Phyllis Major(1946-1976)
- Actress
Phyllis Major was a popular European model who met singer
Jackson Browne at the legendary Hollywood
venue the Troubador, just after his split with singer
Joni Mitchell. Legend has it Browne got
into a fight with an unemployed actor who was also making a play for
her. Browne lost the fight but got the girl, and the incident was
comically memorialized in the song "Ready or Not." Together, they had
one child, Ethan Zane Browne, born November 2, 1973 (See
Ethan Browne). In December 1975, they were
married. Four months later, on March 25, 1976, she was found dead in
their Hollywood Hills home. She had overdosed on pills. Browne
channeled his loss and depression into the production of his fourth
album, "The Pretender." Phyllis is the subject of at least three songs
written by Jackson Browne -- "Ready or Not," "Sleep's Dark and Silent
Gate," and "In the Shape of a Heart." Her son Ethan has become an
in-demand club D.J. and sometime actor.
