1965–1969: The Mamas and the Papas The Phillips newlyweds relocated to New York City, where they began writing songs together and formed the Mamas and the Papas in 1965. Michelle co-wrote some of the band's hits, including "
California Dreamin'", which appears on the group's debut album,
If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears (1966). Recording of the Mamas and the Papas' second album, titled
The Mamas and the Papas (1966) was interrupted when Michelle Phillips's affair with
Gene Clark of
the Byrds was revealed. An affair the previous year between Phillips and bandmate
Denny Doherty had been forgiven; Doherty and John Phillips had reconciled and ostensibly written "
I Saw Her Again" (1966) about the episode, although they later disagreed about how much Doherty had contributed to the song. This time, John Phillips was determined to fire his wife. After consulting their attorney and record label, John Phillips, Cass Elliot, and Denny Doherty served Michelle Phillips with a letter expelling her from the group on June 4, 1966. However, she was rehired on August 23 after the remaining band members concluded that her replacement,
Jill Gibson, lacked her predecessor's "stage charisma and grittier edge". After Phillips's reinstatement, the band embarked on a brief tour of the East Coast, playing a series of shows in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and at
Fordham University in New York City. , 1967 After returning to California and settling in Los Angeles, the group recorded their third album,
The Mamas & The Papas Deliver (1967). In June 1967, Phillips performed with the group at the
Monterey Pop Festival in Monterey, California, an event organized by John Phillips and
Lou Adler. The festival also featured other prominent California-based counterculture musicians and psychedelic rock acts, including
Jefferson Airplane,
Big Brother and the Holding Company (featuring
Janis Joplin) and
Jimi Hendrix. Recounting the experience, Phillips said: "[It was like] a
Renaissance Fair. It was convenient for the artists and the audience. Practically everyone had a seat, and if not, people were lining up against the fence, and they could see and hear. Or people were sitting outside, you could hear it outside, too ... It was lovely." In August 1967, the band played what would be their final live performance at the
Hollywood Bowl. Phillips would go on to record a fourth and final album with the band,
The Papas & The Mamas (1968), before going on a hiatus. In February 1968, she gave birth to their daughter,
Chynna Phillips, who later became a vocalist with the 1990s pop trio
Wilson Phillips. Michelle and John, whose marriage was failing at the time, filed for divorce in a Los Angeles County court in May 1969. The Mamas and the Papas officially disbanded in 1971 before the release of their final album,
People Like Us, which was recorded to fulfill contract obligations with their record label.
1970–1976: Transition to acting in Taos, New Mexico, 1970, during editing of
The Last Movie In 1969, while still a member of the Mamas and the Papas, Phillips acted in
Gram Parsons's science fiction film
Saturation 70 alongside
Nudie Cohn,
Anita Pallenberg, and Julian Jones, the five-year-old son of
Rolling Stones guitarist
Brian Jones. The following year, after the breakup of the Mamas and the Papas, she enrolled in acting classes in Los Angeles and has said that she had intended to start her acting career "from scratch", stating that the royalties from the band's records provided her a sustained income while she began to venture into film. She studied acting with
Peggy Feury. The film was critically acclaimed, and
Variety said of her performance: "Phillips, making her film bow after having been a member of the Mamas & the Papas singing group, scores heavily as Dillinger's girlfriend", while the
New York Times noted it as "mildly effective". Phillips was nominated for a
Golden Globe Award for
Most Promising Newcomer for her performance. Reflecting on the film, Phillips said: "I was so lucky to have been surrounded by really great actors. Everybody in that movie was a real actor:
Warren Oates,
Ben Johnson,
Cloris Leachman,
Richard Dreyfuss,
Harry Dean Stanton. It was just a wonderful, wonderful experience for me and I had so much support and so much help and so much encouragement. That was really my first movie. Dennis' movie [
The Last Movie] was a lot of improvisation and craziness." Phillips remained a lifelong friend of co-star Stanton. That same year, Phillips recorded vocals as a cheerleader along with
Darlene Love for the
Cheech & Chong single
Basketball Jones, which peaked at No 15 on the
Billboard singles chart. In 1974, she was featured in the action-horror television film
The California Kid opposite
Martin Sheen. She had a cameo appearance in a party scene with then-boyfriend
Warren Beatty in
Shampoo (1975). She would later state that she considered Beatty the love of her life. In 1975, Phillips signed a solo recording contract with
A&M Records and released a promo single,
Aloha Louie, a song she wrote with ex-husband John Phillips. Phillips released her first solo single in 1976, "No Love Today", which appeared on the
Mother, Jugs & Speed movie soundtrack.
