Mackenzie Phillips Biography

Laura Mackenzie Phillips (born November 10, 1959) is an American actress and singer best known for her roles in American Graffiti and as rebellious teenager Julie Cooper Horvath on the sitcom One Day at a Time. She is more recently known for her role in the Disney Channel science fiction show So Weird.

Early life

Born in Alexandria, Virginia, she is the daughter of John Phillips, singer of The Mamas & the Papas, and his first wife, Susan Adams. She is the sister of Jeffrey Phillips and a half-sister of Tamerlane Phillips, actress Bijou Phillips, and singer Chynna Phillips.

Phillips attended Highland Hall Waldorf School in Northridge, California. At age 12, Phillips formed a band with three of her classmates and was spotted by a casting agent during one of their performances. She was given an audition for a role in the 1973 hit film American Graffiti, which she won.

Career

Phillips was 12 when the filming of American Graffiti began, and 14 when the movie was released. She was cast as Carol Morrison, a young girl accidentally picked up by hot rodding teenager John Milner. Because of California state law, producer Gary Kurtz became Phillips' legal guardian during the filming.

Phillips gained stardom in the 1970s, when she played boy-crazy teenager Julie Cooper Horvath on the long-running television show One Day at a Time, for which she earned $50,000 a week. During the show's third season in 1977, Phillips was arrested for public drunkenness and possession of cocaine. Because of her drug and alcohol abuse, Phillips began arriving late and was even incoherent for rehearsals. The producers ordered her to take a six-week break to overcome her addiction. In 1980, she was fired from the show.

After two nearly fatal overdoses, Phillips entered Fair Oaks Hospital to undergo treatment. In 1981, the producers of One Day at a Time invited her back to the show. However, she resumed using cocaine in 1982 and collapsed on the show's set. When she refused to take a drug test, she was fired and her character was written out of the series. In 1992, she entered a long-term drug rehabilitation program and underwent intensive treatment for nine months.

From the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, Phillips performed with a re-formed version of The Mamas & the Papas known as The New Mamas and The Papas.

In 1999, Phillips co-starred with Cara DeLizia in the Disney Channel series So Weird, playing a fictional rock star coincidentally named Molly Phillips. She was mother to Fiona, played by Cara DeLizia, and Jack played by Patrick Levis. In the third season, Fiona was replaced by Alexz Johnson, and Molly became a sort of mother to her. She sang original songs written by show producers Jon Cooksey and Ann Marie Montade. In 2002, she appeared in the Disney Channel original movie Double Teamed. Phillips has since guest-starred on episodes of ER, Without a Trace, 7th Heaven, and Cold Case.

Phillips won an Honorary Best Actress award on March 20, 2011 at the closing night awards gala of the Female Eye Film Festival in Toronto, Canada for her performance as Sharon in the 2010 independent film Peach Plum Pear. While in Toronto, she was interviewed on Canada Am, ET Canada, and The Marilyn Denis Show .

Personal life

Phillips has been married twice: to rock-group manager Jeffrey Sessler from 1979 to 1981, and to rock guitarist Michael Barakan - now known professionally as Shane Fontayne - from 1996 to 2000. She has one child, a son, Shane Barakan (born 1987), a musician.

Substance abuse and arrest

Phillips has had a lifetime troubled by drug abuse. On August 27, 2008, she was arrested by the Los Angeles Airport Police on charges of possession of cocaine and heroin after she went through airport security screening. On October 31, 2008, she pleaded guilty to one felony count of cocaine possession, and was sentenced to a drug rehabilitation program. Phillips' drug case was dismissed after she successfully completed a drug diversion program. "Mackenzie deserves great credit for seizing the opportunity she was given to get clean and prove she was worthy of the dismissal of her case," her attorney Blair Berk said in a statement.

She appeared on the third season of Celebrity Rehab, which aired in January and February 2010. She later discussed her recovery on the March 17, 2010 episode of The View.

Allegations of sexual relationship with father

In September 2009, Phillips' memoir High on Arrival was released, after which she appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show for an hour-long interview. She told Winfrey that she first tried cocaine when she was 11 years old, and that her father did drugs with her and injected her with cocaine.

