She walked away from Hollywood at peak desirability and never looked back, which is the most interesting thing she ever did.
At a glance
- Known for
- Linda Barrett in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Kate Beringer in Gremlins
- Before fame
- Scholarship to the School of American Ballet, quit after a knee injury
- Off-screen
- Runs Blue Tree, a boutique on Manhattan's Upper East Side, for nearly 20 years
Rise to Fame
A knee injury killed the ballet career, so she fell into modeling at ten and hated every minute of it. Her film debut, Paradise (1982), was a Blue Lagoon knockoff that used a body double for nude close-ups without telling her. She was 17. She refused to promote it.
The save came the same year. Fast Times at Ridgemont High turned a pool scene into what Rolling Stone called "the most memorable bikini-drop in cinema history." She's said the difference was simple: Paradise was serious and hard to justify, but the Fast Times scene was funny, which made it easy. Gremlins followed in 1984. The studio thought she was too risque for a wholesome role. She rehearsed the dead-Santa monologue 100 to 150 times. Warner Bros. tried to cut it. Spielberg backed the director.
In the Spotlight
The spotlight doesn't really apply here, and that's the point. She and Kevin Kline agreed to alternate acting roles so one parent was always home. Kline told Playboy in 1998 that whenever it was her slot to work, she chose to stay with the children. Her last credit is The Anniversary Party (2001), a favor to best friend Jennifer Jason Leigh. She played a woman who gave up acting to raise kids. The role was autobiographical in everything but the name.
She opened Blue Tree, a boutique on Madison Avenue, in 2005. She described it as "a general store but according to me." Nearly 20 years later, it's still open, and shoppers report she's often behind the counter. No comeback interviews. No memoir deals. No Netflix documentary about what happened. She just left.
Side Notes
Entertainment was the family business before she ever stepped on a set. Her father, Joseph Cates, created The $64,000 Question and won two Emmys. Her uncle Gilbert produced multiple Academy Awards ceremonies. Walking away from that kind of gravitational pull takes more stubbornness than talent.
The next generation didn't resist it. Son Owen Kline acted in Noah Baumbach's The Squid and the Whale at 13, then directed Funny Pages (2022), produced by the Safdie Brothers and distributed by A24. Daughter Greta performs as Frankie Cosmos, an indie musician with a cult following. Both kids showed up in The Anniversary Party alongside their parents. The family treats show business like a second language: fluent, but nobody's first choice for everyday conversation.