Donna Mills

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Donna Mills
Donna Mills in 1990
Born	Donna Jean Miller December 11, 1940 (1940-12-11) (age 67) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

Donna Mills in a Helen Lawson wig at a benefit reading of Valley of the Dolls to help launch the DVD release of the film.

Donna Mills (born Donna Jean Miller on December 11, 1940^[1] in Chicago, Illinois) is an American actress, known primarily for her roles on soap operas and television.

The naturally blonde-headed Mills began her career in the 1960s, playing, Laura Donnelly, on the daytime serial, Love is a Many Splendored Thing (a role she played from 1967 to 1970), and later as Michele Lee's least popular sister-in-law and homewrecker, Abby Fairgate Cunningham Ewing Sumner, on the long-running 1980s soap opera, Knots Landing (a role she played from 1980 to 1989). She also had a recurring role as Josie Bissett's mother on Melrose Place.

1 Biography
2 Selected filmography
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] Biography

She was born to Preston and Elsie Miller

[edit] Youth

She attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she joined the Delta Gamma sorority. She began her career onstage in the late 1950s, first gaining prominence as ex-nun Laura Donnelly on the soap opera Love is a Many Splendored Thing in the 1960s. Her first television series role was as "Rocket" on the CBS soap opera The Secret Storm.

[edit] Career

Upon leaving Love she played opposite Clint Eastwood in Play Misty for Me, her most famous movie role to date.

In 1986, already widely reputed as one of the most beautiful women on TV, Mills sealed her glamour queen status in her video "The Eyes Have It," an instructional video for achieving several different makeup looks. (The video surfaced on youtube.com in November 2007, riding the wave of demand for 1980s glamour kitsch which, arguably, was popularised by the success of Brenda Dickson's "Welcome to My Home," and Deven Green's subsequent voice-over parody)

She appeared in numerous TV movies through the 1970s but became best known for co-starring on the hit TV series Knots Landing, alongside Michele Lee and Joan Van Ark, from 1980 to 1989. Mills' friend Larry Hagman even reunited with her for 4 episodes, on which they stir up trouble. She and Hagman had once appeared together on a sitcom, The Good Life. Mills capitalized on her sexy image cultivated on Knots Landing when she appeared on the cover of the November 1989 edition of Playboy Magazine. Mills male fans were disappointed however, to discover her accompanying pictorial was non-nude. Years later, Playboy published newly discovered nude photos of Mills which were shot back in the 1960's.

She returned for the series finale in 1993 and the reunion movie Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac in 1997. She has also appeared in The Six Million Dollar Man, The Love Boat, CHiPs, Quincy, M.E., Thriller, Fantasy Island, Melrose Place, Cold Case and Nip/Tuck

Donna is still acting and in 2006, filmed two TV movies for Hallmark Channel: Jane Doe: Yes I Remember it Well and Love is a Four-Letter Word.

In addition to being known for her Abby role, Donna is also known for her stunning eyes. She was in fact the responsible for applying her own make-up while on 'Knots' and she parlayed all the compliments into developing a line of make-up called The Eyes Have It.

She stays busy with the cosmetic line as well as being a full-time mom

Family Life: In a long-time relationship with Richard Holland and adopted daughter Chloe [1995]

[edit] Controversy

In November 2002, Camille Paglia asserted in an Interview magazine interview^[2] that the character of "Sandy" in Grease was based on Mills' experiences as a Chicago-area teen in the 1950s, even though no interview questions covered the subject and there is no corroboration of this. Jim Jacobs, one of the two authors of Grease, attended Taft High School, Chicago, as did Donna, but graduated in 1960--two years after she did. He has denied that Donna Mills is the inspiration for "Sandy".