Why the ‘Knots Landing’ Star Is Making a Very 2026 Move
Donna Mills is proving that Hollywood retirement is apparently optional. At 85-years-old, the actress best known for playing the scheming Abby Cunningham on the classic television drama Knots Landing has joined OnlyFans, a move that has understandably gotten people talking. But before anyone assumes Mills has suddenly decided to become an adult-content star, there is a little more to the story.
Mills says her decision is primarily about connecting directly with fans, sharing personal moments, behind-the-scenes material and pieces of her decades-long career that traditional social media platforms don’t necessarily allow her to share. (Because she can’t do that on Facebook or TikTok?)
She was actually unfamiliar with OnlyFans when the opportunity first came to her, but the company approached her and explained that she could use the platform without being pressured into producing explicit material.
Her Career in Hollywood
Mills’ Hollywood career stretches back nearly six decades, long before anyone had conceived of an internet, much less a website where people could subscribe to celebrities for five bucks a month. Born Donna Jean Mills in Chicago in 1940, she initially pursued dancing and theater before moving into acting. She got her television start on the daytime soap The Secret Storm in the 1960s, followed by her film debut in The Incident in 1967. She also appeared on Broadway in Woody Allen’s Don’t Drink the Water and spent several years starring on the daytime soap Love Is a Many Splendored Thing.
Her movie career included one particularly memorable role opposite Clint Eastwood in the 1971 psychological thriller Play Misty for Me. Mills played Tobie Williams, Eastwood’s character’s girlfriend, in the film that became an early landmark in Eastwood’s directing career. She continued working steadily throughout the 1970s, appearing on television programs including The Six Million Dollar Man, Hawaii Five-O, The Love Boat, CHiPs, Police Woman, Fantasy Island and Quincy, M.E. She was already an established television actress by the time the role that would define her career came along.
Along Came ‘Knots Landing’
Then came Abby Cunningham. In 1980, Mills joined Knots Landing, the enormously popular CBS prime-time soap that was spun off from Dallas. She played Abby, a manipulative, ambitious and frequently ruthless woman who had absolutely no problem stepping on other people to get what she wanted. Basically, the sort of character who would make a corporate boardroom look like a kindergarten playground. Mills remained with the series for nine years, becoming one of the show’s most recognizable stars and one of television’s great villains. Her performance earned her three Soap Opera Digest Awards for Outstanding Villainess in 1986, 1988 and 1989.
Abby Cunningham became so closely associated with Mills that leaving Knots Landing was a major career decision. Mills departed the series in 1989 after nine seasons, later explaining that she wanted a break from the show and from the character. She returned for the series finale in 1993 and again for the 1997 reunion miniseries Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac. After leaving the regular series, Mills continued working in television movies and became increasingly involved in producing projects herself. She also appeared in Melrose Place and later returned to the world of daytime television with a role on General Hospital.
She Did Playboy before OnlyFans was Even a Dream
Interestingly, Mills’ relationship with provocative celebrity imagery goes back much further than OnlyFans. She appeared in non-nude Playboy pictorials in 1987 and 1989, and she has recently discussed how Playboy once planned to put her on its cover but ultimately pulled the cover after she refused to pose nude. That history makes her OnlyFans decision somewhat more interesting because Mills isn’t suddenly discovering that celebrity, sex appeal and media attention can intersect. She has been navigating that territory since long before social media existed.
So what exactly will Donna Mills be doing on OnlyFans? According to Mills, the emphasis is on connecting with fans and giving them access to aspects of her life and career that they wouldn’t normally see. She has talked about sharing behind-the-scenes material, personal updates and older photographs. She has also indicated that she has some previously unseen, more provocative photographs from earlier in her career, although she has stressed that they are not nude images. Her OnlyFans presence is therefore considerably different from the stereotypical image many people have of the platform.
And then there are the fans, because the internet remains incapable of behaving normally when a famous 85-year-old woman opens an OnlyFans account. Mills has already received some unusual requests, including one asking her to film herself stomping grapes at her vineyard because of a foot fetish. Mills has said she plans to fulfill that request. She has also made clear that she is interested in having fun with the platform rather than pretending she is suddenly twenty-five.
OnlyFans itself has also evolved beyond its reputation as primarily a destination for adult content. The platform has become a subscription-based way for creators, celebrities and public figures to offer exclusive material directly to paying followers. Mills’ involvement is another example of that shift, although the fact that an 85-year-old Knots Landing legend has joined the platform naturally makes the story considerably more entertaining.
At 85, Donna Mills isn’t fading away. She’s apparently creating another chapter. And in a world where celebrities routinely announce their next business venture by launching another overpriced tequila brand, opening an OnlyFans account is certainly one way to get everyone’s attention.
