starring
Constance McCashin
SHE WAS BORN IN CHICAGO ON JUNE 18, 1947 EN CHICAGO, AS CONSTANCE BROMAN (she changed her last name because of its spelling for another name which was the family´s favorite). Her mother PEGGY had a radio show, directed a summer theatre tour and used to sing and play piano. This hobby for stage and art was transmitted to her daughter. Constance watched her first play PETER PAN at 2 years old, and fell in love with acting.
She went to different catholic private schools as she was growing up, and studied dancing too. She started to act on summer shows at 16. Followed thereafter plays like KISS ME KATE or SWEET CHARITY. "My stage life was a kind of rebellion againts the discipline in my life at private schools", she assured. Her family enjoyed her theatre parts but her father was surprised because his young daughter played prostitutes over and over again. "I told him that I was just proving I was versatile", she stated.
While still at the high school, and then in college, she began to work with handicapped children. She feels an affinity and empathy with this job, since her younger sister NANCY is handicapped. At 19, her job led her to accept a summer work as a playtime therapist in a mental hospital in Harrison, N.Y. After her graduation in 1969, Constance got her teaching degree for N.Y. and left to the city right away.
Sue quit acting to work with handicapped kids again and spent one year teaching in a public school in Queens. "When I was teaching, I felt very well with what I was doing. I was contributing, seeing the results of what I was doing". Her new agent convinced her to make a try in L.A. and, this time, things began to work out.
She got her first Hollywood role on her third week there: she had been cast as Talia Shire´s best girlfriend in DADDY, I DON'T LIKE IT LIKE THIS. Followed other parts, but her favorite to date is the professor and trainer on the telemovie SPECIAL OLYMPICS. The film was focused on the work with handicapped children and it was one of the few times she strongly prevailed in an audition. At last, Constance´s 2 worlds have been merged into one.
Happily married to actor and director SAM WEISMAN, Constance enjoys the best life can offer her. Her role on KL was created for her by the writer-producer when she was about quitting the profession, once again. The Pilot was filmed in February 1979 and began to act on the show in July. "At last I have committed myself seriously," she said, "to my job, to the people I can help with my work and to the person I love."
The performer of one of the most peculiar characters in KL has hardly acted since she left the show, obliged by the staff cutting. Since then, she has been seen on single episodes of series like IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT or BROOKLYN BRIDGE, and has made a cameo appearance in THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS, directed by husband SAM. CONSTANCE received a nomination as Best Supporting Actress in a Serial for the 1986 SODA´s. Currently she is devoted to psychotherapy of mentally handicapped children.
"(The show) changed my life, and, besides that, how many actors have the opportunity to work during 9 years, let alone during 9 minutes...?"
Constance McCashin´s imdb Filmography
Donna Mills
BORN ON DECEMBER 11, 1942, IN CHICAGO, Donna attended the Illinois University, where she studied Drama and Dance, plus independent acting classes. During these first college years, she debuted in public as a dancer in the Melody Top Theatre in Chicago. She starred at the Drury Lane Theatre COME BLOW YOUR HORN and THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE, before leaving her hometown to head New York City.
Donna appeared in several off-Broadway montages before being cast for a Broadway part in DON´T DRINK THE WATER. A CBS cast director noticed her during one of the shows and offered her the role of a sexy club singer known as Rocket on THE SECRET STORM. Donna only was on the soap during 3 months before being killed off. CBS cast her again immediately to star on the daytime soap LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING, where she managed to stay alive during 3 years, before to leave the show and Manhattan to continue her career in Hollywood.
After moving to the West Coast, she got a small role in one episodio of the series starring BURT REYNOLDS “DAN AUGUST”. Weeks later, Burt´s great pal, CLINT EASTWOOD, confided him he was looking for a special woman to co-star with him the chiller PLAY MISTY FOR ME. Burt introduced him Donna and she was chosen for her first movie right away.
When the shooting was over, Donna returned to Hollywood, where she made an audition and got the co-starring role with LARRY HAGMAN on NBC´s romantic comedy THE GOOD LIFE. The show was short-lived but led to a number of TV parts for Donna, including SUPERDOME, THE HUNTED LADY and THE BAIT.
DONNA MILLS spent the 90´s playing and producing second-rate telemovies, included a guest appearance on nighttime soap MELROSE PLACE as JANE´s natural mother. Even so, or maybe due to it, she did not hesitate to get back her most popular character whenever she has been asked to: for KL´s final episode or for BACK TO THE CUL-DE-SAC.
She has also gueststarred on a few series like DREAM ON or TWICE IN A LIFETIME, or nostalgia Specials about the show or its stars. The Soap Digest readers voted her thrice as the best Villain in a Serial. DONNA will always be associated to the glamourous image of ever-winning ABBY CUNNINGHAM EWING SCOTT SUMNER.
“The writers are always trying to soften her, make her
good. I say keep her bad; she's manipulative and she has no
conscience. I spend a lot of time and energy fighting for my
character.”
Donna Mills´s imdb Filmography
Michelle Phillips
BORN AS HOLLY MICHELLE GILLIAM, on June 4, 1944, in Long Beach, California, and raised at South California, Phillips broke onto the music scene as she co-write with her former husband John Phillips, one of the biggest, best remembered pop songs of that time, CALIFORNIA DREAMIN'. Her singing career went upwards as they created a band called THE MAMAS & THE PAPAS, then winning one GRAMMY Award. The adulterous affaire she had with the other male member DENNIS DOHERTY, eventually put an end to the band (after performing such big hits like MONDAY MONDAY or CALIFORNIA DREAMING).
MICHELLE came to KL in 1987 and she was so well-accepted (and viewers so alarmed to see her coming, since she seemed bent on breaking up the KAREN-MACK couple) that producers kept on calling her as a recurring guest star for a few years, as she was not only MACK´s first love, but also PAIGE´s rejected mother and GREG SUMNER´s wife by rebound.
However MICHELLE´s career hab begun in 1971, directed by her second husband DENNIS HOPPER in THE LAST MOVIE, followed by others like DILLINGER, VALENTINO, and for TV, supporting roles on series such as ASPEN or HOTEL. Since 1993, we have seen MICHELLE on BEVERLY HILLS 90210, LOIS & CLARK or MALIBU SHORES, among others.
She has also been a part of the Cast Reunions in 1997 and 2005. In the latter years, she has briefly appeared in independent movies like THE PRICE OF AIR, MARCH and JANE WHITE IS SICK AND TWISTED, side by side with TED SHACKELFORD. Married several times, she is the mother of singer CYNNA PHILLIPS, stepmother of actress MACKENZIE PHILLIPS and mother-in-law of WILLIAM BALDWIN.
"I loved the character they wrote for me. In a way, though, I think I might have done too good a job playing ANNE. With MACK and I there was definitely some chemistry and it definitely scared the shit out of them. I think they thought that ANNE could really damage that marriage and they didn't want to go that route. So what happened was that MACK did a 180, one minute we're practically making out and the next he says, "I want you to go away" and boom! I was gone. After my one season on the show they made my contract null and void..."
Michelle Phillips´s imdb Filmography
TED SHACKELFORD, NICOLLETTE SHERIDAN and JOAN VAN ARK
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