Biography for
Michelle Pfeiffer

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Michelle Pfeiffer was born in Santa Ana, California to Dick and Donna Pfeiffer. She has an older brother and two younger sisters - Dedee Pfeiffer, and Lori Pfeiffer, who both dabbled in acting and modeling but decided against making it their lives' work. She graduated from Fountain Valley High School in 1976, and attended one year at the Golden West College, where she studied to become a court reporter. But it was while working as a supermarket checker at Vons, a large Southern California grocery chain, that she realized her true calling. She was married to actor/director Peter Horton ("Gary" of "thirtysomething" (1987)) in 1981. They were later divorced, and she then had a three year relationship with actor Fisher Stevens. When that didn't work out, Pfeiffer decided she didn't want to wait any longer before having her own family, and in March of 1993, she adopted a baby girl, Claudia Rose. On November 13th of the same year, she married lawyer-turned-writer/producer David E. Kelley, creator of "Picket Fences" (1992), "Chicago Hope" (1994), "The Practice" (1997), and "Boston Public" (2000). On August 5, 1994 their son, John Henry was born.

Spouse

Trivia

Graduated from high school in 3 years.

Used to work in a clothing store.

Ranked #39 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]

Born at 8:11am-PDT.

She thought about looking for a man to father a child with "no strings attached," but decided to adopt instead. She adopted a daughter, 'Claudia Rose'.

She is in the horn section of B.B. King's "In The Midnight Hour" music video.

She was in Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise" music video.

Won the Miss Orange County beauty pageant.

Was voted Best Dressed Female Movie Star. [1997]

Chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world (1990).

Studied acting at The Beverly Hills Playhouse.

Michelle's name was misspelled as 'Michele' in the credits of her film, Callie & Son (1981) (TV).

Dated Fisher Stevens

Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#3). [1995]

Replaced Annette Bening as Catwoman in Batman Returns (1992).

Does her own singing in Grease 2 (1982), The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), The Prince of Egypt (1998) and Hairspray (2007).

The character Catwoman/Selina Kyle, who she played in Batman Returns (1992), was voted #3 in Empire's "69 Sexiest Movie Characters of All Time". [2000]

Turned down the Sharon Stone role in Basic Instinct (1992).

While a teenage clerk at Vons Grocery Store in California, c. 1974, she learned to tie maraschino cherry stems in knots with her tongue.

Has an adopted daughter named Claudia Rose (born in 1993) and a son named John Henry (born in 1994) with husband David E. Kelley, named after David's father.

Accidentally cut Al Pacino with broken glass while auditioning for Scarface (1983).

Studied acting under Geraldine Page at workshop at LA's Ahmanson Theater.

Her first job as a performer was playing Alice from Alice in Wonderland at Disneyland in the Main Street Electrical Parade in the mid 1970s.

Measurements: 33 1/2B-24-34 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine).

There was a study done of the faces of beautiful women, quantifying the ratio of the width of the mouth to the width of the nose, attempting to find the perfect proportions for the perfect face of feminine beauty (the ratio turns out to be something like 1.7). The movie star with the most perfect proportions for feminine facial beauty, based on this measure, turns out to be Michelle Pfeiffer.

Attended Fountain Valley High School in Fountain Valley, California.

Sister of Lori Pfeiffer, and Dedee Pfeiffer.

Actor Val Kilmer wrote poetry for her.

Is of Dutch, German, Irish, Swedish and Swiss descent.

During an A&E Biography, she said that her Catwoman costume from Batman Returns (1992) was vacuum-sealed once she was fitted into it for scenes, so she actually had only a short amount of time to perform before she would have to have it opened or she could become light-headed and pass out.

Chosen as one of People Magazine's 50 most beautiful people in the world in 1991.

Chosen as one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People In the World in 1992.

Chosen as one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in the World in 1993.

Chosen as one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in the World in 1996.

Was chosen to be on the cover of the first ever "People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in the World" issue in 1990; appeared on the list a record 6 times (1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1999) and the first person to appear on the cover of the special issue twice (1990 and 1999).

Barbara Walters called her and Julia Roberts the most beautiful people she has ever interviewed.

Voted by Biography Magazine readers as the most beautiful woman of the 1990s.

Chosen by People Magazine as one of the most intriguing people of 1988 and 1989.

Turned down the role of the White Witch in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005); she was the only major Hollywood star offered the role.

Sister-in-law of Jude Cole.

Was considered for the role of Eva Perón in Evita (1996), and when the film was to be directed by Oliver Stone, she even had taken a good few months voice training for the role.

