Michelle Pfeiffer achieved further success with roles in The Witches of Eastwick and Married to the Mob, for which she was nominated for her first of six consecutive Golden Globe Awards.
88 Facts About Michelle Pfeiffer
2.
Michelle Pfeiffer produced several of her own star vehicles under her company Via Rosa Productions, including Dangerous Minds and One Fine Day.
3.
Michelle Pfeiffer has played Janet van Dyne in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2018, beginning with Ant-Man and the Wasp.
4.
Michelle Marie Pfeiffer was born on April 29,1958, in Santa Ana, California, the second of four children of Donna Jean, a housewife, and Richard Pfeiffer, an air-conditioning contractor.
5.
The family moved to Midway City, another Orange County community around seven miles away, where Michelle Pfeiffer spent her early years.
6.
Michelle Pfeiffer worked as a check-out girl at Vons supermarket, and attended Golden West College where she was a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority.
7.
Michelle Pfeiffer won the Miss Orange County beauty pageant in 1978, and participated in the Miss California contest the same year, finishing in sixth place.
8.
Michelle Pfeiffer made her acting debut in 1978, in a one-episode appearance of Fantasy Island.
9.
Michelle Pfeiffer transitioned to film with the comedy The Hollywood Knights, with Tony Danza, appearing as high school sweethearts.
10.
Michelle Pfeiffer subsequently played supporting roles in Falling in Love Again with Susannah York and Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen, none of which met with much critical or box office success.
11.
Michelle Pfeiffer obtained her first major film role as the female lead in Grease 2, the sequel to the smash-hit musical film Grease.
12.
Michelle Pfeiffer was cast as cocaine-addicted trophy wife Elvira Hancock.
13.
Michelle Pfeiffer finally scored a major box-office hit as Sukie Ridgemont in the 1987 adaptation of John Updike's novel The Witches of Eastwick, with Jack Nicholson, Cher, and Susan Sarandon.
14.
Michelle Pfeiffer was cast against type, as a murdered gangster's widow, in Jonathan Demme's mafia comedy Married to the Mob, with Matthew Modine, Dean Stockwell and Mercedes Ruehl.
15.
Michelle Pfeiffer then appeared as chic restaurateuse Jo Ann Vallenari in Tequila Sunrise with Mel Gibson and Kurt Russell, but experienced creative and personal differences with director Robert Towne, who later described her as the "most difficult" actress he has ever worked with.
16.
At Demme's personal recommendation, Michelle Pfeiffer joined the cast of Stephen Frears's Dangerous Liaisons, with Glenn Close and John Malkovich, playing Madame Marie de Tourvel, the virtuous victim of seduction.
17.
Nothing is harder to play than virtue, and Michelle Pfeiffer is smart enough not to try.
18.
Michelle Pfeiffer's porcelain-skinned beauty, in this regard, is a great asset, and the way it's used makes it seem an aspect of her spirituality.
19.
Michelle Pfeiffer then accepted the role of Susie Diamond, a hard-edged former call girl turned lounge singer, in The Fabulous Baker Boys, which starred Jeff Bridges and Beau Bridges as the eponymous Baker Boys.
20.
Michelle Pfeiffer underwent intense voice training for the role for four months, and performed all of her character's vocals.
21.
Critic Roger Ebert compared her to Rita Hayworth in Gilda and to Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot, adding that the film was "one of the movies they will use as a document, years from now, when they begin to trace the steps by which Michelle Pfeiffer became a great star".
22.
In 1990, Michelle Pfeiffer formed her own film production company, Via Rosa Productions, with business partner Kate Guinzburg, whom she had met on the set of Sweet Liberty.
23.
Michelle Pfeiffer was under a picture deal with Touchstone Pictures, a film label of The Walt Disney Studios.
24.
That year, Michelle Pfeiffer began earning $1 million per film, and took on the part of the Soviet book editor Katya Orlova in the film adaptation of John le Carre's The Russia House, with Sean Connery, a role that required her to adopt a Russian accent.
25.
Michelle Pfeiffer then landed the role of damaged waitress Frankie in Garry Marshall's Frankie and Johnny, a film adaptation of Terrence McNally's Broadway play Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, which reunited her with her Scarface co-star, Al Pacino.
26.
The casting was seen as controversial by many, as Michelle Pfeiffer was considered far too beautiful to play an "ordinary" waitress; Kathy Bates, the original Frankie on Broadway, expressed disappointment over the producers' choice.
27.
Michelle Pfeiffer herself stated that she took the role because it "wasn't what people would expect of [her]".
28.
Michelle Pfeiffer received unanimous critical acclaim for her portrayal, which is often referred to as the greatest performance of Catwoman of all time by critics and fans.
29.
Reviewers embraced the film and The New York Times felt that Michelle Pfeiffer was "again demonstrating that she is as subtle and surprising as she is beautiful".
