McGillis settles in after coming out

July 19, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

By Carrie Rickey

Philadelphia Inquirer

COLLINGSWOOD, N.J.

Moviegoers of a certain age remember Kelly McGillis as Rachel, the Amish widow in “Witness” (1985), a milk-fed madonna who looks as though she stepped out of a Vermeer and into Lancaster County, Pa. Or as Charlie, the smoking-hot flight instructor to fighter pilots in “Top Gun” (1986), one who makes pupil Tom Cruise look like her key ring. Or as Kathryn, brainy assistant D.A. in “The Accused” (1988), who convicts witnesses to rape as accessories.

After this trifecta that established her as one of the screen’s most sought-after leading ladies, McGillis flew off the Hollywood radar. Intentionally. She married, had two daughters, sailed across the Atlantic, divorced, thrived in regional theater and confronted her addiction issues.

Last year, she matter-of-factly told a reporter that she is a lesbian, a disclosure that punctured (or not) 14 million heterosexual male fantasies. Now 53, McGillis lives on a leafy street in Collingswood, a Philadelphia suburb. Saturday she will collect an Artistic Achievement award from the gay and lesbian film festival, QFest.

Fresh from weeding foxgloves in the garden of her 1920s kit house, McGillis and her corgi, Buddha, greet her guest. The goddess-next-door wears her years — and face — proudly. In the mode of Vanessa Redgrave, she is handsome and unadorned.

Except for a suite of lithographs depicting vignettes from Shakespeare, the simply furnished house is like its owner. No photos of famous friends. No trophy mantel. Franklin, her white cat, and Walter, a marmalade, find their light and meditate.

“My life is pretty simple,” McGillis says, stroking Buddha’s ears. “I live my life in loving service. I go to the prison in Camden [N.J.], talk to women there about addiction and recovery.”

McGillis has not turned her back on the stage and screen. She’s working on TV and film projects (“The L Word,” “Stakeland”). She taught acting during the years she lived in Mohnton, Pa., from 2001 to 2008.

“I’m paying dues I never paid before,” McGillis observes of her modestly scaled gigs. In 1983, she went from Juilliard to star billing, skipping the apprentice and journeyman stages. “I’m not reinventing myself,” she says. “I’m reintroducing myself.”