Kelly Mcgillis – Bio, Spouse, Is She Gay or Lesbian? Here Are Facts To Know

Quick Facts

In the 1980s, you couldn’t talk about Hollywood without Kelly Mcgillis’ name coming up in the conversation. Not only was she an American sex symbol, but she was also an actress with exceptional talent, who starred in some major blockbusters including Top Gun and Witness, which earned her some BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for her role as Rachel Lapp.

She remained popular well into the 90s and continued to star in some medium-sized movie hits including Made in Heaven, The Babe, and At First Sight, before taking a break to focus on caring for her kids and other aspects of her personal life.

Kelly Mcgillis Bio

Kelly was born in Newport Beach, California on July 9, 1957, to middle-class parents — a medical practitioner father and a stay at home mother.

She dropped out of high school to pursue her dreams of becoming an actress but later moved to New York to study at the prestigious Juilliard School. Kelly also attended the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts in California.

Like for most industry newbies, acting work did not come easily. She had to hold several jobs like waitressing to earn some bucks while pursuing her acting career. Kelly also featured in a few stage productions before snagging a part in the movie Reuben, Reuben. It put her in the spotlight and brought in a load of TV works which eventually led to her starring alongside Harold Ford in the box office hit, Witness. The recognition garnered from the movie allowed producers and Hollywood bigwigs to notice her, including the director of Top Gun, the 1983 action-packed thriller and highest-grossing movie of that year, which also starred .

After that, steady work kept coming in, although nothing as high-profile as Top Gun. Kelly also returned to stage acting during this period. Her screen time became sporadic after she had her daughters (Sonora and Kelsey Tillman) because she wanted to pay more attention to her family and personal business.

Within the last decade, she has managed to squeeze out a dozen or so movie credits, all independent movies or low-budget productions. Her stage career didn’t suffer much from her hiatus, she remained active in the theatre scene, including featuring in productions of Macbeth, The Graduate, and The Little Foxes.

Kelly Mcgillis also decided to teach acting classes, sharing her insight about the craft and industry with students. She joined one of the country’s best institutions, Meisner Acting Conservatory to teach the art of performance. Kelly was an excellent tutor and assigned to teach some of the toughest courses in the program.

Acting classes weren’t the only place where Kelly shared her wisdom and personal experience, she also worked at a substance abuse treatment facility, as a drug rehabilitation counsellor.

Spouse – Is She Gay or Lesbian?

Kelly married her first husband, Boyd Black in April of 1959, but the two, unfortunately, got divorced two years later.

She met and dated Fred Tillman for a couple of years before they got married on the first day of January 1989. They had two children before the marriage crashed sometime in 2002.

In 2009, during an interview on the web series called Girl Rock, Kelly said that she was done with the man thing after being asked what she was looking for in a partner. This marked her outing as a gay woman. Kelly Mcgillis also admitted that she had known deep down that she was homosexual for many years. According to her, it was just difficult to accept it. In 2010, she entered into a civil partnership with Melanie Leis, the woman she had been secretly dating for ten years. One year later, the two split.

5 Quick Facts To Know About Her

1. Kelly Mcgillis has suffered through several tragic incidents in her lifetime. She was gang-raped when she was 12, and later again in 1982 while living in New York, some hoodlums broke into her home and sexually assaulted her and her roommate at knifepoint.

2. She was once a drug addict and had to check into rehab a couple of times to get clean.

3. Lady Mcgillis had to physically fight off an attacker after her home was broken into in 2016.

4. She has a gun permit and carries a firearm around to protect herself.

5. The incredible actress is estimated to be worth about 7.5 million dollars.

Also Read: Top 10 Richest People in the world with full biography and details.