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Phoebe Cates

Phoebe CatesAKA Phoebe Belle Katz

Born: 16-Jul-1963
Birthplace: New York City

Gender: Female
Religion: Jewish
Race or Ethnicity: Multiracial
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Phoebe Cates is a movie star who filmed her most famous performance in her second film, when she was 18 and memorably stepped out of the pool and out of her bikini in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. It has been called one of the sexiest moments in any mainstream movie.

Her father, Joseph Cates, was the producer of the original $64,000 Question and Tic Tac Dough. Her uncle, Gil Cates, is a director and producer whose credits include I Never Sang for My Father and numerous Oscar awards telecasts. She studied dance at Julliard, but dropped out after a knee injury and turned to modeling. She reportedly wore braces in adolescence, but became famous as a cover girl for teen magazines like Seventeen, before becoming an actress. She stripped at 17 in her big screen debut, starring with Willie Aames and singing the title song in Paradise.

Cates is a good actress, but had difficulty getting past being typecast as a pretty airhead. Her other films include Gremlins, Gremlins 2, and Shag: The Movie with Bridget Fonda. In the campy TV soap opera Lace, she memorably asked Brooke Adams, Bess Armstrong, and Arielle Dombasle, "Which one of you bitches is my mother?"

She married actor Kevin Kline in 1989, and co-starred with him in the charming Princess Caraboo several years later. She has since withdrawn from moviemaking to raise her children with Kline, although she briefly returned to cinema in 2001, playing Kline's wife in The Anniversary Party with Jennifer Jason Leigh. Leigh and Cates have been best friends since making Fast Times at Ridgemont High together in 1982.

Some sources say Joan Crawford was Cates' godmother, and others say Jacqueline Susann; neither is true.

Father: Joseph Cates (game-show producer, b. 1924, d. 10-Oct-1998 leukemia)
Mother: Lily Cates
Father: Marshall Naify (stepfather, horse breeder)
Brother: Phillip Cates (producer)
Sister: Valerie Cates (model)
Sister: Alexandra Cates
Husband: Kevin Kline (actor, m. 5-Mar-1989)
Son: Owen Joseph (b. 14-Oct-1991)
Daughter: Greta Simone (b. 21-Mar-1994)

    High School: Professional Children's School, New York, NY
    University: Juilliard School (dropped out)

    Chinese Ancestry Maternal
    Filipino Ancestry Maternal
    Russian Ancestry Paternal
    Spanish Ancestry Maternal
    Jewish Ancestry Paternal
    Risk Factors: Diabetes, Smoking

    FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
    The Anniversary Party (23-May-2001)
    Princess Caraboo (16-Sep-1994)
    My Life's in Turnaround (21-Apr-1993) · Herself
    Bodies, Rest & Motion (9-Apr-1993) · Carol
    Drop Dead Fred (19-Apr-1991)
    Gremlins 2: The New Batch (15-Jun-1990) · Kate Beringer
    Heart of Dixie (25-Aug-1989) · Aiken
    Shag (14-Apr-1989)
    Bright Lights, Big City (1-Apr-1988) · Amanda
    Date with an Angel (20-Nov-1987)
    Lace II (5-May-1985)
    Gremlins (8-Jun-1984) · Kate
    Lace (26-Feb-1984)
    Private School (29-Jul-1983) · Christine
    Fast Times at Ridgemont High (13-Aug-1982) · Linda Barrett
    Paradise (7-May-1982)


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