Joseph Katz, a Broadway producer, and Phoebe Cates’ uncle were prominent figures in the entertainment industry who worked on multiple Academy Awards shows as well as TV specials.
Her maternal grandfather was a Chinese-Filipino who was born in Shanghai. In the meantime, Cates’ grandmothers were both Russian-Jewish.
A close friend of the family was the late Andy Warhol, a well-known artist who passed away in 1987.
Cates attended the elite Julliard School, the Professional Children’s School, and the Hewitt School for his schooling.
Phoebe Cates began modeling at the age of 10, and she began to feature in teen-oriented publications even before she became an actress.
But at the time, Cates’ dream job was to become a dancer.
When Phoebe Cates was 15 years old, she suffered a catastrophic knee injury and was forced to stop attending a ballet school.
Phoebe Cates actually began her career in modeling about this time, although she never really enjoyed it because, in her own words, “it was basically the same thing over and over…
I only did it for the money.
