Phoebe Cates Bio
Phoebe Belle Cates is an American retired actress and former model who became a familiar face in 1980s teen and genre cinema before stepping away from Hollywood to focus on family and business. Born in New York City, she is widely recognized for her roles in Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Gremlins, as well as for the popular boutique Blue Tree, which she founded in 2005. She is married to actor Kevin Kline and is the mother of two children, including filmmaker Owen Joseph Kline and musician Greta Kline. Over the years, Cates has remained an iconic figure of early 1980s pop culture.
Early Life and Background
Phoebe Belle Cates was born on July 16, 1963, in New York City, into a family deeply connected to the entertainment industry. Her father, Joseph Cates, was a major Broadway producer and a pioneering figure in television who helped create The $64,000 Question. Her mother, Lily Cates, raised the family alongside Joseph in their New York home. Cates also has a sister, and her uncle, Gilbert Cates, produced numerous television specials in partnership with her father, as well as several annual Academy Awards shows.
Growing up in this creative environment, Cates was exposed to the worlds of Broadway, film, and television from an early age. She attended the Professional Children’s School, a Manhattan institution known for nurturing young performers, and later studied at the prestigious Juilliard School. As a young girl, Cates dreamed of becoming a dancer and earned a scholarship to the School of American Ballet, though a knee injury at age 14 forced her to give up that ambition. The setback ultimately redirected her energy toward modeling and, eventually, acting.
Path to Acting
Phoebe Cates began modeling at the age of ten, appearing in teen-oriented magazines such as Seventeen, which featured her on the cover four times starting in April 1979. Although her modeling career was successful, Cates grew dissatisfied with the repetitive nature of the work, later saying she continued mostly for the money. By her late teens, she decided to pivot to acting, drawn by the opportunity to portray characters and tell stories rather than simply pose for the camera.
Her transition came quickly. Cates was offered her first film role in Paradise (1982) after a screen test in New York, with the part requiring several nude scenes she initially hesitated to perform. Her father encouraged her to take the job, and the film, set for production in Israel, marked her official entry into cinema. Although she later expressed regret over the experience, the role introduced her to directors, producers, and the practical realities of working on a film set, laying the groundwork for the breakout success that would arrive the same year.
Phoebe Cates Career
Early Career (1982–1983)
The year 1982 was transformative for Phoebe Cates. Following her debut in Paradise, she was cast in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, a comedy that would become a defining film of the era. In one of its most talked-about scenes, Cates performed what Rolling Stone later described as the most memorable bikini-drop in cinema history. The film helped her transition from a working model to a recognizable young Hollywood actress almost overnight.
The following year, Cates starred in the comedy Private School (1983) alongside Matthew Modine and Betsy Russell. She contributed two songs to the film’s soundtrack, including “Just One Touch” and “How Do I Let You Know.” That same period, she continued building her résumé with television work, preparing for the next phase of her career.
Breakthrough (1984–1990)
In 1984, Cates took on the role of Lili in the television mini-series Lace, based on the novel by Shirley Conran. Her performance earned praise, and her delivery of the line “Which one of you bitches is my mother?” was later named the greatest line in television history by TV Guide in 1993. She also returned for the sequel mini-series Lace II. The role allowed Cates to demonstrate her dramatic range and step away from the lighter teen roles that had defined her early work.
That same year, Cates co-starred in the box office hit Gremlins, executive produced by Steven Spielberg, playing Kate Beringer. The film became the highest-grossing movie of her career and cemented her status as a major young star of the 1980s. She reprised the role in the sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990). During this period, she also made her Off-Broadway stage debut in 1984 in the comedy The Nest of the Wood Grouse at the Joseph Papp Public Theater, later appearing in David Henry Hwang’s Rich Relations in 1986 and making her Broadway debut in December 1989 in a revival of The Tenth Man at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.
Notable Works and Milestones
Beyond Gremlins, Cates built a varied filmography in the late 1980s and early 1990s, appearing in 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). She was originally set to play Steve Martin’s daughter in Father of the Bride (1991), but her pregnancy forced her to drop out. Her final leading film role came in 1994 with Princess Caraboo, a fact-based comedy-drama co-starring her husband, Kevin Kline.
Phoebe Cates Family
Phoebe Cates was raised in New York City by her father, Joseph Cates, a Broadway producer and television pioneer, and her mother, Lily Cates. Her uncle, Gilbert Cates, was a prolific television producer and director who worked closely with her father on several high-profile projects, including Academy Awards telecasts. Her cousin, Gil Cates Jr., continued the family’s tradition in entertainment. Cates grew up with a sister, in a household shaped by creative ambition and the rhythms of stage and screen production.
Personal Life
Phoebe Cates met actor Kevin Kline in 1983 while auditioning for The Big Chill, though both were dating other people at the time. They became romantically involved two years later and married in a private New York wedding on March 5, 1989. After their marriage, Cates adopted the hyphenated name Phoebe Cates Kline. The couple settled on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, across Fifth Avenue from Central Park, where they raised their two children: son Owen Joseph Kline, born in 1991, and daughter Greta Kline, born in 1994.
Both children have pursued creative paths. Owen Joseph Kline appeared as a child in the 2001 film The Anniversary Party and later acted in The Squid and the Whale (2005) before making his directorial debut with the coming-of-age black comedy Funny Pages. Greta Kline is a musician who fronts the indie band Frankie Cosmos. Owen and Greta also both appeared alongside their parents in The Anniversary Party, which Cates joined in 2001 as a favor to her former Fast Times at Ridgemont High co-star and longtime friend, Jennifer Jason Leigh.