Phoebe Cates
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Phoebe Cates
Biography
After shooting to stardom during the '80s in a string of youth-orientated movies, former model Phoebe Cates hit her stride in the '90s as a featured player in ensemble films. Born Phoebe Belle Katz on July 16, 1963 in New York City, Cates is the daughter of television producer Joseph Cates (The $64,000 Question) and the niece of film director Gilbert Cates (1970's I Never Sang for My Father). Joan Crawford was her godmother. While growing up in Manhattan, Cates attended New York's prestigious Professional Children's School. An exceptional dancer, she studied with the School of American Ballet until a knee injury forced her to quit in 1977. At the suggestion of the family for which she babysat, she began modeling in teen magazines and commercials. A few years later, director Stuart Gillard saw Cates dancing with friends at New York's Studio 54 and offered her the lead role in his Blue Lagoon (1980) knock-off, Paradise (1982). She then gave a standout performance as Jennifer Jason Leigh's sexually mature best friend in Amy Heckerling's Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), before starring in Private School (1983). Besides appearing in the film's infamous "mooning" scene (during which the cast flashes the audience), Cates recorded two songs for Private School's soundtrack, "Just One Touch" and "How Do I Let You Know."In 1984, with her star on the rise, Cates portrayed a young actress bent on destroying her deadbeat mother in the notoriously tasteless television film Lace (1984). That same year, she signed on to play the love interest in Joe Dante's horror-comedy Gremlins. Written by Chris Columbus and produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, the bizarre, special effects-laden film about a group of strange and violent creatures was a colossal success -- despite premiering only two weeks after Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and on the same day as Ghostbusters (1984). After returning for Lace 2 (1985), Cates appeared as Michael J. Fox's model wife in Bright Lights, Big City (1988) and as a young bride-to-be in the coming-of-age film Shag (1989).
Cates began the '90s at a personal low, starring in the sequel to Gremlins, Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1991), and in Ate de Jong's disastrous Drop Dead Fred (1991). She quickly revived her career opposite Bridget Fonda, Eric Stoltz, and Tim Roth in the Generation X comedy Bodies, Rest & Motion (1993), before earning rave reviews for her performance as the mysterious title character in Princess Caraboo (1994). The film also starred Cates' husband, actor Kevin Kline. The actress appeared as herself in Scratch the Surface (1997), a documentary about teen fashion models in the '80s, and then opted to take a short break from show business in order to care for her children. After a four-year hiatus, Cates returned to the screen in The Anniversary Party (2001), an ensemble film co-written and co-directed by her friend and Fast Times at Ridgemont High co-star Jennifer Jason Leigh and actor Alan Cumming. Acting opposite Kline (who portrayed her fictional husband in the film), Cates played none other than an actress who has left show business to raise a family.
In addition to her screen work, Cates has also appeared frequently on the stage. Her numerous theater credits include The Tenth Man at Lincoln Center, Much Ado About Nothing at the New York Shakespeare Festival, The Seagull and The Three Sisters at the La Jolla Playhouse, and Romeo and Juliet at the Goodman Theater. ~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, Rovi
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Phoebe Cates
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Phoebe Cates
| Phoebe Cates | |
|---|---|
 Phoebe Cates at 81st Annual Academy Awards, February 22, 2009 |
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| Born | Phoebe Belle Cates July 16, 1963 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1981–94, 2001 |
| Spouse | Kevin Kline (1989–present) |
Phoebe Cates (born Phoebe Belle Cates; July 16, 1963) is an American film actress, model, and entrepreneur known for her roles in several teen films, most notably Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Gremlins.
