Phoebe Cates

Phoebe Belle Cates Kline (born July 16, 1963) is an American businesswoman and retired actress and model. She appeared in the films '' Fast Times at Ridgemont High'' (1982), '' Gremlins'' (1984), '' Gremlins 2: The New Batch'' (1990), '' Drop Dead Fred'' (1991) and ''Princess Caraboo'' (1994). In 2005, she founded the Blue Tree boutique.

Early life and education

Cates was born on July 16, 1963, in New York City, to a family of television and Broadway production insiders. She is the daughter of Lily and Joseph Cates (originally Joseph Katz), who was a major Broadway producer and a pioneering figure in television, and who helped create '' The $64,000 Question''. Her uncle, Gilbert Cates, produced numerous television specials, often in partnership with Cates's father, as well as several annual Academy Awards shows. Her father was Jewish and her mother was Catholic. Cates is of Eurasian or mixed European and Asian descent. Her mother was born in Shanghai, China to a family of Chinese-Filipino heritage. Cates's father is American and from Manhattan.

Cates attended the Professional Children's School and the Juilliard School. A few years later, she wanted to become a dancer, and eventually received a scholarship to the School of American Ballet, but quit after a knee injury at age 14.

Career

At age ten, Cates started modeling, appearing in '' Seventeen'' and other teen-oriented magazines, and began a short, successful career as a model.Cohen, D. & S. ''Young and Famous: Hollywood's Newest Superstars'', 1987. p.75. She said that she disliked the industry: "It was just the same thing, over and over. After a while, I did it solely for the money." As a teen model, Cates appeared on the cover of '' Seventeen'' magazine four times, first in the April 1979 issue. She appeared within the magazine as well, on the editorial pages in 1979 and 1980. Dissatisfied with modeling, Cates decided to pursue acting.

Cates was offered her first part in the movie ''Paradise'' (1982) after a screen test in New York. She was uncertain about the nudity the role required, but her father encouraged her to take the job.

''Paradise'' was filmed in Israel from March to May 1981. In the film, Cates performed several full-frontal nude scenes and several rear scenes aged 17. The movie had a plot similar to '' The Blue Lagoon''. She also sang the film's theme song and recorded an album of the same name. In a 1982 interview, she recalled having trouble with the career change: As a model, she had to be conscious of the camera; but as an actor, she could not. She later regretted being in the film: "What I learned was never to do a movie like that again." She claimed that the film's producers used a body double to film nude close-ups of her character without telling her. According to her co-star Willie Aames, "She will have nothing to do with the film. She's really upset about it. She won't do any promotion with me."

Later that year, Cates starred in '' Fast Times at Ridgemont High'' (1982), featuring what ''Rolling Stone'' has described as "the most memorable bikini-drop in cinema history". She said that she had "the most fun" filming that movie.

The next year, Cates was in the comedy ''Private School'' (1983), co-starring Matthew Modine and Betsy Russell, in which she sang on two songs of the film's soundtrack: "Just One Touch" and "How Do I Let You Know".

In 1984, Cates starred in the TV mini-series '' Lace'', based on a novel by Shirley Conran. She played the role of Lili "to get away from a sameness in her movie portrayals"."'Lace' miniseries is soap-opera tangle" by Associated Press, ''Star-News'', February 24, 1984. p. 5C During her audition, she so impressed the writer that he wanted to hire her on the spot. She struggled with the portrayal of a bitter movie star because, despite her character's vicious persona, she wanted the audience to sympathize with her."Angela Lansbury leads 'Lace' cast" by Julianne Hastings, '' Stars and Stripes'', March 7, 1984. p. 12. She did not read Conran's novel, on which the movie was based because she did not want to have a "fixed image". Her best-known line in the film, "Which one of you bitches is my mother?", was named the greatest line in television history by ''TV Guide'' in 1993. She also starred in the sequel mini-series '' Lace II''.

In the summer of 1984, Cates co-starred in the box office hit '' Gremlins'' for executive producer Steven Spielberg, the highest-grossing film of her career. She reprised her role of Kate Beringer in the sequel '' Gremlins 2: The New Batch''.

In June 1984, Cates made her stage debut in the Off-Broadway play ''The Nest of the Wood Grouse'', a comedy by Soviet writer Viktor Rozov, at the Joseph Papp Public Theater. Cates said that while doing the play she "felt a certain freedom and a certain connection with acting that I had never really felt before". Cates appeared Off-Broadway again two years later in '' Rich Relations'', written by David Henry Hwang, at the Second Stage Theatre. In December 1989, Cates made her Broadway debut in a revival of Paddy Chayefsky's '' The Tenth Man'' at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.

In 1988, Cates told an interviewer, "There are simply not that many good parts in film", but that theater had "tons of good women's roles...I think of theater as what I like to do most...I've only felt happy as an actress for about two years. I rarely watch my film work."

Cates continued to appear steadily in films through the early 1990s, usually in supporting roles or in ensemble casts. These include '' Date with an Angel'' (1987), '' Bright Lights, Big City'' (1988), '' Shag'' (1988), '' Heart of Dixie'' (1989), '' Drop Dead Fred'' (1991) and '' Bodies, Rest & Motion'' (1993). The films suffered from mixed to poor reviews and failed to make an impact at the box office.

Cates was set to play Steve Martin's daughter in the successful comedy '' Father of the Bride'' (1991), but her pregnancy with her first child forced her to drop out.

In 1994, Cates starred in the fact-based comedy-drama ''Princess Caraboo'' (1994) with her husband Kevin Kline. It was Cates's last film before she shifted her focus away from acting to raising her children, Owen and Greta.

Post-retirement

In 2001, Cates briefly returned to acting for one film, '' The Anniversary Party'' (2001), as a favor to her best friend and former ''Fast Times at Ridgemont High'' castmate Jennifer Jason Leigh, who directed it.

In 2005, she ventured into business and opened a boutique, Blue Tree, on New York's Madison Avenue.

Personal life

In the early 1980s, Cates shared an apartment in Greenwich Village with her then-boyfriend Stavros Merjos. She met him in 1979 after she went to her first night at Studio 54 with family friend Andy Warhol.

In 1983, during her audition for a role (awarded to Meg Tilly) in '' The Big Chill'', Cates met actor Kevin Kline. They were both dating other people but became romantically involved two years later. They married in a private New York wedding on March 5, 1989, and she changed her name to Phoebe Cates Kline. They moved to the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York, across Fifth Avenue from Central Park, where they raised their two children, son Owen Joseph Kline (b. 1991) and daughter Greta Kline (b. 1994). Owen and Greta appeared with their parents in the 2001 movie '' The Anniversary Party.'' Owen also appeared in the 2005 film '' The Squid and the Whale,'' and made his directorial debut with the coming-of-age black comedy '' Funny Pages''. Greta fronts the band Frankie Cosmos.

Filmography

Film and television

Notes

References

External links

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Blue Tree
Cates's New York boutique's website
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cates, Phoeb
1963 births
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
American actresses of Filipino descent
American female models
American film actresses
American models of Filipino descent
American actresses of Chinese descent
American women in business
Businesspeople from New York City
Female models from New York (state)
Hewitt School alumni
Juilliard School alumni
Phoebe Cates
Living people
People from the Upper East Side
Actresses from Manhattan
People from Greenwich Village
Models from New York City
American people of Asian-Jewish descent