Kelly McGillis, once a Hollywood golden girl with top billing in Top Gun, Witness and The Accused, has settled into a contented life away from the glitter after coming to terms with several massively traumatic events in childhood and her adult life. She now works full-time at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre ‘It’s just an amazing gift to see people come in hopeless and to be given some hope,’ she said. She also teaches acting in New Jersey and pursues domestic rural pursuits, as well as taking odd acting jobs. Which is a testament to her tenacity, courage and determination to make it through.
She survived a violent break-in in her twenties with two men forcing their way into her New York apartment and beating her; having been mugged a year before at gunpoint; then later revealed she had been gang raped as a child; and more recently had another home invasion. Not surprisingly she turned to alcohol for relief. Eventually therapy and rehab got her on the road to stability.
Born 9 July 1957 3.47pm Burbank, California (birth certificate), she has a Cancer Sun in her knowledgeable 9th house along with Mercury in Cancer, a high-octane Uranus, Venus, Mars conjunct in Leo also in her 9th – and Pluto in late Leo exactly on her Midheaven. Her Sagittarius Moon is trine Pluto sextile a 12th house Neptune (which last can be addictive-prone). She has a friendly, lucky Jupiter in hard-working Virgo on the cusp of her 11th house square her Moon. Her Saturn in Sagittarius is trine her Uranus, Venus, Mars which would certainly put a harsh-edge on some of her life’s experiences.
It is not as gothic a chart as I might have imagined. Though when the break in occurred in her 20s when she was nearly killed, her Solar Arc Sun was exactly conjunct her Mars which does often accompany a shocking event. A violent, destructive transiting Mars Saturn conjunction was sitting on her Solar Arc Jupiter and square her Sun which would threaten to crush her spirit. Transiting Pluto was moving into her hidden 12th house for many years thereafter; and her Solar Arc Uranus was conjunct her Midheaven for a jolting shift in her life’s direction.
Both her Mean and True Black Moon Lilith are in her emotional 4th house close to her IC which may be significant. Nessus is on the cusp of her 7th house of relationships hints at a need to wise up about risks and dangers from other people.
I would suspect what pulled her through was her ever-optimistic Sagittarius Moon plus a high-vitality collection of Leo Planets in Sagittarius’s natural home the 9th. Pluto on her Midheaven would also give her strength and endurance and an urge to transform her career/direction in life to make a difference.
Her victim/healer 12th harmonic links Mars to Chiron and Pluto in a yod – Mars Pluto representing a life-and-death struggle. That afflicted Mars motif recurs in her Wheel of Fortune 10th harmonic = highs and then lows, with a Mercury opposition Mars square Saturn. And in her ‘Master’ 11th harmonic with a Mars opposition Pluto square Sun.