Phoebe Cates

In 2015, Cates provided the voice of her Gremlins character Kate Beringer for the video game Lego Dimensions.

In 2005, Cates opened a boutique, Blue Tree, on Madison Avenue in the Upper East Side, a few blocks from their home.

Cates retired from acting in 1994 to raise her children, Owen and Greta. She returned in 2001 for one film, The Anniversary Party, as a favor to her best friend and former Fast Times at Ridgemont High castmate Jennifer Jason Leigh, who directed the film.

Cates's 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 graced the covers of teen magazines such as Seventeen, Tiger Beat, Teen Beat, and others. In 1984, she starred in the TV mini-series Lace, based on a novel which Shirley Conran had written. She played the role of Lili "to get away from a sameness in her movie portrayals." During her audition, she so impressed the writer that he wanted to hire her there and then. Cates struggled with the portrayal of a bitter movie star because, despite her character's vicious persona, she intended for the audience to sympathize with her. She did not read Conran's novel, on which the movie was based, because she did not want to have a "fixed image." Her line in the film, "Which one of you bitches is my mother?" was named the greatest line in television history by TV Guide in 1993.

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 fact-based romantic comedy-drama Princess Caraboo.

In 1983, during her audition for a role (awarded to Meg Tilly) in The Big Chill, Cates met actor Kevin Kline. They were both dating other people at the time, but became romantically involved two years later. In 1989, they married, and she changed her name to Phoebe Cates Kline. The Klines moved to the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York across Fifth Avenue from Central Park where they raised their two children, son Owen Joseph Kline (born 1991) and daughter Greta Simone Kline (born 1994). Owen and Greta appeared, with their parents, in the 2001 movie The Anniversary Party. Owen also appeared in the 2005 film The Squid and the Whale, and Greta pursued a musical career using the stage name Frankie Cosmos.

Later in 1982, Cates starred in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which features what Rolling Stone described as "the most memorable bikini-drop in cinema history." She was quoted as saying that she had the most fun in filming that movie. The following year, she was in the comedy Private School, which co-starred Matthew Modine and Betsy Russell, and for which she sang on two songs of the film's soundtrack, "Just One Touch" and "How Do I Let You Know."

After ending her modeling then dance careers, Cates decided to begin acting. Although her father was in show business, he was not enthusiastic about his daughter's new career. Cates's acting debut was in Paradise (filmed in Israel from March to May 1981). In the movie she performed several nude scenes while still a minor (age 17). The movie had a plot similar to The Blue Lagoon. She also sang the film's main theme song and recorded an album of the same name. In a 1982 interview, she recalled having trouble with the change of career, because as a model, she had to be conscious of the camera, whereas in front of the movie camera, she could not. Cates later regretted being in the movie and said, "What I learned was never to do a movie like that again." According to her co-star Willie Aames, "She will have nothing to do with the film. She's really upset about it. She won't do any promotion with me."

In the early 1980s, Cates shared an apartment in Greenwich Village with her then boyfriend Stavros Merjos. She met him in 1979 after she went to her first night at Studio 54 with family friend Andy Warhol.

Phoebe Belle Cates (born July 16, 1963) is an American former actress, singer and model turned store owner known primarily for her roles in several 1980s films, most notably Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Gremlins.