Gillian Hills (born 5 June 1944) is an actress and singer. She rose to fame as a teenager in the 1960s in the British films Beat Girl and later, Blowup. She also spent a number of years living in France, where she embarked on a singing career as well as starring in a number of French films.
Born in Cairo, Egypt, her father was the teacher, traveller, author and adventurer Denis Hills and her mother was Dunia Lesmianowna, daughter of Polish poet Bolesław Leśmian. Gillian Hills spent her early years in France where she was discovered by Roger Vadim who saw her as the new Brigitte Bardot and cast her in a version of Les liaisons dangereuses.
As a teenager, she starred in the classic British film Beat Girl in 1960, the soundtrack for which was among John Barry’s earliest. Her co-star on this being a young Adam Faith in his first film role and the British Board of Film Censors ordered cuts be made before they would give an X certificate.
In 1960, she signed to the French Barclay Records label releasing her first EP entitled «Allo Brigitte…ne coupez pas!» and in 1961 appeared at the prestigious Olympia Theatre in Paris on the bill with Johnny Hallyday. She remained with Barclay until 1964 having released both cover and original recordings. In 1965, she signed to the AZ record label run by the radio station Europe 1 and issued an EP which included a cover of the Zombies «Leave Me Be» and her self-penned «Rien N’Est Changé».
At the close of her recording career, she returned to England and film, appearing in Michelangelo Antonioni’s first English language film the 1966 classic Blowup starring David Hemmings with whom her character and that of Jane Birkin shared an energetic romp in which all their clothes were gradually removed. This was followed by the film version of the John Osborne play Inadmissible Evidence and the mystery romance Three. Gillian also starred in the classic 1969 adaptation of Alan Garner’s novel The Owl Service, as Alison Bradley. Other film appearances followed, most notably her cameo in A Clockwork Orange (1971) in which she played one of two girls picked up in a record shop by Malcolm McDowell’s leading character.
In 1975, Hills decided to stop making movies, and she moved to New York to work as an illustrator for various books and magazines.
Gillian Hills now lives in England and is married to Stewart Young, the manager for AC/DC, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Cyndi Lauper, Foreigner, Billy Squier, Scorpions and Zucchero.
