruce Dern in 1936 (age 89)
musician Freddy Fender in 1937
publisher/commentator Mortimer Zuckerman in 1937 (age 88)
musician/actor Michelle Phillips (Mamas & the Papas) in 1944 (age 81)
actor Parker Stevenson in 1952 (age 73)
actor Keith David in 1956 (age 69)
actor Bradley Walsh in 1960 (age 65)
musician El DeBarge in 1961 (age 64)
actor Julie White in 1961 (age 64)
fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli in 1963 (age 62)
actor Scott Wolf in 1968 (age 57)
actor Horatio Sanz in 1969 (age 56)
actor Rob Huebel in 1969 (age 56)
actor Noah Wyle in 1971 (age 54)
actor James Callis in 1971 (age 54)
writer Joe Hill in 1972 (age 53)
musician Stefan Lessard (Dave Matthews Band) in 1974 (age 51)
comedian/actor Russell Brand in 1975 (age 50)
actor/filmmaker Angelina Jolie in 1975 (age 50)
actor Theo Rossi in 1975 (age 50)
actor Robin Lord Taylor in 1978 (age 47)
actor Josh McDermitt in 1978 (age 47)
actor Rebecca Henderson in 1980 (age 45)
musician JoJo Garza (Los Lonely Boys) in 1980 (age 45)
actor T.J. Miller in 1981 (age 44)
model Bar Refaeli in 1985 (age 40)
U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame member Evan Lysacek in 1985 (age 40)
musician Zac Farro (Paramore) in 1990 (age 35)
actor/musician Quincy Brown in 1991 (age 34)
U.S. Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Hezly Rivera in 2008 (age 17)
British Princess Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor in 2021 (age 4)
HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY
In 1783, the first public demonstration of a hot-air balloon occurred at Annonay, France.
In 1784, France’s Marie Thible of Lyons became the first woman to fly in a hot-air balloon.
In 1896, Henry Ford wheeled his first car from a brick shed in Detroit and drove it around darkened streets on a trial run.
In 1917, the first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded.
In 1940, the World War II the evacuation of Dunkirk, France was concluded. A flotilla of small boats spent nearly a week crossing the English Channel to rescue nearly 350,000 British, French and Belgian troops from advancing German forces.
In 1942, the Battle of Midway. It raged for four days and was the turning point for the United States in the World War II Pacific campaign against Japan.
In 1963, President John F. Kennedy ordered Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace to stop from any unlawful obstruction of justice in connection with the admission of two African-American students to the University of Alabama. The order was a final technical step required before the president could use federal troops to enforce the court order for desegregation of the university.
In 1972, black militant Angela Davis was acquitted of murder, kidnapping and criminal conspiracy charges stemming from a California courtroom shootout in which a judge and three other people were killed.
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