Biography. Childhood
Michelle was born at the end of April 1958 in the Californian town of Santa Ana in the family of air conditioning supplier Richard Pfeiffer and housewife Donna Taverna.
The father and mother were natives of North Dakota. On her father's side, Michelle has Dutch, Irish and German roots, and on her mother's side, Swedish and Swiss.
Michelle was the second child in the family at the time of her birth; she had an older brother, Rick. When the future screen star turned 6, her mother gave birth to twin sisters Didi and Lori. They, like Michelle, subsequently chose an acting career.
Michelle spent her childhood in the towns of Midway City and Fountain Valley. In the latter, in 1976, she graduated from high school, after which she worked for some time in a store as a cash operator.
She worked as a cashier for a short time, eventually entering Golden West College. During her student years, Michelle participated in beauty contests, even won one, so she decided to hire an agent and began going to auditions.
Michelle in her youth
Subsequently, she recalled that she took acting classes when she was already filming, so she had to learn on the go, making mistakes.
From a free-spirited teenager to an attractive lady
Naughty girl
Michelle was born on April 29, 1958 in California in the provincial town of Santa Ana. By this time, her parents already had a boy, Rick, who was born three years earlier, and in 1965, two sisters of the future world cinema star Lori and Didi were born, now they, like their sister, are actresses.
In the photo - Michelle Pfeiffer with her sister Didi
Michelle's mother, Donna Taverna, took care of raising the children and taking care of the house. The family's money was made by father Richard Pfeiffer, who spent his entire adult life as the owner of a company that sold heating appliances and air conditioners.
Michelle's father and mother were born in North Dakota. Richard had Irish, German and Dutch ancestry, while Donna had Swiss and Swedish ancestry.
In childhood, the future “catwoman” was considered very active and mobile. She found it difficult to sit through the rest of the lesson. In addition, Michelle had a bad temper, which got her into trouble with her teachers. One day it got to the point that the girl was almost expelled from school.
Perhaps this was one of the reasons for the entire Pfeiffer family moving to Midway City. But they didn’t stay in this town for long either. Their new home was Fountain Valley, where Michelle received her high school diploma.
An independent girl who was afraid to let men near her
At the age of fourteen, Pfeiffer worked in a retail store as a cashier. By getting a job there, she added a little more years to herself. Since childhood, Michelle dreamed of being independent. And finally she began to earn money, which became the first step towards realizing her dream.
The next stage in Pfeiffer's adult life was studying at Golden West College. There she pored over the study of jurisprudence, after which she was going to get a job as a stenographer in court.
Michelle later admitted that men appeared in her life quite late, since she could not find contact with them for a long time. Pfeiffer is a very distrustful person. She needs to get to know another person thoroughly before starting close communication with her. Michelle considers herself a closed and easily vulnerable woman. Insecurity worries her, and getting close to a man can lead to vulnerability.
Husbands and gentlemen
While Pfeiffer was studying acting in Beverly Hills, she accidentally met actor Peter Horton, who became Michelle's husband in 1981. This couple has been married for seven years. The husband accused his wife that her career was more important to her than her family. This is what caused their divorce in 1988.
Michelle Pfeiffer and Peter Horton
The actress's next lover was director and actor Fisher Stevens. They met during the New York Shakespeare Festival, and their relationship lasted for three years.
With Fisher Stevens
On the set of Dangerous Liaisons, Pfeiffer began to be courted by John Malkovich, with whom the actress had a short romantic relationship. In addition, Michael Keaton was also seen in love affairs with the heroine of our story.
In the film "Dangerous Liaisons"
Blind date. This is how Michelle met David Edward Kelly, whom she married in 1993. Before marriage, their romance lasted for ten months. The actress still lives with Kelly in California.
Michelle Pfeiffer with husband David Kelley
Pfeiffer is ready to sacrifice her career for the sake of her children.
Before meeting her second husband, Michelle decided to adopt a child. In the spring of 1992, she succeeded. From now on, the actress had to learn a new profession - mother. Pfeiffer's adopted daughter is named Claudia Rosa.
The actress with her adopted daughter Claudia-Rosa and son
Two years later, already married to Kelly, the actress gave birth to a boy, who was named John-Henry. Michelle is a very good mother. For the sake of her children, she twice quit her favorite job for a long time.
Actor career
In cinema, Michelle began by participating in TV series (“Delta House”, “A Single Man” and “California Highway Patrol”). Michelle Pfeiffer's debut on the big screen was the film "Hollywood Knights", directed by Floyd Mutrax.
