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 moved from New York to Los Angeles around 1978 when she felt she no longer wanted to pursue modeling and focus on acting only. It was also around this time that she lost her younger brother to cancer. Clay Chiles was 25 when he died in 1978 at M.D. Anderson of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, which affected her deeply. [8]
She dated Don Henley but the relationship ended, and later for a time, dated William S. Paley.[9] In 2005, she married money manager Richard Gilder.[10] They were 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.[11] Gilder died in 2020.[12]
Career
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).
Chiles had initially been approached to star in the previous Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, but she declined the role because she was taking a break from acting at the time.[1] She also appeared in a small but key role in the thrillerComa (1978).
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 1978, 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. She appeared in the 1982–1983 season of television's Dallas, playing independent oil heiress Holly Harwood, a love interest of J.R. Ewing. Her film roles were smaller, though film critic Pauline Kael gave her good notices for her performances in Alan Alda's Sweet Liberty (1986) and 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.[13][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]
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".[15] On other occasions, she stated "I'm proud I'm a Bond Girl. It's not bad at all."[16]
Mostly retired from film, she has spent her later years focusing on art and dividing her time between Houston and New York. [17] She returned to film for the first time in 14 years in Guns & Moses in 2024.
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