Kelly McGillis: Biography

Actress Kelly McGillis claims to have been a lonely, overweight adolescent who found an escape from her misery through acting. She studied at Pacific Conservatory of Performing Arts and Julliard, making an impressive film debut as the erstwhile lady friend/"savior" of drunken poet Tom Conti in 1983's Reuben, Reuben. McGillis spent considerable time with an Amish family to prepare for her next important film role as a young Amish widow in 1985's Witness; the family wasn't happy in retrospect, claiming that Kelly misrepresented her interest in their lifestyle. The actress's best role since Witness has been as the attorney defending rape victim Jodie Foster in The Accused (1988); during production, McGillis made public the story of her own earlier rape, and became a militant advocate for assault victim' rights. In 1992, McGillis was second-billed in The Babe (1992) as Claire Hodgson, the no-nonsense second wife of baseball great Babe Ruth (John Goodman). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide