Who

Best known for her role in the 1980s classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High, these days Cates runs a boutique on the Upper East Side. Her husband is actor Kevin Kline.

Backstory

The daughter of a Russian-Jewish producer father and Filipina mother, Cates grew up in New York and first entered the public consciousness—and won the hearts of teenage boys everywhere—when she did a slow-mo bikini strip in 1982' Fast Times at Ridgemont High. She disrobed again for the film Paradise and had parts in several other movies (Gremlins, Bright Lights, Big City, Drop Dead Fred), before moving to the stage in the 1980s and appearing in Joseph Papp's The Nest of the Wood Grouse, David Henry Hwang's Rich Relations in 1985, and Much Ado About Nothing at the Public Theater in 1988. Cates disappeared in the mid-'90s to focus on being a mom, making a brief return to the screen in 2001's The Anniversary Party. Presumably, the role wasn't too much of a grind: She played a retired actress married to an actor (played by her real-life husband Kevin Kline) with two children (played by her real-life kids), and the film was directed by her real-life best friend, Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Currently

These days, Cates occupies herself with Blue Tree, the Madison Avenue boutique she co-owns and operates with her partner Lisa Matlin, the wife of financier David Matlin. You'll find $450 Sara Berman coats, $210 umbrellas, and $225 bookends at the store. And you'll occasionally find Cates popping up on ABC's Good Morning America to dispense gift-giving tips.

Personal

Cates met Kevin Kline while she was auditioning for the part of Chloe in The Big Chill. (She didn't get the part, and the role went to Meg Tilly.) The couple got married in 1989 and now have three kids: Owen (who played a leading role in the 2005 film The Squid and the Whale), Greta, and Autumn. Kline and Cates used to live on the Upper West Side, but sold their place to playwright/family friend David Henry Hwang in 1996. They now divide their time between an Upper East Side penthouse and a home in the upstate hamlet of Garrison.

True story

Cates helped catch a crook who burglarized the home of Public Theater director Oskar Eustis. When the thief tried to redeem a Blue Tree gift certificate he had pilfered from the purse of Eustis' wife, Laurie, Cates tracked down Eustis, called the police, and had the perp arrested.