As Donna Jean Miller, actress Donna Mills was born in the United States on December 11, 1940. With a recurring part on The Secret Storm, she made her television debut in 1966. The same year, she made her Broadway debut in the Woody Allen comedy Don’t Drink the Water. The following year, she made her feature film debut in The Incident. After appearing for three years in the serial opera Love is a Many Splendored Thing (1967–1970), she went on to play Tobie Williams, Clint Eastwood’s character’s lover, in the cult classic Play Misty for Me in 1971.
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Early Life
Donna Mills went to Taft High School and Garvy Elementary School. She received two promotions at Garvey and graduated from Taft young.
The next year, Mills enrolled at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign as a member of the sorority Delta Gamma. She finished one year of coursework before leaving to pursue a career in dancing. While dancing in summer stock performances, she gained some early stage experience.
In the production of Come Blow Your Horn at the Drury Lane Theater in Chicago, she played her first professional acting part. Later, she was hired for a My Fair Lady touring production, which took her to New York City.
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Career
In 1966, Donna Mills made her television acting debut as Rocket during a six-month run on the CBS daytime serial opera The Secret Storm. After that, she co-starred in The Incident (1967), a movie in which Martin Sheen, Beau Bridges, Ed McMahon, and Thelma Ritter also appeared. She made her Broadway debut as the wife of the Sultan of Bashir in Woody Allen’s comedy Don’t Drink the Water.
Donna Mills landed a regular part as former nun Laura Donnelly on the soap opera Love is a Many Splendored Thing in the fall of 1967. After moving to the West Coast in 1970, Mills made her primetime television debut in a Lancer episode. She appeared in the 1971 thriller Play Misty for Me alongside Jessica Walter and Clint Eastwood.
Donna Mills co-starred in the brief-lived sitcom The Good Life in 1971–1972, opposite Larry Hagman, who later made an appearance as J. R. Ewing from Dallas, Dallas’ sister series, on Knots Landing. She spent the majority of the 1970s appearing as a guest on popular television programs like The Six Million Dollar Man, Hawaii Five-O, The Love Boat, CHiPs, The F.B.I., Quincy, M.E., the UK’s Thriller series, Police Woman, and Fantasy Island, as well as numerous made-for-TV movies, before signing a contract with Universal Studios in 1972.
The long-running primetime serial opera Knots Landing gave Mills her most notable role in 1980 as the cunning, deceitful vixen Abby Cunningham. Mills played Abby between 1980 and 1989. Mills was most recognized for portraying the “damsel in distress” character in cinema and television before being cast in Knots Landing.
The actress gained some notoriety for taking on these parts, which frequently resulted in negative typecasting. The Toledo Blade’s Jerry Buck had an interview with Mills, and Mills stated: “I got tired of playing the victim. It’s a more active role. Abby keeps things stirred up, and I like that.”
Jacobs claims that Abby was not anticipated when the show debuted. He was certain that he wanted a J.R. Ewing-like female character. He perceived the character and the person who would play him differently, though. At first, he did not consider her for the role because Mills has a reputation for portraying the victim.
For the first time since 1970, Mills returned to daytime soap operas in 2014. In the ABC soap opera General Hospital, she was given a significant recurring guest starring role. She made her debut in March and remained through May. She came back for another multi-episode arc later that year. Mills shared the Outstanding Special Guest Performer in a Drama Series award at the 42nd Daytime Emmy Awards with Ray Wise and Fred Willard in a three-way tie. Mills made a comeback in August 2018 for a new multi-episode arc.
The POP reality series Queens of Drama, about a group of previous stars who are now producing a new primetime serial drama to star in, revealed on October 7, 2014, that Mills will star in it. As they develop, pitch, and produce their steamy series in the hopes of securing a pilot deal by the end of the season, the ladies will be required to collaborate both in front of and behind the cameras.
Joy, a movie directed by David O. Russell and released in December 2015, featured Mills. She appeared in the holiday comedy-drama 12 Gifts of Christmas in 2015 as well.
