REMEMBER JULIE COOPER FROM ONE DAY AT A TIME? HERE'S WHAT MACKENZIE PHILLIPS LOOKS LIKE NOW
One Day at a Time was the show that made me feel like television actually understood teenagers.
Julie Cooper — rebellious, loud, impossible to ignore — was the reason I kept watching because Mackenzie Phillips brought something raw and real to that role.
Forty years after the show ended, her story has become something far more powerful than anything the writers could have imagined.
She Was Hollywood Royalty From the Start
Laura Mackenzie Phillips was born on November 10, 1959, in Alexandria, Virginia, to singer John Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas and his first wife, Susan Adams.
She grew up surrounded by music legends — Mama Cass Elliot, Michelle Phillips, and the entire constellation of 1960s pop culture were fixtures in her childhood.
At 12, she put together a small band with classmates whose parents were also in the music industry.
A casting agent spotted her at a Troubadour performance and asked if she wanted to audition for a film.
That film was George Lucas’s American Graffiti (1973), in which she played 12-year-old Carol Morrison alongside Richard Dreyfuss and Harrison Ford.
One Day at a Time as Julie Cooper
In 1975, Norman Lear cast her as Julie Cooper, the headstrong, boy-crazy older daughter of single mother Ann Romano (Bonnie Franklin) on One Day at a Time.
The show ran for nine seasons and became a landmark of American television.
Mackenzie’s real-life struggles with substance abuse began to mirror Julie’s on-screen complications.
She was arrested for disorderly conduct in 1977, fired from the show in 1980, returned in 1981, and was let go again in 1983 after collapsing on the set.
The two near-fatal overdoses that followed shaped the rest of her life.
Her Long Road to Recovery
Mackenzie Phillips entered long-term rehabilitation in 1992, a turning point she has spoken about extensively in interviews.
Her 2009 memoir High on Arrival became a bestseller and fundamentally reframed her public identity — from cautionary tale to survivor.
She has been sober since 2009.
She remains close with her One Day at a Time co-star Valerie Bertinelli, who had her on every season of her cooking show.
In the years since recovery, she appeared in Orange Is the New Black as Barbara Denning, joined the reboot of One Day at a Time on Netflix and Pop TV, and has continued making occasional acting appearances.
A New Purpose For Mackenzie Phillips
Perhaps the most meaningful chapter of Mackenzie’s life began when she returned to school and became a licensed drug and alcohol counselor.
She worked at Breathe Life Healing Centers in West Hollywood, where she spent years helping people facing the same battles she once fought.
She also launched a podcast called America Recovers with interventionist Brad Lamm, focused on addiction and recovery resources.
What Mackenzie Phillips Looks Like Now
Today at 65, Mackenzie Phillips lives in a 100-year-old Spanish bungalow in Sherman Oaks, California, which she describes as her “safe space.”
She still takes acting work when the right project comes along, but her passion is clearly in recovery advocacy.
She has published a second book, Hopeful Healing (2017), which focuses on addiction and trauma treatment.
She continues to attend fan conventions and events, where she regularly reconnects with an audience that never stopped caring about her.
“I never expected to live this long to begin with,” she told Closer Weekly in 2024. “So every day is a gift of grace.”
She’s More Than Julie Cooper
From birth, Mackenzie Phillips never had an easy story.
However, she has turned that story into something genuinely useful — proof that the darkest stretches don’t have to be the end of the narrative.
Julie Cooper would probably approve.
Here’s What Other Famous Stars Look Like Now
Check out our other articles about the famous movie stars, TV stars and musicians from yesteryear that you know and love.
- Marcia from The Brady Bunch — Maureen McCormick
- Jan from The Brady Bunch — Eve Plumb
- Wonder Woman — Lynda Carter
- Mindy From Mork & Mindy — Pam Dawber
- Chachi from Happy Days — Scott Baio
- Alex from Flashdance — Jennifer Beals
- Linda from Fast Times at Ridgemont High — Phoebe Cates
- Fran Fine from The Nanny — Fran Drescher
- Denise Huxtable from The Cosby Show — Lisa Bonet
- Regan from The Exorcist — Linda Blair
- Remember the Little Boy From The Sixth Sense — Haley Joel Osment
