Donna Mills was always ambitious. From her earliest years in TV, she says she’s been “very focused” on her career, whether it be as an actress on the blockbuster soap opera Knots Landing or, in her 40s, owning a successful film production company.
Famed for an icy, ethereal beauty who never seemed to fade as she hit her 50s — still one of the most recognizable faces on TV — new challenges were sure to beckon in Hollywood.
Instead, Donna gave up and walked away. The reason? At the age of 54, at the height of her career, she adopted a four-day-old baby daughter – and disappeared to become a single mother.
“I wanted to have children,” she says now, “but it wasn’t in my head. After leaving Knots [in 1989], I had my own company and made films for television. But afterwards I said: ‘Okay, I did all that, now what?’
“I had noticed that when I saw a little child running up to his mother and saying ‘Mom’, I got very jealous, and I felt this dissatisfaction; this feeling that something is missing. I realized that I just wanted to be a mother. I felt like I was really giving a kid something.”
Donna Mills was always ambitious. Famed for an icy, ethereal beauty who never seemed to fade as she hit her 50s — still one of the most recognizable faces on TV — new challenges were sure to beckon in Hollywood
After contacting an LA adoption agency, it took her a reasonable nine months to find a baby for her. In 1994, Donna first saw the newborn Chloe, and from that moment on, “I fell in love,” she says simply. ‘She was mine and that was all. I believe the right child is coming to you and she should be with me.’
Now, at the age of 82, Donna is back on our screens — with a cameo in last year’s sci-fi horror film Nope, directed by Jordan Peele (the screenwriter and director of the Oscar-winning Get Out) and a starring role in the first in a series of television films based on the popular Cutler family novels by Virginia Andrews.
But it’s a career forever split in two by her devotion to being a parent. “Motherhood was what I wanted to experience, so for 18 years I really stopped doing anything else,” she says.
“For the first year or two, yes, I did a few films because I could bring Chloe to the set.
“But when she started school, I didn’t want to leave her alone for two months at a time just so I could go and make a movie. I wasn’t interested in that.’
And yet the parts were certainly on offer. As Knots Landing’s villain Abby Cunningham, she was one of a handful of ultra-glamorous actresses – including Joan Collins on Dynasty and Victoria Principal on Dallas – to dominate the 1980s soap operas.
The principal became an early wellness entrepreneur; Collins continued to land juicy roles in films and theater. Has Donna ever felt a pang of envy? “To be honest, I didn’t care,” she says. “I might have missed parts, but I’ve never looked at shows and thought, ‘I should have done that.’ ‘
In the UK, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to adopt as a single woman in her mid-50s, but it’s a different process in the US, where private agencies arrange most adoptions. I wonder if she’s ever worried about being considered too old.
“For some reason it didn’t occur to me, although it probably should have,” she admits.
Although there is no upper age limit or marriage requirement for adoption in California, “you must be evaluated by a psychiatrist [before you can adopt] and of course they question you, but no one ever said to me, ‘You’re too old.’ ‘ At least nobody within the adoption process has done that. Elsewhere, there have been occasional naysayers.
At the age of 54, at the height of her career, she adopted a four-day-old baby daughter – and disappeared to become a single mother
“Sometimes people said, ‘You’re going to have a toddler walking around when you’re 60 – it’s going to be awful!’
But I’ve never felt older than the moms who took me to playgroup, even though they were 30 years younger. I am still friends with some of them today.”
Has anyone ever commented on the fact that Donna adopted a black child?
“Sure, no one I knew commented,” she says.
“I thought there might be some issues I should address, so I joined an organization that specializes in interracial adoption. There was a summer camp and classes that were helpful because there were things I needed to look out for – things like hair care and buying specific products for it.
We meet at her home in Brentwood, a quaint Los Angeles suburb, and honestly, she looks sensational — dapper and trim in a top and white jeans, her signature blonde hair still lush, her eyeshadow flawless. Although she has avoided using fillers because she doesn’t want to “look like a duck,” she admits she had a “little bit of tucking” when she first started at Knots Landing. “But that was 40 years ago, so it’s stuck.”
Chloe, now 28, works as both a model and membership manager for the Malibu Soho House. She lives with Donna and the man she considers her father, actor Larry Gilman, 72, who began dating Donna when Chloe was six. She grew up as an only child and is very close to her mother.
“When Chloe was about three years old,” says Donna, “I asked her if she wanted a brother or sister and she said yes. Then when I said, ‘Do you realize that sometimes I have to hold the baby?’ she immediately changed her mind, so that’s it!
“She just wanted to be with me and that was fine with me.”
The path she chose was a rare one, she freely admits. “Fortunately, I was at a point in my life where I could afford to devote myself full-time to motherhood because I had made some money throughout my career.”
Donna was born in 1940 and started out as a dancer: “I’m sure that’s one of the reasons my body lasted so long,” she says. Notably, the character of Sandy in Grease was based on her. She grew up in Chicago and went to school with a certain Jim Jacobs – the co-creator of Grease and a classmate.
“I didn’t even know it was based on me until I heard about it on a TV show years later, but I was very flattered.”
Her training program is still very impressive today. “I play tennis four or five times a week and exercise between 45 and 60 minutes a day — typically 20 to 30 minutes of stretching and 20 minutes on the bike.”
She glides through her home in wedge heels: “I never want to walk like an old person and that’s what happens to your muscles when you don’t stretch, so I stretch a lot.”
Unlike many actresses who may have been married for the third time, Donna has never married. “I am very independent, have always made my own money and have never been endorsed by anyone. It always made me feel safer,” she admits. “When Larry and I met it was later in life — and mixing up our finances and everything at that point,” she grimaces, “why bother? So we separated everything. We’re not actually married, but it’s like we are.’
The couple relaxes at British shows like Downton Abbey. But with Donna’s career picking up steam again, binge-watching may have to take a back seat.
“I want to do worthwhile work, and what I really want to do is inspire women by saying, ‘Hey, we’re 70, 80 years old, but we’re not done yet.’ ‘
In fact, Nope’s success has led to a multitude of offers, and unlike many actresses who complain that work dries up once they hit 40, Donna has a different take. “It’s been that way for a long time, but now there’s so much product and a much broader audience to cater to — it’s not just teenagers and 20-somethings who go to the movies.” Actresses of a certain age, she points out, “have a lot more chances now.”
“I really enjoy the work and if there’s one thing I could do, it’s to say, ‘You don’t have to be old to be gone these days!’ We live much longer than people used to, and if we’re lucky enough to stay healthy, there’s a lot more we can contribute.’
When she came to London for the UK premiere of Nope last year, she brought Chloe with her. As they walked the red carpet together, Donna in a pristine white suit and Chloe in a green satin dress, she wrapped her arms around each other. It was the perfect illustration of the choices Donna Mills made — and how happy they made her.
- donnamills.com. No, it’s now available for download and on DVD and Blu-ray.