American Graffiti actress Mackenzie Phillips turns 51 today.
The actress is well-known for her early stardomshe was 12 when she appeared in American Graffiti--and her lifelong struggle with addiction. Then theres her 2009 memoir, in which she claims she had a ten-year-long sexual relationship with her father, who died in 2001.
Her father, John Phillips, fronted the band The Mamas & the Papas. Its a family, whatever its secrets, of performers; her half-sister Bijou Phillips is an actress, and Chynna Phillips is a singer. Mackenzie herself started a band when she was 12. During one of their performances, she caught the eye of the casting agent who steered her toward her part in American Graffiti (1973).
Phillips went on to play Julie Cooper Horvath on TV show One Day at a Time, with great, and greatly salaried, success. But she was always troubled, not least by her drug addiction. Her 1977 arrest for cocaine possession began her series of runins with the producers, who finally fired her in 1980 after she showed up high once again.
She spent the 80s and early 90s in and out of rehab; the One Day at a Time team gave her another chance, but she blew it for good in 83 and had her character written out of the show. In the early 00s, she made appearances on shows like ER, Without a Trace, 7th Heaven, and Cold Case, but her career was cut off once more by her very public 2008 arrest for heroin possession. After that, she chose to sign on to 2010s Celebrity Rehab.
