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"Life is a journey and it's about growing and changing and coming to terms with who and what you are and loving who and what you are." Kelly McGillis has worked hard at doing all of this, in her personal life and her career. Not only has she played iconic roles, but she has also received nominations for BAFTA and Golden Globe awards. While she's most often thought of for her roles in Witness (1985, and Top Gun (1986), McGillis has been in a number of other movies and TV shows, as well. She has also acted on the stage, where she had another outlet to let her talents shine.

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During her career she had a role on One Life to Live in 1984, played Jessica Tandy's caretaker in The House on Carroll Street (1988), and starred as Mrs. Robinson in the stage play of The Graduate in 2004. It's clear that she's been busy throughout her career, working steadily from the beginning of it and growing into both starring and supporting roles. But how did McGillis get into acting, and where is her career going to take her next? We have the answers to all you want to know about Kelly McGillis and the many roles she's played on stage and screen.

Growing Up in the California Sunshine

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Acting for the joy of acting is a big part of McGillis' success. When it comes to how she feels about her craft, she says, "To me, acting is acting... I'd be happy working on a street corner in a mime troupe." It's an indication of the belief that McGillis' simply likes working, and that the fame and fortune isn't the issue for her. She was born in Newport Beach, CA, and her father worked as a doctor. Her mother stayed at home, and the family moved to Los Angeles where McGillis was raised. Once she graduated from high school she moved to New York and studied acting at Juilliard.

In 1983, McGillis made her debut in film in Reuben, Reuben. Then in 1985 she found her breakout role in Witness, playing an Amish mother opposite Harrison Ford. After Witness and Top Gun, McGillis then appeared in Made in Heaven (1987) with Timothy Hutton. She was in The Accused in 1988, and starred with Peter Weller in Cat Chaser (1989). She disliked that movie, and it discouraged her from continuing to pursue acting. After a few other smaller roles in movies and TV shows, she decided to take a break for a few years and step away from acting.

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The Waxing and Waning of an Amazing Career

"I think it's sad that movies and television have caused the theater to fade as a popular art form. I hope to get young people into the theater and expose them to Shakespeare," she said. She enjoys the theater, but also understands that not everyone sees it as valuable in the way they see TV and movies. She would love to change that, and when she stepped away from film roles she stayed on the stage through part of that time. She joined the Shakespeare Theatre Company, and was on the stage from the late 1980s through the middle of the 2000s.

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She has been in a number of other stage productions as well, including Don Juan (1982), The Merchant of Venice (1985), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999), and Mourning Becomes Electra (1997), among others. In 2006, McGillis also started working in TV again, after taking a break since the middle of the 1990s. Most of the work she's done since the middle of the 2000s has been in TV and film, although she still spends plenty of time on the stage with various theater companies. It's clear that McGillis enjoys what she does and will continue to focus on her craft for a long time.

One of the most notable things about McGillis and her career is that she understood when she needed to step away and take a break, so she could regroup and move through her life the way she needed to. She has been married twice and has two daughters with her second husband. She has also been in a civil union that was dissolved in 2011. McGillis now lives in North Carolina, where she teaches acting at a school in Asheville. She was assaulted in a home invasion in 2016, but was not seriously hurt.

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McGillis has turned much of her focus to teaching others instead of acting in the last few years, but still has upcoming projects that have already been filmed. She's not ruling out more acting projects in the future, depending on the projects themselves and whether they conflict with the teaching she's currently doing in the North Carolina area. It's highly likely that audiences will be seeing more from McGillis in the upcoming years.