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Serving in World War II he married a young Italian woman named Anna, unfortunately both she and their son died in childbirth. Gillespie would later have a daughter named Lana by Georgia Farren. By the late 1980s Gillespie had been chief of the Sparta, Mississippi police department for over two decades.
Tibbs is now a San Francisco cop with a wife (Barbara McNair), daughter (Wanda Spell), and son (George Spell). Gillespie is not in the second film, nor are the actions of ITHOTN referenced. Tibbs was back again a year later in The Organization, a drug trafficking drama featuring Poitier’s final appearance in the role.
The fifth season begins with the revelation that Chief Gillespie has a 19-year-old daughter, Lana Farren (Christine Elise, formerly of Beverly Hills, 90210). The chief is now good friends with her mother, Georgia (Stella Stevens).
Sheriff Bill Gillespie (Caroll O'Connor) is finally getting married, but a case of mistaken identity may put a stop to the wedding.
Bill Gillespie's daughter. A season ago Carroll O'Connor learned he had a daughter whose mother was killed in the same episode. Christine Elise was real cool to O'Connor. But she will be grateful that her father was in fact the chief of police.
Elise had a recurring role as the daughter of Police Chief Bill Gillespie on In the Heat of the Night, Lana Farren in 1991. The police procedural crime drama television series starred Carroll O’Connor as police chief Bill Gillespie and actor Howard Rollins as police detective Virgil Tibbs.
[Chief Gillespie and Detective Tibbs are at the murder scene of an old girlfriend of the Chief's] Chief William O. 'Bill' Gillespie : Between you and me, Virgil, I don't believe Ken Ferrer is her father.
