What happened to ’80s star Phoebe Cates? Inside the reclusive actress’ life away from Hollywood as she turns 63

Phoebe seemed to be virtually everywhere in the ’80s and ’90s, with starring roles in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Gremlins, Gremlins 2: The New Batch and Drop Dead Fred. 

However, the actress grew disillusioned with Hollywood and shifted her focus to her two kids, Owen and Greta, in the mid-’90s. She retired in 1994 after starring in Princess Caraboo alongside her husband, Kevin Kline.

Phoebe has reappeared onscreen on a handful of occasions since; once in 2001 in The Anniversary Party as a favor to her friend and the film’s director, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and again in 2015 when she voiced her Gremlins character in the Lego Dimensions game. 

The actress first met her husband Kevin in 1982 at an audition, and the pair later reconnected while working at the New York Public Theater. They tied the knot in 1989 and went on to welcome two kids together. 

The duo share a 16-year age gap, with Phoebe being 25 and her husband being 41 when they married, yet their romance is still going strong decades later.

Phoebe and Kevin’s eldest child, Owen, arrived in October 1991, and now works as a filmmaker, actor and cartoonist. 

He has acted in projects like The Squid and the Whale and directed A-24’s Funny Pages in 2022. Owen shared with The Guardian that his parents were “so supportive” of his dreams and encouraged him to complete the film. 

Greta, who was born in March 1994, is a talented singer and member of the indie-pop band Frankie Cosmos. 

She shared with Interview magazine that Phoebe and Kevin created a supportive environment for her growing up, and inspired her to become a musician. “My parents have both done some music stuff,” she explained. 

“My family was very artist-friendly, so that was encouraging. I took piano lessons for, like, 10 years. Every Friday night, my family had music at our house. We’d have friends over and be able to be really loud and play music. That was really encouraging.” 

Phoebe disappeared from public life in the mid-’90s to focus on raising her two kids, and realized her dream of opening a boutique in 2005. The brunette beauty launched Blue Tree in New York, in a move that many questioned at the time. 

“Everyone said, ‘Why would you want to do that? Retail is terrible,’ but I dreamed it,” she said on The Big Idea. 

“I kept a dream journal where we would joke about it. I would cut out photos of great, innovative products, and my kids would joke, ‘That’s for the store.’ I knew that acting wasn’t an option for me. I wasn’t driven to do it again.” 

Acting had left her disillusioned with her glamorous Hollywood life, leading the star to switch careers entirely. 

“I started acting and modeling so young that at a young age I craved a normal existence, dealing with people who have no preexisting idea about you,” she told WWD. 

Phoebe’s boutique is reportedly still in operation in NYC, and brings her the kind of fulfilment that acting never did. 

According to the store’s website, Blue Tree “carries unique and carefully chosen items in home, gift, fragrance, music, delicacies…There are no rules. And we are always re-inventing, recreating in the hopes of delighting.”