Remember Linda from Fast Times at Ridgemont High? Here’s What Phoebe Cates Looks Like Today

If you saw Fast Times at Ridgemont High in 1982, you never forgot Phoebe Cates.

She played Linda Barrett with so much confidence and natural charm that she practically leapt off the screen.

She was funny, magnetic, and utterly impossible to look away from — and then, almost as suddenly as she appeared, she walked away from Hollywood on her own terms.

Here’s a look at what Phoebe Cates has been up to in the more than four decades since that red bikini became one of cinema’s most unforgettable images.

A Show Business Family From the Start

Phoebe Belle Cates was born on July 16, 1963, in New York City. She came from a family deeply embedded in entertainment.

Her father, Joseph Cates, was a prominent Broadway producer and pioneering television figure who helped create the classic game show The $64,000 Question.

Her uncle, Gilbert Cates, produced numerous Oscar telecasts and was a respected Hollywood director. Show business was in her DNA from the very beginning.

The Dancer Who Became a Model

As a child, Cates had her sights set on something entirely different from acting.

She trained at the Juilliard School from age ten and later won a scholarship to the School of American Ballet.

A serious knee injury in her mid-teens ended that dream.

She pivoted to modeling, quickly landing on the cover of Seventeen magazine four times before she was 20.

She also appeared on the covers of Elle and British Vogue, and in Andy Warhol’s Interview. She was a success by any measure — but she was bored.

“It was just the same thing, over and over,” she said later. “After a while, I did it solely for the money.”

She wanted more, and acting seemed like the answer.

The Role That Made Her an Icon

In 1982 at age 18, Cates landed the role of Linda Barrett in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, directed by Amy Heckerling, and based on a book by Cameron Crowe.

The film also featured early performances from Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Eric Stoltz, Nicolas Cage, and Forest Whitaker — one of the most remarkable debut casts in Hollywood history.

Cates played Leigh’s worldly, self-assured best friend, and she said she had “the most fun” making that film of any project in her career.

Rolling Stone later called her poolside scene “the most memorable bikini-drop in cinema history.”

The film has since been added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as a work deemed culturally and historically significant.

A Run of Hits in the ’80s

The success of Fast Times launched Cates into a string of high-profile films throughout the decade.

In 1983, she starred in the comedy Private School alongside Matthew Modine — and even sang two songs on the film’s soundtrack.

Then came 1984, which turned out to be her biggest year.

She starred in the soapy TV miniseries Lace, which became notorious for one of the most gloriously over-the-top lines in television history.

That same year, she played Kate Beringer in Gremlins, executive produced by Steven Spielberg.

Gremlins became the highest-grossing film of her career and proved she could hold her own in a mainstream blockbuster that had nothing to do with her looks.

Her monologue about discovering her father’s body stuck in the chimney on Christmas — the source of her fear of the holiday — remains one of the most unexpectedly moving scenes in any ’80s movie.

The Love Story That Changed Everything

In 1983, Cates auditioned for a role in The Big Chill that ultimately went to Meg Tilly.

She didn’t get the part — but she got something much better. At that audition, she met actor Kevin Kline.

They were both in other relationships at the time and didn’t become a couple right away.

Two years later, they began dating. On March 5, 1989, they married in a private New York City ceremony.

More than 35 years later, they are still together — one of Hollywood’s genuinely rare enduring love stories.

Kevin Kline, who won an Academy Award for A Fish Called Wanda, told an interviewer in 2024 that he credits their move from Los Angeles to New York as one of the keys to their lasting marriage.

He has also said, with evident affection, that Cates “keeps me honest.”

Walking Away at the Height of Her Fame

By the early 1990s, Cates had appeared in a steady stream of films including Drop Dead Fred (1991) and Princess Caraboo (1994).

Then, quietly and deliberately, she stepped away.

In 1994, after Princess Caraboo, she retired from acting to raise her two children — son Owen, born in 1991, and daughter Greta, born in 1994.

It was not a difficult decision and not one made out of frustration. She simply chose family.

She did make one brief return to the screen in 2001, when she appeared in The Anniversary Party as a favor to her best friend and Fast Times co-star Jennifer Jason Leigh, who co-wrote and co-directed the film.

Their friendship, which began on that set in 1982, has lasted more than four decades.

The Business She Built From Scratch

In 2005, Cates channeled her creative energy into something new.

She opened Blue Tree, a boutique on Madison Avenue in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood of Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

The store sells an eclectic mix of women’s clothing, jewelry, home goods, vintage LPs, candles, antiques, books, and artisan gifts.

She has said her vision was simply to create “a general store, but according to me.”

Blue Tree has been going strong for nearly 20 years, and Cates is frequently spotted working behind the counter herself.

Customers sometimes tell her she looks just like Phoebe Cates. Her standard reply: “I get that a lot.”

What Phoebe Cates Looks Like Now

Phoebe Cates is 61 years old as of 2025, and by every account, she looks remarkable.

She lives a deliberately private life on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with Kevin Kline, and she seems genuinely at peace with the choices she made.

She rarely gives interviews and makes almost no public appearances, which only adds to the sense that she is someone who knows exactly who she is and what she values.

The girl who walked away from one of the most coveted spots in Hollywood turned out to be one of its wisest alumni.

What Phoebe Cates Has Been Up to Since Fast Times

Here’s a look at her biggest milestones since Linda Barrett made film history in 1982:

1. 1983: Starred in Private School alongside Matthew Modine and sang two original songs on the film’s soundtrack, showing early range beyond the roles she was being typecast in.
2. 1984: Played the unforgettable Lili in the TV miniseries Lace, delivering one of the most quoted lines in 1980s television history, and starred as Kate Beringer in Steven Spielberg’s Gremlins.
3. 1985: Reprised the role of Lili in Lace II, cementing the character as a genuine fan favorite.
4. 1989: Married Kevin Kline in a private ceremony in New York City, beginning one of Hollywood’s most quietly enduring partnerships.
5. 1990: Reprised her Gremlins role as Kate Beringer in Gremlins 2: The New Batch.
6. 1991: Gave birth to son Owen and starred in the cult comedy Drop Dead Fred, her last major theatrical release before stepping away from Hollywood.
7. 1994: Starred in Princess Caraboo and then retired from acting to focus on raising her family — a decision she has never publicly regretted.
8. 2001: Returned to the screen for The Anniversary Party, co-directed by her longtime best friend Jennifer Jason Leigh, as a one-time favor to the friend she met on the set of Fast Times nearly 20 years earlier.
9. 2005: Opened Blue Tree boutique on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, a shop she has run personally and passionately for nearly two decades.
10. 2015: Made a brief voice appearance as Kate Beringer in the video game Lego Dimensions — her most recent acting credit to date.