Michelle Phillips

Michelle Phillips

Michelle Phillips (born Holly Michelle Gilliam; June 4, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and former model. She rose to fame as a vocalist in the musical quartet the Mamas and the Papas in the mid-1960s. Phillips garnered critical acclaim for her voice, which was deemed by Time magazine as the "purest soprano in pop music." She later established a successful career as an actress in film and television in the 1970s. Phillips is the last surviving original member of the Mamas and the Papas. A native of Long Beach, California, she spent her early life in Los Angeles and Mexico City, raised by her widowed father. While working as a model in San Francisco, she met and married John Phillips in 1962 and went on to co-found the vocal group the Mamas and the Papas in 1965. The band rose to fame with their popular singles "California Dreamin'" and "Creeque Alley", both of which she co-wrote. They released five studio albums before their dissolution in 1970. With John Phillips, she gave birth to a daughter, singer Chynna Phillips.

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