Lois Chiles


Lois Cleveland Chiles is an American actress and former fashion model known for her role as Holly Goodhead in the James Bond film Moonraker, and as a hit-and-run driver in Creepshow 2. Other screen credits include The Way We Were, The Great Gatsby, Death on the Nile, Broadcast News, and the television role of Holly Harwood on Dallas.

Early and personal life

Chiles was born in Houston, the daughter of Marion Clay Chiles and Barbara Wayne Kirkland Chiles. Her paternal uncle was oil tycoon and Texas Rangers owner Eddie Chiles. She had two brothers: Clay Kirkland Chiles, and William Edmonds Chiles, president and CEO of Bristow Group, Inc. She was raised in Alice, Texas.
Chiles studied at the University of Texas at Austin and the former Finch College in New York City, where she was discovered by a Glamour editor looking for a young woman to feature on the cover of the magazine's annual college issue. She landed the job and soon had contracts with Wilhelmina Models in New York and Elite Models in Paris. Later, she studied acting under Roy London and Sandy Meisner, among many others. In her New York years, she befriended Tennessee Williams, Andy Warhol, Maureen Stapleton, and models Patty Hanson and Grace Jones.
Chiles moved from New York to Los Angeles around 1978 when she felt she no longer wanted to pursue modeling and focus on acting only. It was also around this time that she lost her younger brother to cancer. Clay Chiles was 25 when he died in 1978 at M.D. Anderson of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, which affected her deeply.
She dated Don Henley but the relationship ended, and later for a time, dated William S. Paley. In 2005, she married money manager Richard Gilder. They were both honorary co-chairs of Northfield Mount Hermon, a school in Massachusetts. Gilder donated money to the school and they named the Chiles Theater after her. Gilder died in 2020.

Career

Chiles enjoyed a successful modeling career in the early 1970s. After her role in the 1972 blaxploitation film Together for Days opposite Clifton Davis, Chiles appeared in supporting roles in some of the biggest films of the 1970s. She played the college girlfriend of Robert Redford in the successful 1973 studio release The Way We Were. She was then cast as Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby alongside Mia Farrow and, once again, Redford. She again shared the screen with Farrow in the Agatha Christie adaptation Death on the Nile. She also appeared in a small but key role in the thriller Coma.
In her most famous role as NASA astronaut, scientist, and Bond girl Dr. Holly Goodhead, Chiles appeared opposite Roger Moore in Moonraker. Chiles had initially been approached to star in the previous Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, but she declined the role because she was taking a break from acting at the time.
She appeared in the music video for the Tony Powers song Odyssey in 1982.
Chiles lost her youngest brother to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1978, which contributed to her decision to take a three-year hiatus from acting. The time away took a toll on her film career, and she struggled to find roles of the caliber she previously enjoyed. Still, she appeared as a season-long guest star in the 1982–1983 season of television's Dallas, playing independent oil heiress Holly Harwood who becomes entangled with Bobby and J.R. Ewing. Her film roles were smaller, though film critic Pauline Kael gave her good notices for her performances in Alan Alda's Sweet Liberty and her portrayal of reporter Jennifer Mack in James L. Brooks' Broadcast News was also well received, as was her turn in George A. Romero's horror flick Creepshow 2 in 1987, as a hit-and-run driver. In 1989, she appeared uncredited in a cameo as the estranged mother of Ione Skye's character in Say Anything....
In 1985, she appeared as "Maggie" in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in Los Angeles opposite Terence Knox and directed by Jose Ferrer. She stated that it was a major personal triumph to play the demanding role for her as she was not stage-trained.
She has since appeared as a stuffy high-school principal in the 1996 Disney film Wish Upon a Star, and as a frightened cruise passenger in the critically panned Speed 2: Cruise Control in 1997. She made a cameo appearance in the international release of the 1997 Bond spoof Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, though her scene was cut from the United States release.
Other episodic television work included guest appearances in series such as Hart to Hart, In the Heat of the Night, Murder, She Wrote, and The Nanny. Later career high points included the indie films Diary of a Hitman and Curdled. In 2005, friend Quentin Tarantino, with whom she had previously worked on the set of Curdled, recruited her to appear in the two-episode Season 5 finale of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which he wrote and directed.
In the spring of 2002, she taught a course in film acting at the University of Houston. Unlike some "Bond girls", Chiles has said that "being a Bond girl is a fun way to be remembered", although she jokes that being asked to sigh "Oh, James" is annoying because "you can't live up to people's fantasies". On other occasions, she stated "I'm proud I'm a Bond Girl. It's not bad at all."
Mostly retired from film, she has spent her later years focusing on art and dividing her time between Houston and New York. Her most recent film credit is Guns & Moses.

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotes
1972Together for DaysShelley
1973The Way We WereCarol Ann
1974The Great GatsbyJordan Baker
1978ComaNancy Greenly
1978Death on the NileLinnet Ridgeway
1979MoonrakerDr. Holly Goodhead
1981Hart to HartMary Scott / ScottieTV series, Season 2
1982OdysseyUnnamedMusic video for Tony Powers song
1982–1983DallasHolly HarwoodTV series, Season 6 and Season 7
1984Raw CourageRuth
1986Sweet LibertyLeslie
1986Dark MansionsJessica DrakeTV movie
1987Creepshow 2Annie Lansing
1987Tales from the Hollywood Hills: A Table at Ciro'sLita NathanTV movie
1987Broadcast NewsJennifer Mack
1989Say Anything...Diane's Mother
1989TwisterVirginia
1990Burning BridgesClaire MorganTV movie
1990In the Eye of the SnakeClaire Anzer—Marc's Mother
1990Murder, She WroteMillie Bingham StaffordTV series, Season 7
1991Veronica ClareTV series, Seasons 1 and 2
1991Bis ans Ende der WeltElsa Farber
1991Diary of a HitmanSheila
1992ObsessedLouiseTV movie
1993In the Heat of the NightMuriel GrayTV series, Season 6
1993Civil WarsAlexandra PhelpsTV series, Season 2
1993CrossroadsReneeTV series, Season 1
1993Lush LifeLucyTV movie
1994L.A. LawCamilla GreerTV series, Season 8
1995The BabysitterBernice Holsten
1995FlipperAllison Van RijnTV series, Season 1
1996CurdledKatrina Brandt
1996Wish Upon a StarPrincipal Mary MittermillerTV movie
1997BlissEva
1997The NannyElaineTV series, Season 4
1997Austin Powers: International Man of MysterySteamrolled Henchman's Wife
1997Speed 2: Cruise ControlCeleste
1998Black Cat RunAda Bronnel
2000Eventual WifeSusan's Mothershort
2002Any Day NowJudgeTV series, Season 4
2002Warning: Parental AdvisorySusan BakerTV movie
2005CSI: Crime Scene InvestigationJillian StokesTV series, Season 5
2006Kettle of FishJean
2024Guns & Moses