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Phoebe Cates Bio

Phoebe Cates

American actress Phoebe Cates is best known for her role in Steven Spielberg’s 1984 fantasy, Gremlins and its sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch in 1990. Although she has appeared in numerous movies all throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, she’s been out of the public eye since 1994 when she retired from the movie scene to raise her two children.

Born as Phoebe Belle Katz on July 16, 1963 in New York City, New York, Phoebe later changed her surname to the stage name Cates just like her producer father and uncle, Joseph and Gilbert Cates, did.

She grew up in a showbiz environment and went to the Professional Children’s School and the School of American Ballet in New York City. She studied ballet until a knee injury in 1977 forced her to quit.

During the late 1970s Phoebe was a moderately successful teen model appearing in magazines like Seventeen and in commercials.

In 1982 she played in her first movie role in Paradise, a Blue Lagoon knockoff. She played a young aristocrat (Sarah) stranded with a young man in a desert oasis. The two discover love and their sexuality, and Sarah eventually becomes pregnant with her young lover’s child. This was the first full nude scene Phoebe played, even though for some shots a body double was reportedly used. She was only 17 years old.

The same year Phoebe appeared in the teen comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High where she bared her breasts by taking off her bikini top in a slow-motion fantasy strip sequence.

In 1984 Harper’s Bazaar magazine included her in their list of America’s 10 Most Beautiful Women.

Other movies Phoebe appeared in are Private School (1983), Date with an Angel (1987), Bright Lights, Big City (1988), Shag (1989), and Heart of Dixie (1989).

Phoebe made her theater debut in Joseph Papp’s off-Broadway production of The Nest of the Wood Grouse the same year she appeared in Harper’s Bazaar. She then appeared in David Hwang's Rich Relations at the Second Stage. Other theater roles Phoebe played include Nina in the La Jolla Playhouse production of Chekhov's The Sea Gull, Juliet in Chicago's Goodman Theatre production of Romeo and Juliet, and an appearance in Much Ado About Nothing at New York's Public Theatre.

In 1989, Phoebe married Oscar-winning actor Kevin Kline (a star from 1988’s A Fish Called Wanda). In 1991 she was cast to play the role of Annie Banks in the remake of Father of the Bride but became pregnant with her first child and had to drop out. The role went to Kimberly Williams, and Phoebe gave birth to a son, Owen, on October 14, 1991.

On March 21, 1994 Phoebe had a second child, daughter Greta. The same year she starred in Princess Caraboo, and then chose to quit making movies and become a full-time mother. However, she returned in briefly to movie making 2001 with a role in The Anniversary Party.

In 2005, Phoebe opened her own boutique, Blue Tree, on New York’s Madison Avenue. On December 1 of the same year she gave birth to her third child, Autumn Belle Kline.
Role of Annie Banks in the remake of Father of the Bride (1991) but became pregnant so she had to drop out. The role then went to Kimberly Williams.