Donna Mills

Donna Mills (born Donna Jean Miller; December 11, 1940) is an American actress. She began her television career in 1966 with a recurring role on The Secret Storm, and in the same year appeared on Broadway in Woody Allen's comedy Don't Drink the Water. She made her film debut the next year in The Incident. She then starred for three years on the soap opera Love is a Many Splendored Thing (1967–70), before starring as Tobie Williams, the girlfriend of Clint Eastwood's character in the 1971 cult thriller Play Misty for Me. Mills played the female lead in the heist film Murph the Surf (1975), and guested on such 1970s staples as Hawaii Five-O, Gunsmoke, The Love Boat, and The Six Million Dollar Man. In 1980, Mills landed the role of Abby Cunningham on the primetime soap opera Knots Landing, and was a regular on the show until 1989. For this role, she won the Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Villainess three times, in 1986, 1988, and 1989. She has since starred in several TV movies, including The World's Oldest Living Bridesmaid (1990), Dangerous Intentions (1995), The Stepford Husbands (1996), and Ladies of the House (2008). Later episodic credits include Melrose Place, Nip/Tuck, and Cold Case. In 2014, she joined the cast of the long-running daytime soap opera General Hospital, for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Guest Performer in a Drama Series. Mills also appeared in the films Joy (2015) and Nope (2022). Early life Mills was born Donna Jean Miller in Chicago, to Bernice (née Lantz), a housewife, and Ambrose, a computer analyst for Union Oil. She has one brother, Donald, who is 10 years her senior. Raised in Norwood Park, Mills attended Garvy Elementary School and Taft High School; one of her classmates was Jim Jacobs, co-creator of Grease, who based the character of Sandy on her. Mills attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where she was a member of Delta Gamma sorority. She completed one year of course work, then left to pursue a dancing career, gaining some stage experience in summer stock productions. Her first professional acting role was in a production of Come Blow Your Horn at the Drury Lane Theater in Chicago. She later was cast in a touring production of My Fair Lady, which brought her to New York City. Before she got a job on TV, Mills supported herself as a secretary at Popular Mechanics magazine.