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Contents
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Early life
Cates was born Phoebe Belle Cates in New York City, to a family of TV and Broadway production insiders. Her father, Joseph Cates was a major Broadway producer and a pioneering figure in television, who helped create The $64,000 Question.[1][2] Her late uncle, Gilbert Cates, produced numerous TV specials, often in partnership with Cates' father, and several annual Academy Awards shows.[3] Her paternal grandparents and maternal grandmother were Russian Jews, and her maternal grandfather was Chinese Filipino.[4][5][6]
Cates attended the Professional Children's School and the Juilliard School.[7] When she was ten, she wanted to become a dancer. She eventually got a scholarship to the School of American Ballet, but after suffering a serious knee injury at age 15, she gave up her dancing career.[8] She next began a career as a professional model, which was short-lived although successful.[8]
Acting career
After ending her modeling career, Cates decided upon acting.[8] Although her father was an actor as well, he was not enthusiastic about his daughter's becoming an actress.[8] Cates' movie debut was in Paradise (released 1982).[9] At the age of 17, she played a starring role and did several fully nude scenes in the movie, which had a plot very similar to The Blue Lagoon. Cates later regretted being in the movie and said: "What I learned was never to do a movie like that again."[8] 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."[10]
Later in 1982, Cates starred in Fast Times at Ridgemont High which features "the most memorable bikini-drop in cinema history."[11] She was quoted as saying that she had the most fun in filming that movie.[8] The following year, she was in the sex comedy Private School (which co-starred Matthew Modine and Betsy Russell), for which she sang on two songs of the film's soundtrack.
Her later film roles were more modest and largely oriented toward younger audiences, such as the two Gremlins films and the 1991 film Drop Dead Fred. Her face graced the covers of teen magazines such as Seventeen, Tiger Beat, Teen Beat and others. In 1984, she starred in the TV mini-series Lace. She sought the role of Lili "to get away from a sameness in her movie portrayals."[12] During her audition, she so impressed the writer, that he wanted to hire her there and then.[12] Cates struggled with the portrayal of a bitter movie star because, despite her character's vicious persona, she intended for the audience to sympathize with her.[13] She did not read the novel on which the movie was based because she did not want to have a "fixed image".[13]
In 1985, Cates appeared Off-Broadway in Rich Relations, written by David Henry Hwang of the Second Stage Theatre.[14] In 1994, she starred in the romantic comedy Princess Caraboo.
Cates retired from acting in the mid-90s in order to raise her children. She did return in 2001, however, for one film with her family, The Anniversary Party, as a favor to the director, her best friend, Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Music career
Cates sang the title song (of the same name) for the film Paradise.[15] She also sang the songs Just One Touch and How Do I Let You Know for the Private School soundtrack.
Personal life
In 1989, Cates married actor Kevin Kline, whom she had met while auditioning for the part that Meg Tilly ultimately won in The Big Chill. Kline and Cates make their home in New York City and have two children, Owen Joseph Kline, born in 1991 (who, in 2005, received rave reviews for his performance in The Squid and the Whale), and Greta Simone Kline, born in 1994. Owen and Greta appeared in Cates's most recent film, The Anniversary Party (2001).
In 2005, Cates opened her own boutique called Blue Tree on New York's Madison Avenue.[16]
Filmography
| Film | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Film | Role | |
| 1982 | Paradise | Sarah | |
| Fast Times at Ridgemont High | Linda Barrett | ||
| 1983 | Private School | Christine Ramsey | |
| 1984 | Gremlins | Kate Beringer | |
| 1987 | Date with an Angel | Patricia 'Patty' Winston | |
| 1988 | Bright Lights, Big City | Amanda Conway | |
| 1989 | Shag | Carson McBride | |
| Heart of Dixie | Aiken Reed | ||
| 1990 | I Love You to Death | Joey's Girl at Disco (uncredited) | |
| Gremlins 2: The New Batch | Kate Beringer | ||
| 1991 | Drop Dead Fred | Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Cronin | |
| 1993 | Bodies, Rest & Motion | Carol | |
| 1994 | Princess Caraboo | Princess Caraboo/Mary Baker | |
| 2001 | The Anniversary Party | Sophia Gold | |
| Television | |||
| Year | Title | Role | |
| 1983 | Baby Sister (TV movie) | Annie Burroughs | |
| 1984 | Lace (miniseries) | Elizabeth 'Lili' Lace | |
| 1985 | Lace II (miniseries) | Elizabeth 'Lili' Lace | |
References
- ^ "Biography". Filmreference.com. http://www.filmreference.com/film/50/Phoebe-Cates.html. Retrieved 2010-03-07.
