Phoebe Cates is best remembered for playing Kate Beringer — a role that made her instantly recognizable to countless American teens of the era.
After starring in several of the most popular teen movies of the 1980s, she unexpectedly stepped away from the entertainment world in the mid-1990s. Here’s what Phoebe Cates has been doing since her days as a movie star, and why she chose to leave the big screen behind.
Phoebe Belle Cates was born in New York City on July 16, 1963. Over a 12-year span, she appeared in 16 films, ranging from teen comedies like Fast Times at Ridgemont High to later projects such as 1991’s Drop Dead Fred. But in the middle of the 1990s, she abruptly disappeared from movie credits, leaving many fans wondering what happened.
Cates grew up surrounded by the entertainment industry. Her uncle, Joseph Katz, was a Broadway producer who worked on Academy Awards broadcasts and television specials. Her family background was also richly diverse: her maternal grandfather was Chinese-Filipino, born in Shanghai, and both of her grandmothers were Russian-Jewish.
The family even had a connection to the art world — Andy Warhol, who passed away in 1987, was known to be a close family friend.
For her education, Cates attended the Julliard School, the Professional Children’s School, and the Hewitt School. She began modeling at just 10 years old and quickly appeared in teen magazines, long before she became an actress. However, modeling was never her true dream. She originally wanted to become a dancer.
That dream ended when she suffered a serious knee injury at age 15, forcing her to leave ballet school. Around that time, she leaned more heavily into modeling — though she later admitted she didn’t enjoy it much, saying it felt repetitive and that she mainly did it for the money.
Phoebe made her acting debut in 1982 in the film Paradise, after being discovered during a screen test in New York. The movie was later widely viewed as a Blue Lagoon-style imitation, and reports say Cates felt embarrassed by the final result.
But later that same year, she delivered a breakout performance as Linda Barrett in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Both films included nudity, though Cates explained in a 1982 interview that the scenes in Paradise were harder to film because she was barely 17 and felt they were more serious and difficult to justify. In contrast, the topless scene in Fast Times was meant to be humorous and felt easier for her to approach.
Fast Times also featured several actors who would later become major stars, including a young Nicolas Cage, Sean Penn, Eric Stoltz, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Penn later said none of them realized the movie would become as iconic as it did. Its cultural importance was eventually recognized when it was preserved in the U.S. National Film Registry.
In 1983, Cates appeared in the comedy Private School and even contributed her voice to the soundtrack, performing songs like “Just One Touch” and “How Do I Let You Know.”
She went on to play Kate Beringer in the hugely successful 1984 comedy-horror Gremlins, and later returned for Gremlins 2: The New Batch in 1990. In 1987, she starred in the fantasy romantic comedy Date with an Angel, which was poorly received by critics.
Although she came from a Broadway-connected family, Cates didn’t begin acting on stage until the mid-1980s. During that period, she performed in off-Broadway productions like Rich Relations and The Nest of the Wood Grouse, and later made her Broadway debut in The Tenth Man.
Over the years, Cates repeatedly expressed that theater was her true passion. She believed stage work offered richer and more varied roles for women than film. In 1988, she said she considered theater what she did best, and admitted she rarely watched her own movies.
Still, she continued acting in films through the late 1980s, appearing in comedies such as Shag and Big City with Bridget Fonda. Unfortunately, most of those films struggled commercially and received negative reviews.
In 1994, Cates starred in the historical comedy Princess Caraboo, based on the true story of Mary Baker — a woman who pretended to be a foreign princess in 19th-century England. The film featured a strong cast including Jim Broadbent, Wendy Hughes, John Lithgow, Stephen Rea, and Kevin Kline.
She also starred in Drop Dead Fred (1991), playing a lonely young woman with a wild imaginary friend. While the movie was criticized at release, it later developed a devoted fanbase, turning Cates into something of a cult classic favorite.
Not long after, however, she stepped away from Hollywood — not because of scandal, but because she chose family over fame.
Phoebe Cates is married to actor Kevin Kline. The two met in 1983 during auditions for The Big Chill. They married in 1989, and she became known as Phoebe Cates Kline. Together they have two children: Owen Joseph Kline (born 1991) and Greta Simone Kline (born 1994).
Kline, an Oscar winner, is widely known for A Fish Called Wanda.
Cates left the Hollywood spotlight to focus on raising her children, but later shifted into a completely different kind of career. In 2005, she opened a boutique called Blue Tree on Madison Avenue in New York City, not far from where she lived. The shop sells a wide mix of items, including clothing, jewelry, books, stuffed animals, and fragrances.
Though she has occasionally returned to acting, she hasn’t appeared in a major film since 2001’s The Anniversary Party. She made a small appearance in the movie as a favor to director Jennifer Jason Leigh — her former Fast Times co-star — and appeared alongside her husband and children.
In 2015, she also voiced her Gremlins character again for the video game Lego Dimensions.
Phoebe Cates’ story stands out as a rare example of someone who walked away from fame by choice and built a stable, fulfilling life afterward. In an industry filled with tragic stories about former child and teen stars, it’s refreshing to see someone thrive in midlife — quietly, privately, and on her own terms.
And it’s hard not to wish her and her family nothing but happiness moving forward.
