July 16: Phoebe Cates - Fast Times at Ridgemont High - is 48-years-old-today. (ADULTS ONLY)

ADULTS ONLY

From Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

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. Her uncle Gilbert Cates produced numerous TV specials, often in partnership with Cates' father, and several annual Academy Awards shows.

Cates attended the Professional Children's School and the Juilliard School. 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. She next began a career as a professional model, which was short-lived although successful.

After ending her modeling career, Cates decided to begin acting. Although her father was an actor as well, he was not enthusiastic about his daughter becoming an actress.

From Blue Lagoon.

Cates' movie debut was in Paradise, released in 1982. 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."

From Blue Lagoon.

(Continued below video and Amazon portals ...)

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Later in 1982, Cates starred in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (along with Sean Penn), which features "the most memorable bikini-drop in cinema history." The following year, she was in the sex comedy Private School, for which she sang on two songs of the film's soundtrack.

From Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

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 made the covers of teen magazines such as Seventeen, Tiger Beat, Teen Beat and others.

From Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

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."

In 1985, Cates appeared Off-Broadway in Rich Relations written by David Henry Hwang at the Second Stage Theatre. In 1994, she starred in the romantic comedy Princess Caraboo.

Cates retired from acting in the mid-90s in order to raise her children. However, she did return in 2001 for one film with her family; The Anniversary Party, as a favor to the director, her best friend, Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Cates sang the title song (of the same name) for the film Paradise. She also sang the songs "Just One Touch" and "How Do I Let You Know" for the Private School soundtrack. She has also sang along with her husband, actor Kevin Kline, on Sesame Street (see video.)

In 1989, Cates married Kevin Kline, whom she had originally 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. In 2005, their son, Owen Joseph Kline, received rave reviews for his performance in The Squid and the Whale. Owen and sister Greta Simone Kline appeared in Cates' most recent film, The Anniversary Party in 2001.

In 2005, Cates opened her own boutique called Blue Tree on New York's Madison Avenue.

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