In 1999, joined the 12 million dollar club alongside Meg Ryan and Jodie Foster.

In an Entertainment Weekly on-line poll, she placed second in the category of Best Modern Actress; beaten only by Meryl Streep [September 1999].

Was offered the role of Clarice Starling, in the movie The Silence of the Lambs (1991), that eventually went to Jodie Foster.

Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 6, 2007. Used to live around the corner of the Hollywood Walk.

Ex-sister-in-law of Gregory Fein.

Has been an an avid oil painter for most of her life.

Has worked with four live-action Batmans. First, she appeared in Batman Returns (1992), with Michael Keaton. She worked with Val Kilmer "ABC Afterschool Specials" (1972) {One Too Many (#13.7)} and The Prince of Egypt (1998). In One Fine Day (1996), she works with George Clooney, and in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999), she works with Christian Bale.

Director Tim Burton originally wanted her to play "Vicki Vale" in Batman (1989), but that part eventually went to Kim Basinger. When Burton made Batman Returns (1992), he cast her as "Catwoman/Selina Kyle".

Was nominated for 6 consecutive golden globe awards from 1989-1994.

Has been very good friends with Cher since working together on The Witches of Eastwick (1987) in the 80s.

One of her favorite films is The Wizard of Oz (1939).

When she was in her twenties, strangers would come up to her thinking she was Deborah Harry from the band Blondie. Not surprisingly, Harry stated in an interview that if she could choose any actress to play her in a film, she would choose Pfeiffer.

Was voted by Empire Magazine as 13th Greatest actress of her time (out of 50 actresses) 2004.

Good friends with Ellen Barkin.

Empire Magazine voted her the 33rd sexiest December 2007.

She is close friends with Steven Spielberg and his wife Kate Capshaw, Nicole Kidman, Jack Nicholson, Jodie Foster, George Clooney, Martin Scorsese and Cher.

Was considered for the lead role in Mamma Mia (2008) that eventually went to Meryl Streep.

Personal Quotes

I still think people will find out that I'm really not very talented. I'm really not very good. It's all just been a big sham.

[On playing her part of Claire Spencer in What Lies Beneath (2000)] "I thought about Drew Barrymore in the first Scream (1996/I) - I mean, ultimately that movie was more funny than scary, but the opening sequence was quite terrifying, and she portrayed terror in a way I'd never seen an actress do."

[On wearing her costume in Batman Returns (1992) for the first time]: "I thought to myself 'I can't move, I can't breathe, I can't think. I'm unhappy. I can't act'."

[on cosmetic surgery] "If that nose or those jowls bother you, do it! But this epidemic of people losing sight of what looks good, the distortion that has been going on is creepy."

I act for free, but I demand a huge salary as compensation for all the annoyance of being a public personality. In that sense, I earn every dime I make.

Ultimately, I believe the only secret to a happy marriage is choosing the right person. Life is a series of choices, right?

I was shocked at the prejudice, voiced in some quarters, over my decision to adopt a mixed-race baby. It's really surprising that people still put so much emphasis on it. None of us are pure anything. We're all a mixture. Claudia is a beautiful child, and some of the most beautiful people I've seen in the world have been of mixed race. As mother of both an adopted child and my own birth-child, there is absolutely no difference in the huge amount of love I feel for both my children. I always knew I wanted to adopt a child and also have one of my own. There is no difference at all.

I have to say this singing was harder than any I've done before. The melodies are so fast that you can barely get a breath in. But once I got past the 'Oh my God, what have I gotten myself into' phase, it was so much fun to sing again.

For me, getting comfortable with being famous was hard - that whole side of it, the loss of anonymity, the loss of privacy. Giving up that part of your life and not having control of it.

Acting's an odd profession for a young person; it's so extreme. You work, and the conditions are tough and the process is so immersive, and then it stops, and then there's nothing. So you have to find ways of making you feel productive when you're not actually producing anything. For a young person, that's really challenging.

[On her role as "Velma Von Tussle" in Hairspray (2007)] It's a lot of fun to play mean and sinister - but you certainly put yourself at risk for scenery chewing. And, every once in a while, Adam [Shankman, the director] would come over to me after a take and say, 'Hey, Michelle - is there a chair leg in your teeth?

(From Movieline magazine April 2002) People like Susan Sarandon have paved the way and our window of opportunity expands incrementally year by year. Obviously, the kind of roles I'm offered are different than before, but I feel like the roles have only gotten more interesting. I want to grow up to be Judi Dench or Ellen Burstyn. The older we get, the less we work, but look at the work just those two women are doing. It gets deeper.

Salary

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