Kelly McGillis became a megastar by playing the flight instructor who falls for in Top Gun. Since her breakout role as Charlotte 'Charlie' Blackwood in the 1986 blockbuster she has enjoyed a modest acting career. While never quite reached the dizzying heights of her bursting onto the silver screen she has remained in the public eye.
The actress, who turns 67 today (July 9), engaged in a number of high profile relationships during her hey day, including Warren Beatty and Jodie Foster. Despite her meteoric rise in front of the camera, behind the lens was a woman haunted by events in her life. From to sexual assault and problem's with alcohol, Kelly's on-screen choices were sometimes influenced by what happened in her personal life.
It was before she'd even appeared on Top Gun when she experienced the first couple of incidents. Two years after Kelly moved from Newport Beach, California, to to study acting at Julliard she was mugged at gun point. At the time she shrugged it off as a Big Apple initiation but in 1982 two men forced their way into her apartment and raped her at .
Speaking to People magazine about the ordeal in 1988 she described how one of her assailants held a knife to her right eye, while the other got on top of her. "They kept switching and telling me they were going to beat me until I was dead,” she said. Fortunately, a person heard her cries and alerted the police, who in turn banged on the door and scared the attackers off.
Kelly later identified them, and t.
