Donna Mills Shares Details On Major Question People Ask Her As She Celebrates 83rd Birthday

Donna Mills began her career in the entertainment industry in the ’60s, making appearances on various TV shows such as The Secret Storm (1954), Love is a Many Splendored Thing (1967), Gunsmoke (1955), and The Six Million Dollar Man (1973-1978). However, it was her role as Abby Cunningham on the popular prime-time soap opera Knots Landing that gave her widespread acclaim.

The actress, who has earned several accolades, including a Daytime Emmy Award, recently celebrated her 83rd birthday and used the opportunity to address a major question she has frequently encountered throughout her career.

Donna Mills says people have always asked her about retirement

In the Instagram post, Mills talked about her fans questioning her about retirement and raised the issue that kind of question is aimed towards aging females rather than males. She is still in the business because she is passionate about it.

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“’When are you going to retire?’ I get that question more than you’d imagine,” she wrote in the caption. “I can’t help but wonder if male actors are asked this question. Well, I’m doing what I love and am fortunate enough to be doing it at this level.”

She gives reason for continuing with her acting career

Mills also disclosed that she is not ready to put an end to her career anytime soon. “Why would I stop now? So here is my official response – captured just off camera by my make up artist,” Mills wrote. “I thought today, my anniversary of another trip around the sun, this snippet would be appropriate. Aren’t we all just so lucky to be here!”

The actress also stated that her reason for keeping up with her career despite her age was because of her late journey into motherhood as well as the long hiatus she took from acting to take care of her only daughter. “I became a mother very late in life and I took off like 18, 19 years to just be a mom, which I adored. Then, I decided after my daughter (Chloe Mills) went off to college, ‘What am I gonna do now?’ I decided I wanted to still act, so I aggressively went after it, which is, I think, how you have to get anything that you want. You have to go after it,” she added. “I’m doing that at a stage in my life that most people would be sitting in the chair. I just feel like as long as I can do it, as long as I can keep going, as long as I can still play tennis and still do all the things that I like to do, then I’m gonna keep doing it.”