During the interview, Phillips read excerpts from her book. She said that at the age of 19, on the night before her first wedding, "I woke up that night from a blackout to find myself having sex with my own father." In a later article in People magazine, she adds that she was under the influence of drugs provided by her father. Phillips then told Winfrey, "It became a consensual relationship," describing her participation as "sort of Stockholm Syndrome, where you begin to love your captor." She later reconsidered her characterization that it was a consensual relationship. In an interview on HLN's The Joy Behar Show, she said: "As I was writing the book, I thought, this word, it kept sitting wrong with me. But I used it for lack of a better word. Since then, I've been schooled by thousands of incest survivors all across the world that there really is no such thing as consensual incest due to the inherent power a parent has over a child. So, I wouldn't necessarily call it a consensual relationship at this time."

Phillips said the incestuous relationship had happened gradually for ten years, and that she ended it when she became pregnant and did not know who had fathered the child. She stated that her father paid for her to have an abortion, "and I never let him touch me again."

Genevieve Waite, John's wife at the time MacKenzie claimed the incest first began, denies the allegations, saying they were inconsistent with his character. Michelle Phillips, John's second wife, also stated that she had "every reason to believe [Mackenzie's account is] untrue."

Chynna Phillips, Mackenzie's half-sister and Michelle Phillips' daughter, stated that she believed Mackenzie's claims and that Mackenzie first told her about the relationship during a phone conversation in 1997, approximately 11 years after the supposed relationship had ended. Bijou Phillips, Mackenzie's other half-sister, said in a statement that Mackenzie had informed her of the relationship when Bijou was 13 years old, but also stated, "I'm 29 now, I've talked to everyone who was around during that time, I've asked the hard questions. I do not believe my sister. Our father is many things; this is not one of them." Jessica Woods, daughter of Denny Doherty, said that her father knew of the relationship.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1973	American Graffiti	Carol
1975	Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins	Frisbee
1979	More American Graffiti	Carol / Rainbow
1982	Love Child	J.J.
1998	True Friends	Connie
1999	When	Catherine Brown
2005	'	Nurse Harding
2011	Hercules Saves Christmas	Helen Dunn
2011	Peach Plum Pear	Sharon

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1973	Go Ask Alice	Doris	TV movie
1974	Movin' On	Chessie	Episode: "Roadblock"
1975	Miles to Go Before I Sleep	Robin Williams	TV movie
1975	Baretta	Mindy	Episode: "On the Road"
1975	'	Francie	Episode: "Mary's Delinquent"
1975-1983	One Day at a Time	Julie Cooper Horvath	123 episodes
1976	Eleanor and Franklin	Eleanor Roosevelt, age 14	TV movie
1978	'	Allison Scott	1 episode
1979	Fast Friends	Susan	TV movie
1979	'	Lisa Swan	Episode: "Metamorphosis"
1980	'	Lillian Gish	TV movie
1982	'	Rachel Johnson	1 episode
1985	Murder, She Wrote	Carol Needom	Episode: "Murder in the Afternoon"
1986	Kate's Secret	Deyna	TV movie
1994	Beverly Hills, 90210	Counselor Ellen Marks	Episode: "Intervention"
1995	Melrose Place	Maureen Dodd	Episode: "Melrose Impossible" Episode: "A Hose by Any Other Name"
1996	Guiding Light	Rachel Sullivan	TV series
1996	NYPD Blue	Mary Donaldson	Episode: "Sorry, Wrong Suspect"
1997	Caroline in the City	Donna Spadaro	Episode: "Caroline and the Singer"
1997	Walker, Texas Ranger	Ellen Simms	Episode: "Lucas: Part 1" Episode: "Lucas: Part 2"
1998	Chicago Hope	Valerie Boyd	Episode: "Risky Business"
1998	Viper	Heidi Rosen	Episode: "The Full Frankie"
1999-2001	So Weird	Molly Phillips	Main role
2000	'	Boo Weston	Episode: "Down to Earth"
2001	Kate Brasher	Tracy Del Rey	Episode: "Tracy"
2001	Crossing Jordan	Elaine Stahler	Episode "The Dawn of a New Day"
2002	Double Teamed	Mary Burge	TV movie
2002	ER	Leslie Miller	Episode "Damage Is Done"
2003	'	Carol Johnson	Episode: "Thus with a Kiss I Die"
2004	Without a Trace	Theresa Caldwell	Episode: "Lost and Found"
2004	NYPD Blue	Lorraine Stuval	Episode: "Fish Out of Water"
2004	7th Heaven	Allison Davies	Episode: "Why Not Me?"
2007	Cold Case	Sheila Swett	Episode: "That Woman"
2009	Radio Needles	Tonya Taylor	TV movie
2012	Interns: The Web Series	CEO	Episode: "Accepted"
2012	Criminal Minds	Ellen Russell	Episode: "The Pact"
2013	She Made them Do It	Jamie	TV movie, filming