Michelle Phillips (born Holly Michelle Gilliam; June 4, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and former model. She rose to fame as a vocalist in the musical quartet the Mamas and the Papas in the mid-1960s. Her voice was described by Time magazine as the "purest soprano in pop music". She later established a successful career as an actress in film and television in the 1970s. Phillips is the last surviving original member of the Mamas and the Papas.
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 vocal group the Mamas and 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. With John Phillips, she gave birth to a daughter, singer Chynna Phillips.
After the breakup of the Mamas and 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 appeared in a number of films in the 1980s, first in the comedy The Man with Bogart's Face (1980). The following year, she co-starred with Tom Skerritt in the nature-themed horror film Savage Harvest (1981), followed by the television films Secrets of a Married Man (1984) and The Covenant (1985). In 1987, she joined the cast of the series Knots Landing, portraying Anne Matheson, the mother of Paige Matheson (portrayed by Nicollette Sheridan) until the series' 1993 conclusion.
She subsequently had supporting roles in the comedy film Let It Ride (1989) and the psychological thriller Scissors (1991). Phillips continued to appear in independent films after the millennium, 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). She was an outspoken critic of the Bush administration in the mid-2000s and has also advocated the legalization of recreational cannabis.
