Sunday Profile: Donna Mills

on television Donna Mills stole  hearts and husbands on the hit   '80s Show Knots Landing right here  on CBS she's now an award-winning   Vintner and having a Very Good Year  Tracy Smith has our Sunday profile the hills above Los Angeles aren't exactly what  you'd call Wine Country but from the air you can   see rows of grapes growing smack in the middle of  a residential neighborhood welcome to Mandeville   Vineyards also known as Donna Mills' backyard  what kind of grapes grow here these are cabernets   this crop will become another vintage of  Malbec and cabernet sauvignon under the   Mandeville Vineyards label a project  she started 10 years ago with longtime   partner Larry Gilman we say we're Farmers  you know and to be a farmer is kind of fun   watch things grow yeah yeah I love it and it seems  Donna Mills has a knack for making things grow   from the Twisted mind of VC Andrews the long lost  Eugenia at the moment she's co-starring in the   lifetime series based on VC Andrews' Dawn playing  a grandmother with a mile-long Mean Streak I can't   say I'm surprised to find you in your current  condition I assume you know who the father is   this character Lillian is probably the evilest  I've ever been how does that feel good I know I   know so much fun to play the evil character  it really is did you expect to be treated   like some long lost princess hard to imagine  that she's really just a nice Midwestern girl   born and raised in Chicago Donna Mills dreamed of  being a dancer but found success on the stage and   it's soap opera it's like the secret storm is  the secret storm and love is a many splendored   thing of course any woman would be proud  to have a husband who wanted a life like   that she'd feel safe and she'd know that her  children would have the best possible future but   I can't see that woman John she also did guest  shots on Prime Time Shows with guest stars Donna   Mills including the short-lived cop series Dan  August with Burt Reynolds hi hi I was glad you   called I've been wanting to talk to you and  I did it it was great and I get a phone call   from my agent saying uh you got this movie with  Clint Eastwood I'm like how how did I do that I   never met him I was I said well he ran into Burt  in a bar one night and said I'm looking for a   girl for this movie I'm doing I can't find anybody  alike but just work with this girl from New York I might put your eye out her performance in  1971's Play Misty For Me was well received   but afterwards she found herself Typecast as a  damsel in distress God you're dumb frustrated she   found a role that would make her one of the best  known villains on network TV when I took knots   when I got it I'd never watched it I thought it  was a show about a houseboat with Andy Griffith you know boat kind of thing her turn as the  ruthless husband stealing Abby Cunningham made her famous I'm not coming  between you two am I and Infamous   even if something did happen it  wouldn't be the end of the world I didn't even say that to me all the time there  was a time when people that I would meet at a   party or whatever like the woman would be like  hello kind of pull her husband away don't steal   my husband Knots Landing was a major hit for CBS  and Mills says playing Abby gave her a certain   confidence which was not always perceived  as a good thing you know a confident man   is like everybody thinks that's great you  know Confident Woman is sometimes a bitch   did you run across that yeah been called that  more than once off screen she remained happily   unmarried but she sensed something was missing  I had had a hit series had my own production   company I was doing all this stuff and I've said  to myself well this is great I've achieved almost   everything that I've wanted to in my career  what about my life how does that look to me   and I thought do I want to go through life without  knowing what it's like to be a mother which is the   most important thing in the world no I want that  in my life and by that time it was kind of past   the time when I was going to be able to have a  baby so I thought I'll adopt and that's probably   what I feel is my greatest joy in 1994 Donna Mills  54 and single adopted a daughter and named her   Chloe do you remember that moment when you saw  Chloe for the first time oh yeah yeah probably   the best moment of my entire life when she was put  in my arms she was four days old and there she was my happiest times in my life sitting in the  rocking chair with her on my chest singing to her   Mills says she knew early on that she wanted to  be a full-time mom so she put her career on hold   for 18 years and raised Chloe from an infant to a  schoolgirl to an accomplished young woman and when   Chloe left for college mama said it was time to go  back to work you know it's going to be kind of a   struggle to get back you know because the casting  directors are 12 and they don't know who I am and   it was a bit of a struggle power privilege but  she perseveres scheming secrets fair warning Port   Charles Nobody Does it like Donna Mills a guest  role on General Hospital got her an Emmy I know   I'm not so weird I I'm so thrilled and grateful  that that I want an Emmy but I don't at all feel I   did my best work on that show I I think maybe the  Emmy was kind of maybe for other work one of those   things she deserves it this time around so we're  going to give it to her yes that's the way I feel   I I don't know for sure there she is everybody  take a look at all of that still she was back your   name is OJ even making an appearance last year and  Jordan Peele's acclaimed horror film nope playing   what else well I'm ready to do one a star if you  are 82 mm-hmm how do you how do you look like this   how do you stay healthy and looking the  way you do oh it's hard takes me hour   do you have aches and pains and oh God yes I you  just have to get past that you just have to say   I'm going to do it anyway the hard part is that  you know it's the last chapter and I don't want   to go away so I'm hanging on as long as I can  and trying to be I'm not only a grandma as much   as I can be for as long as I can be not tolerate  insolence we have this extended life cycle now   let's make the last part of it one of the  best no retirement clearly oh God no no   well I figure they have to have somebody to play  the grandmother I'm available for those things

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 191,976

Keywords: CBS Sunday Morning, CBS News, news, Donna Mills, Knots Landing, Play Misty for Me, V.C. Andrews' Dawn, actress, vintner

Id: 6dwTVK5AXVo

Length: 8min 19sec (499 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 30 2023