After a series of roles in TV series, she was lucky enough to play with Peter Ustinov in the comedy “Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen.” In 1983, Michelle was even luckier. Brian De Palma gave her a role in the film Scarface. Her partner on the set was the already famous Al Pacino. Pfeiffer took the chance and showed herself not only as a very beautiful woman, but also as a skilled actress. They say about filming with De Palma that the director needed Michelle’s character, Elvira, to look exhausted. He solved the problem radically - he simply forbade the actress to eat. It was hard, but Al Pacino’s support saved her.
In 1986, she starred in Richard Donner's Lady Hawk along with Matthew Broderick and Rutger Hauer, and a year later in the film adaptation of John Updike's novel The Witches of Eastwick, where Cher, Susan Sarandon and Jack Nicholson played alongside her ( in both films she already had leading roles).
Gradually, the actress began to be recognized, and Michelle received a Golden Globe nomination for her role in the drama Married to the Mafia. The year was 1989. At the same time, Pfeiffer was nominated for an Oscar for “Dangerous Liaisons.” However, the actress achieved her first award only in 1990 - the Golden Globe for the film The Famous Baker Brothers (for Best Actress). They appreciated the criticism and her performance in the film “Frankie and Johnny.”
Michelle Pfeiffer: “I chose the wrong men for a long time”
“My heroine in Malavita is like an aged Angela de Marco from my film Married to the Mafia,” Michelle assures and adds: “If, of course, her life had turned out a little differently.” The mafioso's wife, whom the actress played in the cult film of the 1980s, remained a widow. In “Malavita,” her heroine was luckier: despite the vicissitudes of fate, she was happily married to a dangerous gangster for many years. Pfeiffer herself was able to discover the secret of long-lasting family ties. Although she had almost no chance of getting married successfully...
Fleeing youth and loneliness breathing down the neck - these are the most popular fears of many Hollywood celestials. Michelle Pfeiffer was lucky not to be one of them. At 55, the actress is still beautiful without any plastic surgery. And what’s even more surprising is that she has been happy for 20 years with her husband David Kelly and two adult children. The actress is convinced that her family well-being is nothing more than a reward for one decisive act that she was not afraid to take many years ago.
Young Michelle, the prettiest student at a school in the suburbs of the Californian town of Santa Ana, did not strive for knowledge, was insolent to teachers, and ran away from class to the beach. There the girl pretended to be crazy about surfing, although she was mortally afraid of water and disdainfully squinted her bright blue almond-shaped eyes in response to the advances of the surfing guys.
The beauty wasn’t particularly drawn to home either. Who didn't she see there? A mother with dull eyes, who is completely absorbed in household chores and children? Older brother Rick, fortunately, began to live his own life early. But the two younger sisters, Dedi and Lori, whom Michelle was sometimes assigned to look after, seemed like a yoke around her neck. The only soul mate was the father. They were both distinguished by their difficult characters, combined with taciturnity, intolerance to criticism and diabolical perfectionism.
At the age of 16, deciding that she was old enough to swim freely, Michelle left home. However, the girl did not have any specific plans for the future. So far, she has only been able to earn at least some money for her adult life by sitting at the checkout counter at a local supermarket, where Pfeiffer worked part-time since she was 14 years old. Once, while listening to the complaints of another customer, dissatisfied with overripe melons, she suddenly clearly realized: if she does not want, like her mother, to wither in this provincial hole, she needs to do something with her life. Heaven definitely heard her call. The store's owners were planning to open a new location in Los Angeles. The pretty cashier was offered a place there. In a large and noisy metropolis next door to Hollywood, Michelle quickly felt at ease. Yes, she did not dream of becoming an actress from the cradle, but for some reason fate brought her to this city, where, as the locals joke, even the pavements are covered with “stardust” due to its proximity to Hollywood. One day, several years ago, after a school play, the teacher took Michelle aside and spoke at length about her supposedly obvious dramatic talent. And now, when the evening Los Angeles was seething so seductively outside the window of the rented room, this episode seemed to her to be a sign from above. “Since I’m here, why not give it a try?” - she decided.
Dangerous ties
The first four years of conquering Hollywood were a complete nightmare. At first, she ran around to castings all day long. I was happy when I got an episode in a commercial or a tiny role in a TV show. But at some point, in an attempt to find her place in the sun, she took the wrong path. Much later, Pfeiffer admits to herself that she was too self-confident then. And she herself didn’t notice how she found herself involved in a semi-religious sect. It all started with mystical performances, in which she participated with the fervor of a neophyte, mistaking them for a new word in art. Together with new like-minded people, she became a strict vegetarian. And the feeling of hunger was consumed by drugs and alcohol...
It is not surprising that at some point her dream of becoming an actress began to look like an empty whim. She was ready to quit the acting classes she had been attending for several months, but then providence intervened again. A new guy joined their group, also an aspiring actor, Peter Horton. Michelle looked at him and disappeared. Feeling the vibes emanating from her, and simply seeing the cosmic beauty of the girl in front of him, he chose a place next to her. As it turned out, for seven long years.