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Donna Mills was chosen to play Daisy Werthan in the 2017 production of Alfred Uhry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Driving Miss Daisy at the Colony Theatre. She also starred in the drama series Hilton Head Island on Pure Flix that same year. 2019 saw her co-starring in the Pure Flix comedy series Mood Swings with Dyan Cannon and Crystal Hunt. She also had roles in the independent movies A Beauty and the Beast Christmas, Turnover, and Best Mom (2019).
Donna Mills won the Palm Springs International Film Festival’s Women In Film and Television’s Above And Beyond Award in 2022 after starring in Jordan Peele’s horror movie Nope.
Donna Mills’ Daughter – Chloe Mills
The date of Chloe Mills’ birth is September 12, 1994. Since Donna Mills never wed, she adopted Chloe just four days after her birth, the actress said in an interview with People.
“I was very concentrated on my career, but at a certain point, I realized there was something missing — it was a child. So I went after it.”
“By that time, I was 54 and people said, ‘You’re going to be so old [to] have a little toddler running around.’ I never felt that” she added.
“I never felt older than the other mothers who were probably in their 20s.” Donna even advocated for having children later in life during the conversation. “if you want to give to your career.”
Currently 27 years old, Chloe appears to be a model and influencer on social media. According to her Instagram bio, she belongs to the Soho House in Malibu, California, and has more than 16.7k followers there. Bailey Joshua, Chloe’s lover, and a musician is by her side right now.
Donna Mills invited her family to her most recent red carpet event. The 81-year-old Emmy Award winner looked stunning in a white pantsuit as she matched outfits with her daughter Chloe Mills on Thursday at Jordan Peele’s Nope U.K. premiere in London.
She was dressed in a white blazer with lace accents, white slacks, a matching top, and beige suede heels. Donna added a similar necklace with a diamond pendant and a pair of gold earrings to complete the look.
“A night I would never say NOPE to! Thank you London for the warm welcome and thank you to @jordanpeele for your incredible work and including me in your masterpiece @nopemovie…” Donna wrote on Instagram. “Oh [and to] my baby girl @chloenicolemills for being my date.”
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She also uploaded a few mirror selfies to Instagram showing how she looked. ” Mirror moments,” Chloe captioned the picture.
When she adopted a child named Chloe back in 1994, Donna revealed to PEOPLE that she became a mother at the age of 54.
She said in May, “I was very concentrated on my career, but at a certain point, I realized there was something missing — it was a child,” “So I went after it. I adopted her when she was four days old.”
“By that time, I was 54 and people said, ‘You’re going to be so old [to] have a little toddler running around.’ I never felt that. I never felt older than the other mothers who were probably in their 20s,” Donna added.
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The former star of Knots Landing said that she and her daughter “see each other at least once a week and we talk every day or text.”
Donna, who spent 18 years away from work to raise her daughter, “didn’t become a mother to give [Chloe] to a nanny,” also argued in favor of having children later in life: “If you want to give to your career, I say having a child later in life is better than having a child early.”
Nope, which is currently in theaters, stars Donna Mills.
Personal Life
In the 1980s and 1990s, Mills, who was never wed, had an on-again, off-again relationship with Richard Holland, an advertising executive and the former spouse of the singer Chaka Khan. Larry Gilman and her have been dating since 2001.
In addition to performing, Mills published The Eyes Have It in 1986, a how-to film for producing various makeup styles. She later introduced her own brand of cosmetics under the same name. She was featured on the covers of non-nude Playboy pictorials in October 1987 and November 1989.
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Donna Mills Net Worth
American actress Donna Mills has a $9 million net worth. As a result of her participation in adored television series, Donna Mills’ net worth increased over time. Chicago-born Mills began her acting career in the 1960s in CBS’ drama The Quiet Storm and went on to participate in numerous classic shows like Quincy, Hawaii Five-0, The Love Boat, and CHiPs before becoming well-known in Knots Landing as the cold and calculating Abby Cunningham.
