Wendy Phillips (born January 2, 1952) is an American actress, known for her roles on television series including Falcon Crest, Homefront and Promised Land.
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Early years
Phillips was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her father, Wendell K. Phillips, was an actor who performed primarily in theaters in New York. Her mother, Jean Shelton, was an actress. Her parents separated after her father was unable to obtain jobs because he was blacklisted for being a member of the Communist Party. Phillips lived with her grandmother in Atlanta for two years. Shelton and the couple's five children moved to Berkeley, California, after the separation. She worked as a legal secretary, and Phillips recalled, "At one point, she was on welfare and food stamps." Shelton also had a relationship with actor Robert Ross; Phillips said that neither he nor her father provided child support. The family's situation improved when Shelton began teaching acting classes, an effort that eventually developed into a school with 200 students. Phillips initially veered away from the family's acting tradition to study pre-law at the University of California at Berkeley. She found legal preparation less appealing than "great summations", however, so she went into acting as a profession.
Career
Phillips made her screen debut in the 1975 NBC Movie of the Week, Death Be Not Proud. Two years later, Phillips made her big screen debut in the drama film Fraternity Row. On television, she starred alongside Mitchell Ryan in the CBS drama series, Executive Suite from 1976 to 1977, and later on the NBC series The Eddie Capra Mysteries (1978–79). She later guest-starred on Lou Grant, Trapper John, M.D., Taxi, St. Elsewhere, The Twilight Zone, and Murder, She Wrote
During the 1980s, Phillips appeared in films Airplane II: The Sequel (1982) and Midnight Run (1988), as well as a number of made-for-television movies, notably Paper Dolls (1982), the NBC miniseries A Year in the Life (1986), and its sequel series from 1987 to 1988. In 1989, she was a regular cast member in the ABC sitcom The Robert Guillaume Show, and from 1989 to 1990 starred as David Selby's character's last wife, Lauren Daniels, during the final season of CBS prime time soap opera, Falcon Crest. In 1991, she played title character's ex-wife in the biographical film Bugsy.
From 1991 to 1993, Phillips starred in the ABC award-winning drama series, Homefront. She later played Gerald McRaney's wife, Claire Greene, on the CBS series Touched by an Angel (1994–98) and Promised Land (1996–99). The following years, Phillips guest-starred on Charmed, ER, The Closer, Shameless, and had recurring roles on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006) and Big Love (2006–2011).
Phillips has been teaching scene study and acting for the camera privately since 2001, and in later years she has been an adjunct professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
Personal life
Phillips married actor Scott Paulin, and they have a daughter.