- ^ Wakin, Daniel J. (2005-06-03). "NY Times article". NY Times article. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/03/nyregion/03vilar.html?ex=1275451200&en=63a1abdb4f49f5f5&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss. Retrieved 2010-03-07.
- ^ "Gilbert Cates Biography (1934–)". Filmreference.com. http://www.filmreference.com/film/77/Gilbert-Cates.html. Retrieved 2010-03-07.
- ^ Villasanta, Boy (23 June 2010). "Pinoys who made it in Hollywood". ABS-CBN. Archived from the original on 23 May 2011. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/entertainment/06/23/10/filipinos-also-shine-hollywood. Retrieved 28 May 2011. "Before Lea Salonga and Charice won the hearts of many people around the globe, there were Phoebe Cates, although mix Filipina and American blood, whose descent is Chinese-Filipino on her maternal grandfather, and Tia Carere, also Fil-Am."
- ^ Slater, Judith J. (2004). Teen life in Asia. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 183. ISBN 978-0-313-31532-9. http://books.google.com/books?id=7Oz5cvi3z3EC&lpg=PA183&dq=%22Phoebe%20Cates%22%20Filipino&pg=PA183#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 28 May 2011. "Some Filipino and Filipino American stars have had much commercial success in the United States and may be familiar to American audiences. Included in this group are Phoebe Cates, who started in the films Anniversity Party, Princess Caraboo, and Gremlins, and Lou Diamond Phillips, who starred in films such as La Bamba and Dark Wind and also on Broadway's The King and I."
- ^ Cohen, Matthew Isaac (2009). "British performances of Java, 1811–1822". South East Asia Research (IP Publishing Ltd) 17 (1): 87–109. doi:10.5367/000000009787586389. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ip/sear/2009/00000017/00000001/art00006. Retrieved 28 May 2011. "Few people in those pre-Internet days, however, knew that Cates's estranged mother was of Chinese Filipino descent."
- ^ "Yahoo movies". Movies.yahoo.com. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800041437/bio. Retrieved 2010-03-07.
- ^ a b c d e f Cohen, D. & S. Young and Famous: Hollywood's Newest Superstars, 1987. p.75. ISBN 0-671-63493-3
- ^ [1]
- ^ "Hollywood: Nude scenes too much for Aames" by Marilyn Beck, The Orange County Register, March 17, 1982. p. C3
- ^ Rolling Stone (2006-11-21). "''Rolling Stone'' article". Rollingstone.com. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/12625824/escape_your_family_sneak_upstairs/print. Retrieved 2010-03-07.
- ^ a b "'Lace' miniseries is soap-opera tangle" by Associated Press, Star-News, February 24, 1984. p. 5C
- ^ a b "Angela Lansbury leads 'Lace' cast" by Julianne Hastings, Stars and Stripes, March 7, 1984. p. 12
- ^ Rich, Frank (1986-04-22). "New York Times-Stage: 'Rich Relations'". Nytimes.com. http://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/22/theater/stage-rich-relations-from-david-hwang.html?&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2010-03-07.
- ^ Paradise (1982) ending credits
- ^ "ABC News (June 1, 2006): Perfect Gifts, According to Phoebe Cates: Former Teen Starlet Owns Upper East Side Gift Store". Abcnews.go.com. 2006-06-01. http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1590206&page=1. Retrieved 2010-03-07.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Phoebe Cates |
- Phoebe Cates at the Internet Movie Database
- Blue Tree Cates' NY boutique website
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Mentioned in
Lace II (TV Episode)
(1985 Drama TV Episode)
The Heart of Dixie
(1989 Drama Film)
Date with an Angel
(1987 Comedy Film)
Baby Sister
(1983 Drama Film)
Lace (TV Episode)
(1984 Drama TV Episode)
» More