Biography donna mills
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Blonde, buoyant Donna Mills began acting in local amateur and professional productions in her home town of Chicago. Donna made her Broadway bow as a harem girl in Woody Allen's play "Don't Drink the Water," then played recurring roles on the Manhattan-based TV soap operas The Secret Storm (1954) and Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (1967). Her first film was The Incident (1967), a hard-hitting drama which co-starred fellow up-and-comers Martin Sheen and Beau Bridges. After playing Clint Eastwood's imperiled girlfriend in the cult thriller Play Misty for Me (1971), Mills guest-starred on numerous top-rated series and carved a niche for herself in made-for-TV movies, usually typecast as a damsel in distress. On the big screen, she scored another coup when she acted with Don Stroud in Murph the Surf (1975). Donna forever altered her on-screen image from trembling helplessness to calculating truculence in the role of Abby Cunningham Ewing, second wife of Dallas (1
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Donna Mills
This attractive wide-eyed blonde put in numerous years guest starring as a woman in danger on TV episodics before she gained small screen stardom as Abby Cunningham Ewing, one of primetime's scheming nasty vixen, on the long-running CBS soap "Knots Landing." Donna Mills has since gone on to headline many TV-movies, often also serving as producer.
Donna Mills left the University of Illinois before turning twenty to pursue a career as a dancer and an actor, appearing in theatrical productions in Chicago, including several at the Drury Lane Theatre. She was cast in a touring production of "My Fair Lady" which brought her to New York. In 1964, Mills made her TV debut in a short-term role on the daytime soap "The Secret Storm" and was a regular on the short-lived variety series "The Steve Lawrence Show" (CBS, 1965). The following year, she was in the original cast of Woody Allen's Broadway hit "Don't Drink the Water." In 1967, Mills made her feature film debut with a small
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In 1980 Mills landed her most prominent role — that of scheming, manipulative vixen Abby Cunningham on the long-running primetime soap opera Knots Landing. Mills portrayed Abby from 1980–1989. Prior to being cast in Knots Landing, Mills was primarily known for playing the “damsel in distress” archetype in both film and television media. Donna became famous for playing these roles, often leading to unwanted typecasting. In an interview with Jerry Buck for the Toledo Blade, Mills said: “I got tired of playing the victim. It’s a more active role. Abby keeps things stirred up, and I like that. Abby was not planned when the show began. The writers knew that they wanted a female J.R. Ewing-esque character. However, they had a different sense of the character and who would wind up in the role. With Mills’ reputation of playing the victim, they initially didn’t choose her for the part.
Josh Mapes of The Biography Channel listed her in the categ