30.
In Martin Scorsese's period drama The Age of Innocence, a film adaptation of Edith Wharton's 1920 novel, Michelle Pfeiffer starred with Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder, portraying a Countess in upper-class New York City in the 1870s.
31.
Michelle Pfeiffer starred with Jack Nicholson in the 1994 horror film Wolf, portraying the sardonic and willful interest of a writer who becomes a wolf-man at night after being bitten by a creature.
32.
Michelle Pfeiffer's role is underwritten, but her performance is expert enough to make even diffidence compelling.
33.
Michelle Pfeiffer voiced Tzipporah, a spirited shepherdess who becomes the wife of Moses, in the animated biblical drama film The Prince of Egypt.
34.
Michelle Pfeiffer starred alongside an all-star voice cast that included Ralph Fiennes, Sandra Bullock and Patrick Stewart.
35.
Michelle Pfeiffer chose to begin the process of dissolving her film production company, Via Rosa Productions, in 1999, and moved into semi-retirement in order to spend more quality time with her children and family, meaning that she would continue to star in films sporadically into the 2000s and beyond.
36.
Michelle Pfeiffer handed her producing partner Guinzburg one final film to produce under the Via Rosa Productions header.
37.
Michelle Pfeiffer then accepted the role of Rita Harrison, a highly strung lawyer helping a father with a developmental disability, in the drama I Am Sam, with Sean Penn.
38.
Michelle Pfeiffer took on the role of a murderous artist, named Ingrid Magnussen, in the drama White Oleander, with Alison Lohman, Renee Zellweger and Robin Wright.
39.
Michelle Pfeiffer, giving the most complex screen performance of her career, makes her Olympian seductress at once irresistible and diabolical.
40.
Michelle Pfeiffer earned Best Supporting Actress Awards from the San Diego Film Critics Society and the Kansas City Film Critics Circle, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination.
41.
In 2003, Michelle Pfeiffer lent her voice for the character of goddess of chaos Eris in Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, an animated film featuring Brad Pitt as the voice of Sinbad the Sailor.
42.
Michelle Pfeiffer returned to cinemas in 2007 with villainous roles in two summer blockbusters, Hairspray and Stardust, which was hailed as a successful comeback by the media.
43.
Michelle Pfeiffer's performance was critically acclaimed, with film critic David Edelstein of NPR calling her "sublime".
44.
Michelle Pfeiffer starred in Amy Heckerling's romantic comedy I Could Never Be Your Woman, with Paul Rudd and Saoirse Ronan, portraying Rosie, a 40-year-old divorced mother working as a scriptwriter and producer for a television show who falls in love with a much younger man.
45.
Michelle Pfeiffer's reported salary was US$1 million, with an advance on 15 percent of the gross.
46.
Michelle Pfeiffer played the role of aging retired courtesan Lea de Lonval, with Rupert Friend in the title role, with Kathy Bates as his mother.
47.
Michelle Pfeiffer stated that her lack of acting throughout the 2000s was due to several reasons, including family matters and her approach to choosing roles.
48.
Michelle Pfeiffer stated she was intending to "work a lot" once her children left for college, mentioning that she felt her best performance was "still in her", saying how that's what she felt kept her her going.
49.
Michelle Pfeiffer landed the role of Ruth Madoff for the HBO Films drama The Wizard of Lies, based on the book of the same name.
50.
Michelle Pfeiffer played a widowed socialite in Kenneth Branagh's Murder on the Orient Express, the fourth screen adaptation of Agatha Christie's 1934 novel of the same name.
51.
Michelle Pfeiffer recorded the original song "Never Forget" for the film's soundtrack.
52.
The New Yorkers Anthony Lane found that only Michelle Pfeiffer appears to be enjoying their material, while Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle credited the film with reminding audiences that she is one of the industry's best actresses.
53.
Michelle Pfeiffer debuted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Janet van Dyne, the original Wasp, in the Ant-Man sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp.
54.
In 2019, Michelle Pfeiffer briefly reprised the role in Avengers: Endgame, and starred alongside Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning in the dark fantasy sequel Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, playing the villainous Queen Ingrith.
55.
Michelle Pfeiffer headlined the dark comedy French Exit, based on the acclaimed novel of the same name by Patrick deWitt, directed by Azazel Jacobs.
56.
Michelle Pfeiffer portrays Betty Ford in the anthology drama television series The First Lady, which premiered on Showtime in April 2022.
57.
Michelle Pfeiffer is attached to star alongside Annette Bening in the psychological thriller, Turn of Mind, set to be directed by Gideon Raff.
58.
Michelle Pfeiffer is set to reprise her role as Janet van Dyne in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
59.
Michelle Pfeiffer has never received formal acting training, expressing that she sometimes feels fraudulent as an actor due to her lack of conventional schooling.
