Lois Chiles

Lois Chiles
Studio portrait (1979)
Born	Lois Cleveland Chiles (1947-04-15) April 15, 1947 (age 77) Houston, Texas, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Actress, model
Years active	1972–2006
Spouse	Richard Gilder ​ ​ (m. 2005; died 2020)​
Relatives	Eddie Chiles (uncle)

Lois Cleveland Chiles (born April 15, 1947)^[1] is an American actress and former fashion model known for her role as Holly Goodhead in the James Bond film Moonraker (1979), and as a hit-and-run driver in Creepshow 2 (1987).

Other screen credits include The Way We Were (1973), The Great Gatsby (1974), Death on the Nile (1978), Broadcast News (1987), and the television role of Holly Harwood on Dallas (1982–1983).

Chiles was born in Houston, the daughter of Marion Clay Chiles and Barbara Wayne Kirkland Chiles. Her paternal uncle was oil tycoon and Texas Rangers owner Eddie Chiles.^[2][3][4] She had two brothers: Clay Kirkland Chiles (died 1979),^{[citation needed]} and William Edmonds Chiles, president and CEO of Bristow Group, Inc. She was raised in Alice, Texas.

Chiles studied at the University of Texas at Austin and the former Finch College in New York City, where she was discovered by a Glamour editor looking for a young woman to feature on the cover of the magazine's annual college issue.^[1] She landed the job and soon had contracts with Wilhelmina Models in New York and Elite Models in Paris. Later, she studied acting under Roy London.^[5] She dated Don Henley but the relationship ended, and in 2005, she married money manager Richard Gilder.^[6] They are both honorary co-chairs of Northfield Mount Hermon, a school in Massachusetts. Gilder donated money to the school and they named the Chiles Theater after her.^[7] Gilder died in 2020.^[8]

Chiles enjoyed a successful modeling career in the early 1970s. After her role in the independent 1972 blaxploitation film Together for Days opposite Clifton Davis, Chiles appeared in the successful 1973 studio release The Way We Were, as the college girlfriend of Robert Redford. She was then cast as Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby (1974) alongside Mia Farrow and, once again, Robert Redford. She again shared the screen with Farrow in the Agatha Christie adaptation Death on the Nile (1978).

As NASA astronaut, scientist, and Bond girl Dr. Holly Goodhead, Chiles appeared opposite Roger Moore in Moonraker (1979).

Chiles had initially been approached to star in the previous Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, but she declined the role as she was taking a break from acting at the time.^[1] She also appeared in a small role in the thriller Coma (1978), one of the many films in which she played a murder victim.^{[9][unreliable source?]}

She appeared in the music video for the Tony Powers song Odyssey in 1982.

Chiles lost her youngest brother to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1979, which contributed to her decision to take a three-year hiatus from acting. The time away took a toll on her film career, and she struggled to find roles of the caliber she previously enjoyed, although film critic Pauline Kael gave her good notices for her performances in Alan Alda's Sweet Liberty (1986).^{[citation needed]} Her portrayal of reporter Jennifer Mack in James L. Brooks' Broadcast News (1987) was also well received, as was her turn in George A. Romero's horror flick Creepshow 2 in 1987, as a hit-and-run driver.^{[10][unreliable source?]} In 1989, she appeared uncredited in a short but effective cameo as the estranged mother of Ione Skye's character in Say Anything... (1989).^{[citation needed]}

She has since appeared as a stuffy high-school principal in the 1996 Disney film Wish Upon a Star, and as a frightened cruise passenger in the critically panned Speed 2: Cruise Control in 1997. She made a cameo appearance in the international release of the 1997 Bond spoof Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, though her scene was cut from the United States release.^{[citation needed]}

She has worked in television, playing J.R. Ewing's love interest Holly Harwood in the 1982–1983 season of Dallas and guest appearances in series such as Hart to Hart (as a psychotic split-personality model), In the Heat of the Night, Murder, She Wrote, and The Nanny (with another Bond girl, Ivana Miličević). Later career high points included the indie films Diary of a Hitman (1991) and Curdled (1996).^[1] In 2005, friend Quentin Tarantino, with whom she had previously worked on the set of Curdled, recruited her to appear in the two-episode finale of season five of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which he wrote and directed.^{[citation needed]}

In the spring of 2002, she taught a course in film acting at the University of Houston.^[5] Unlike some "Bond girls", Chiles has said that "being a Bond girl is a fun way to be remembered", although she jokes that being asked to sigh "Oh, James" is annoying because "you can't live up to people's fantasies".^{[11][unreliable source?]}

• Lois Chiles at IMDb
• Lois Chiles at Turner Classic Movies
• Interview with Lois Chiles focusing on her role on "Dallas"