Early life

Chiles was born in Houston, the daughter of Barbara Wayne Kirkland and Marion Clay Chiles, who was the brother of oil tycoon and Texas Rangers owner Eddie Chiles. She had two brothers: Clay Kirkland Chiles (died 1979), and William Edmonds Chiles, president and CEO of Bristow Group, Inc, and 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. 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. She dated Don Henley but the relationship ended, and in 2005, she married money manager Richard Gilder.

Career

In the early 1970s, Chiles enjoyed a successful modeling career. She made her big-screen debut in Together for Days in 1972, followed by 1973's The Way We Were, in which she played opposite Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand, as Carol Ann, the college sweetheart of Redford's character. She was then cast as Jordan Baker in 1974's The Great Gatsby, alongside Mia Farrow and, again, Robert Redford.

In 1978, she appeared in the film adaptation of Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile as the murder victim Linnet Ridgeway Doyle, and in 1979, she appeared in what is perhaps her most famous role, that of NASA astronaut, scientist and Bond girl Dr. Holly Goodhead opposite Roger Moore's James Bond in Moonraker. 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. She also appeared in a small role in the noted thriller Coma (1978), one of the many films where she played a murder victim.

Chiles lost her youngest brother to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1978, which contributed to her decision to take a three-year hiatus from acting just as her career seemed to be blossoming. Her film career never fully recovered, and she struggled to find roles of the caliber she had previously enjoyed, although film critic Pauline Kael gave her good notices for her performances in Alan Alda's Sweet Liberty (1986). 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. In 1989, she appeared uncredited in a short but effective cameo as the estranged mother of Ione Skye's character in Say Anything... (1989).

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 in the United States release.

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 and Murder, She Wrote. Later high points included the indie films Diary of a Hitman (1991) and Curdled (1996). 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.

In the spring of 2002, she taught a course in film acting at the University of Houston. 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 as "you can't live up to people's fantasies".

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1972	Together for Days	Shelley
1973	The Way We Were	Carol Ann
1974	The Great Gatsby	Jordan Baker
1978	Coma	Nancy Greenly
1978	Death on the Nile	Linnet Ridgeway
1979	Moonraker	Dr. Holly Goodhead
1981	Hart to Hart	Mary Scott / Scottie	TV series，Season 2（1 episode）
1982-1983	Dallas	Holly Harwood	TV series，Season 6（22 episode） and Season 7（2 episode）
1984	Courage	Ruth
1986	Sweet Liberty	Leslie
1986	Dark Mansions	Jessica Drake	TV movie
1987	Creepshow 2	Annie Lansing (segment "The Hitchhiker")
1987	Tales from the Hollywood Hills: A Table at Ciro's	Lita Nathan	TV movie
1987	Broadcast News	Jennifer Mack
1989	Say Anything...	Diane's Mother (uncredited)
1989	Twister	Virginia
1990	Burning Bridges	Claire Morgan	TV movie
1990	In the Eye of the Snake	Claire Anzer--Marc's Mother
1990	Murder, She Wrote	Millie Bingham Stafford	TV series，Season 7（1 episode）
1991	Veronica Clare		TV series，Season 1（1 episode）and Season 2（1 episode）
1991	Bis ans Ende der Welt	Elsa Farber
1991	Diary of a Hitman	Sheila
1992	Obsessed	Louise	TV movie
1993	In the Heat of the Night	Muriel Gray	TV series，Season 6（1 episode）
1993	Civil Wars		TV series，Season 2（1 episode）
1993	Crossroads	Renee	TV series，Season 1（1episode）
1993	Lush Life	Lucy	TV movie
1994	L.A. Law	"Carmilla Greer"	TV series，Season 8（1 episode）
1995	The Babysitter	Bernice Holsten
1995	Flipper	Allison Van Rijn	TV series，Season 1（1 episode）
1996	Curdled	Katrina Brandt
1996	Wish Upon a Star	Mittermonster	TV movie
1997	Bliss	Eva
1997	The Nanny	Elaine	TV series，Season 4（1 episode）
1997	Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery	Steamrolled Henchman's Wife (uncredited)
1997	Speed 2: Cruise Control	Celeste
1998	Black Cat Run	Ada Bronnel
2000	Eventual Wife	Susan's Mother	short
2002	Any Day Now	Judge	TV series，Season 4（1 episode）
2002	Warning: Parental Advisory	Susan Baker	TV movie
2005	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Jillian Stokes	TV series，Season 5 (episode: "Grave Danger"）
2006	Kettle of Fish	Jean

[ Source: Wikipedia ]