60.
Journalist James Kaplan reported that some critics believe Michelle Pfeiffer has sold herself short by choosing character roles that emphasize her talent over her beauty.
61.
Michelle Pfeiffer prefers dramatic over comedic roles, describing the latter as more challenging.
62.
Michelle Pfeiffer has described acting as a "sadomasochistic" profession due to how "brutal" she finds the process at times.
63.
Adam Platt of New Woman and journalist Bilge Ebiri agreed that Michelle Pfeiffer often plays women who are emotionally detached from their surroundings.
64.
Filmmakers and co-stars agree that Michelle Pfeiffer is extremely committed to her work, having developed a reputation for competence and preparedness.
65.
Michelle Pfeiffer is widely regarded as one of the greatest actresses of her generation, a designation novelist Steve Erickson claims she had already achieved by her thirties.
66.
In 2009, Maclean's film critic Brian D Johnson argued that Pfeiffer had yet to demonstrate her true acting range, believing she could potentially be as respected as Meryl Streep if allowed the same opportunities, while the San Francisco Chronicle's Mick LaSalle remarked that Pfeiffer's humility sometimes causes viewers to overlook her as one of the industry's best actresses.
67.
Michelle Pfeiffer is particularly renowned for her versatility, having accumulated a diverse repertoire spanning period, romance, fantasy, musical, comedy, and drama films.
68.
Apart from The Witches of Eastwick, few of the actress' films during the 1980s had been major box office successes, an observation Michelle Pfeiffer feared disclosing to film studios.
69.
In 1995, The New York Times journalist Bernard Weinraub said Michelle Pfeiffer belongs to a group of actresses who are respected yet "not considered a big box- office draw".
70.
Michelle Pfeiffer feels critics have not entirely understood her acting decisions, which Rathe attributes to the "wildcard image" she has maintained throughout her career, and explained she is sometimes surprised by their reviews, whether positive or negative.
71.
The Boston Globes Mark Shanahan believes Michelle Pfeiffer is sometimes overlooked as one of Hollywood's greatest leading actresses due to her perceived on-screen effortlessness.
72.
Michelle Pfeiffer was awarded a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007.
73.
Michelle Pfeiffer has long been described as one of the world's most beautiful and talented actresses, a designation The Daily Telegraphs Mick Brown considers to be both a defining characteristic and curse.
74.
In 1990, Michelle Pfeiffer appeared on the inaugural cover of People magazine's annual "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" issue.
75.
Michelle Pfeiffer was again pictured on the cover in 1999, making her the first celebrity to appear on the cover of the issue twice, and the only celebrity to grace the cover twice during the 1990s.
76.
Michelle Pfeiffer has been featured in the "Most Beautiful" issue a record-breaking six times throughout the decade.
77.
AllMovie biographer Rebecca Flint Marx wrote that Michelle Pfeiffer possesses "a rare beauty that has inspired countless platitudes and an almost-permanent place on People's Fifty Most Beautiful list".
78.
Several media publications have commented on Michelle Pfeiffer's perceived ability to physically age slowly.
79.
Michelle Pfeiffer is notorious for disliking press interviews, referring to herself as "the worst interviewee that ever was", and maintaining that it is not an actor's responsibility to promote a film project.
80.
In 2005, Michelle Pfeiffer served as the face of Giorgio Armani's spring campaign; the designer has often dressed her for public appearances.
81.
In 1988, Michelle Pfeiffer had an affair with John Malkovich, her co-star in Dangerous Liaisons, who at the time was married to Glenne Headly.
82.
In 1993, Pfeiffer married television writer and producer David E Kelley.
83.
Michelle Pfeiffer made a brief uncredited cameo appearance in one episode of Kelley's television series Picket Fences and played the title character in To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, for which Kelley wrote the screenplay.
84.
Michelle Pfeiffer had entered into private adoption proceedings before she met Kelley, and in March 1993 adopted a newborn daughter, Claudia Rose, who was christened on Pfeiffer's and Kelley's wedding day.
85.
In 1994, Michelle Pfeiffer gave birth to a son, John Henry Kelley II, named for his grandfather and Michelle Pfeiffer's father-in-law, United States Hockey Hall of Fame coach John Henry "Jack" Kelley.
86.
Michelle Pfeiffer has received three Academy Award nominations: Best Supporting Actress for Dangerous Liaisons ; and Best Actress for The Fabulous Baker Boys and Love Field.
87.
Michelle Pfeiffer won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama for The Fabulous Baker Boys, and has been nominated seven more times for her performances in Married to the Mob, The Russia House, Frankie and Johnny, Love Field, The Age of Innocence, The Wizard of Lies, and French Exit.
88.
Michelle Pfeiffer received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for The Wizard of Lies.