What '80s Star Kelly McGillis Looks Like Now (& Why She Ditched Hollywood)

While Hollywood likes to sell the idea of big stars being overnight successes, the reality is that most famous actors spend years toiling away before they make it. The untold truth of Jennifer Aniston was that she was selling weight-loss products on "The Howard Stern Show" before she hit it big with "Friends." Ryan Gosling was "Young Hercules" before "The Notebook" made him a household name. But for 1980's icon Kelly McGillis, fame came quickly. McGillis captured the world's attention with her second feature film, 1985's "Witness," which earned her a Golden Globe nomination. A year later, she was back on the big screen in the box office smash "Top Gun." Not long after, McGillis married and left Los Angeles for Key West, Florida, to raise her two children and open a restaurant. She continued to act from time to time, but her family and mental health became her focus.

Archive Photos & Larry Busacca/Getty

While many celebrities have undergone face transformations that left them unrecognizable, McGillis avoided plastic surgery and has embraced aging, telling the Los Angeles Times in 2009, "I can't imagine what it must be like psychologically to be 70 years old and live in a 70-year-old body and look in the mirror to see a 25-year-old staring back." McGillis' blonde locks have a fair amount of gray now, but she is no less stunning today than she was in 1986, and she has the added bonus of finding peace within herself, telling the Daily News in 2011, "In the end, you can never be anything other than what you are. You have to be true to who you are in your being, in your very core."

Before, during, and after the height of her fame, Kelly McGillis dealt with a number of horrific tragedies that contributed to her issues with addiction, and it would take years to overcome them. In November 2014, McGillis spoke at the Atonement Lutheran Church in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, telling the people who came to see her, "I think it takes immense courage for us to face ourselves. I don't know about other people, but I spent 44 years running from myself" (via Reading Eagle). Her journey from co-starring with Tom Cruise to living a quiet but fulfilling life wasn't easy. In 2001, McGillis entered rehab to work on overcoming her substance abuse. A year later, she divorced her husband and began the process of fixing her relationship with her daughters. In 2009, McGillis came out to the world, opening up about her sexuality, and has been vocal about her difficulties admitting the truth to herself, telling the Daily News: "I was gay way before I had kids. I had a really tough time coming to accept myself. I had a lot of shame about my sexuality."

McGillis continued to work on herself, but also worked to help others, taking on a full-time position at the Seabrook House in Bridgeton, New Jersey, a rehab clinic, for a while. Still, acting was in her blood. She eventually moved to North Carolina and began teaching a new generation of thespians while once again stepping in front of the camera from time to time, such as in 2015's "Blue." But, most importantly, McGillis has found true happiness in her life. As she explained to People in 2018, "I have a very quiet, little normal life, and I love it."