1977–1986: Solo album, film, and writing In 1977, Phillips released her first and only solo album,
Victim of Romance, produced by
Jack Nitzsche for
A&M Records. Commenting on the record, she said: "I didn't do it earlier because I never felt secure enough as a vocalist. I'm good, but Cass was always better." Phillips also commented on her involvement in its production, saying that she had been involved in "every aspect, from mixing to putting together the package and cover myself". Her first two solo singles from the album failed to make the U.S. music charts. Concurrent with her solo album release, she sang backup vocals with former stepdaughter
Mackenzie Phillips on
Zulu Warrior for her ex-husband's second solo album,
Pay Pack & Follow. Around the same time, she starred as
Rudolph Valentino's second wife
Natacha Rambova in
Ken Russell's film
Valentino (1977). The film received mixed reviews, with
Time Out London saying: "Structured as a series of flashbacks from Valentino's funeral to his early years in America, the first hour or so of this biopic is Russell's sanest and most controlled work in several years, despite its hollow cynicism." The following year, Phillips married radio executive Robert Burch, though their marriage ended in 1979. In 1979, she appeared in the film adaptation of the
Sidney Sheldon novel
Bloodline (1979), a thriller starring
Audrey Hepburn and
Ben Gazzara. Released in June 1979,
Bloodline received negative reviews from critics, and Phillips's performance (along with those of
James Mason and
Maurice Ronet) was criticized by
Variety as being "drab". The same year, she recorded the song
Forever for the movie soundtrack of
California Dreaming, a surf film unrelated to her former group despite its title. Phillips's other film credits during this period include roles in the comedy ''
The Man with Bogart's Face (1980), the nature horror film Savage Harvest (1981), about a family being attacked by a pride of lions, and American Anthem (1986). On television, Phillips played the mermaid princess Nyah in three episodes of Fantasy Island and Leora Van Treas in Mike Hammer: Murder Takes All (1983), starring Stacy Keach in the title role. She appeared in TV miniseries such as Aspen
(1977) and The French Atlantic Affair'' (1979). During this time, Phillips began dating actor
Grainger Hines; she gave birth to their son, Austin Deveraux Hines, on March 3, 1982. The following year, she joined the cast of
Hotel as the concierge, the daughter of hotel owner Victoria Cabot's rival, who plants his daughter as a spy to further his aim of acquiring control of the St. Gregory. Phillips continued to appear in the series until 1986. Her relationship with Hines ended in 1984. In 1986, Phillips wrote an autobiography, ''California Dreamin': The True Story of the Mamas and the Papas'', released just weeks after her former husband's autobiography,
Papa John. In it, she describes events such as her first meeting with
Cass Elliot, winning 17 straight shoots at a craps table in San Juan, Puerto Rico when the band was broke and could not afford the airfare back to the United States mainland, and how her writing credit on "
California Dreamin'", which still nets her
royalties, was "the best wake-up call" she ever had; she was asleep in a New York hotel room when husband John Phillips woke her to help him finish the new song that he was writing.
1987–1993: Knots Landing and film Beginning in 1987, Phillips starred on
Knots Landing as the constantly scheming
Anne Matheson Sumner, the mother of star
Nicollette Sheridan's character
Paige Matheson, becoming a series regular in 1989. Phillips continued to appear in the role until the series's 1993 conclusion. Phillips was a passenger in the car with boyfriend Geoffrey Tozer, and the marijuana was discovered after police searched the couple's vehicle. Also in late 1987, Phillips sang backup vocals on
Belinda Carlisle's studio album
Heaven on Earth, as well as its number-one single "
Heaven Is a Place on Earth". The following year, she appeared in the
Star Trek: The Next Generation first-season episode "
We'll Always Have Paris" as Jenice Manheim, wife of the scientist Paul Manheim. Phillips and Tozer got engaged on February 29, 1988. The couple took in Aron Wilson, a friend of her son Austin's, whom they legally adopted and raised. While starring on
Knots Landing, Phillips continued to appear in films, including a supporting role in 1989's gambling-themed
Let It Ride, co-starring with
Richard Dreyfuss and
Teri Garr, playing what
Kevin Thomas of the
Los Angeles Times characterized as a "deliciously blonde society tramp". She had a supporting role in the thriller
Scissors (1991), opposite
Sharon Stone, playing the politician wife of a therapist treating a mentally unstable woman (Stone). Next, she had a supporting role as the wife of a former race-car driver in the action thriller
Joshua Tree (1993), starring
Dolph Lundgren. Following the 1993 conclusion of
Knots Landing, Phillips starred in the short-lived drama series
Second Chances (1993–1994) opposite
Connie Sellecca and
Jennifer Lopez. She also had the lead role in the 1993 television thriller film
Rubdown, playing a woman at the center of a divorce plot in which her husband pays a masseur to have an affair with her. Denise McIver of
Variety panned the film, writing: "The most disturbing thing about this two-hour cable telefilm is its cynicism and the fact that none of the characters seemed redeemed, or at least changed, by their experiences. This is not to say it won't hold one's interest, if only for the scenario, which delivers lots of bare backs, naked legs and superficially steamy sex scenes."
1994–present: Television and film Phillips played Laura Collins in the television drama film
No One Would Tell (1996), and also supplied the voice of Raven, a television host, on
Ralph Bakshi's
HBO animated series
Spicy City (1997). Beginning in 1997, she portrayed Abby Malone, mother of
Valerie Malone (
Tiffani Thiessen) on
Fox's
Beverly Hills, 90210, and in the same year reprised her role of Anne Matheson in the television film
Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac. Having split with Tozer in 1996, Phillips began dating plastic surgeon Steven Zax in 1999. Between 2001 and 2004, Phillips also appeared on television in a recurring role on
The WB drama
7th Heaven as Lily Jackson, sister of family matriarch Annie Jackson Camden (
Catherine Hicks). In 2009, Phillips appeared at the annual
TV Land Awards for the 30th-year celebration of
Knots Landing. She also appeared in a minor role in the Norwegian historical film
Betrayal, which chronicles the
German occupation of Norway. In 2017, Zax, Phillips's long-term partner of eighteen years, died. In 2019, Phillips appeared as an interview subject in Andrew Slater's
Echo in the Canyon, a documentary on the Laurel Canyon music scene of the 1960s. ==Artistry==