For a time, she considered Peter the ideal man: he was confident and, at first glance, completely in control of his life. Having learned about her dubious pastime, he readily took on the role of savior of the beautiful lost sheep. And I must say, he did an excellent job with it. He cooked food and forced the girl to eat normally. And most importantly, he forbade her to attend these strange gatherings and weaned her off drugs. Michelle never liked going on dates - she considered them a waste of time. She either immediately rejected the men, or fell head over heels in love, as happened in the case of Peter. Therefore, they got married very quickly. During their honeymoon, she landed her first leading role, in the teen comedy Grease 2. Life seemed to be starting to get better.
However, the career was not as cloudless as it looked at first glance. Yes, a year later she already starred with Al Pacino in her first film about the mafia, Scarface. But before casting Pfeiffer, the film’s director, Brian De Palma, doubted for quite a long time whether he should trust the main role to yesterday’s cashier. A few years later, director Stephen Frears also initially categorically refused to cast her in his film Dangerous Liaisons. I didn’t believe that this pretty doll had any inner content necessary for the role. At such moments, she remembered the words of her mother, who repeated more than once that life is always more difficult for the beautiful.
On the set of Dangerous Liaisons, Michelle began a whirlwind romance with her partner John Malkovich. She did not feel guilty before her husband. Her marriage with Horton, which formally lasted seven years, in fact quickly cracked.
Then in her life there was a whole series of short-lived novels - with Val Kilmer, Michael Keaton, Alec Baldwin... Adding the prefix “ex” to the name of her next lover, Pfeiffer reproached herself for choosing the wrong men. It's nobody's fault. Herself.
Working on relationships
Finally tired of the cardiac experiments, she literally fell into the arms of actor and director Fisher Stevens. He was not as famous as her previous gentlemen. But this is for the better. She needs a safe haven. She will work on this relationship.
Fisher primarily acted in theater and filmed television shows in New York. She planned her work so that they would not be apart for more than two weeks. She flew to him in New York if he couldn’t get to Los Angeles. Michelle then thought that frequent separations were a kind of strength test of their feelings. She flew under his wing, where she felt completely safe. Stevens had a talent for finding exactly the words she wanted to hear. She once shared with her lover that she was ripe for a full-fledged family. What is there! At 33, she desperately dreamed of becoming a mother. Stevens, as usual, didn't object. I just noticed that first it would be a good idea to get examined, perhaps undergo a course of treatment... No, no! She's already delayed this for too long. If you can’t get pregnant quickly, you can adopt a child—she dreamed of having her first girl.
Having confessed to her beloved, Michelle experienced incredible relief. And I immediately consulted with my lawyer. He warned that the adoption process is very lengthy.
- The main thing is to start as soon as possible! - Michelle noted.
And she won’t put it off - she’ll rush to Stevens right today and discuss all the details with him. Fisher had been away for ten days filming in a small town in Wisconsin. She didn’t call him and decided to go straight to the set. It really was a surprise. True, not what she could have expected... He did not notice her right away. But she saw more than enough. Her beloved, standing on the threshold of his trailer, hugged some 17-year-old girl from the crowd around the waist and whispered something in her ear. For a split second, Michelle thought that now, God forbid, she would faint in front of everyone. She was brought out of her stupor by Stevens, who finally rushed to her.
“It’s over,” Michelle said coldly and walked away.
“I was so inspired by the quick changes that I didn’t even notice his reluctance to change anything...” the actress will share at an appointment with a psychoanalyst, whom she began to visit regularly. Having never liked noisy parties, Michelle now spent all her free time from work within four walls. One day, completely exhausted by insomnia, she dozed off in the morning and was rewarded with a wonderful sleep. It's as if she's walking into her bedroom and leaning over the cradle. The baby is snoring sweetly in the crib. Her baby. Michelle did not remember the girl’s face, but the feeling of great love that she felt for her in a dream could not be confused with anything. The next day, the actress called her lawyer. She decided to become a single mother. And to hell with all men!
Blind date
Although she was warned that the adoption process was long and tedious, she did not expect it to be this much. Pfeiffer visited her baby girl, whom she had already decided to name Claudia, almost every day at the baby's home. All these delays with registration were terribly annoying. To somehow distract herself, she even succumbed to her friend’s persuasion and went on a blind date.
Writer and producer David Kelley was a quiet man, but after Fischer's talkative nature, this seemed rather a plus. But they had a lot of fun bowling. For the first time in a long time, Michelle laughed heartily. In the company of a new acquaintance she felt light and carefree. Kelly acted like a gentleman and let the lady win.
- Well, if so, I invite you to celebrate my victory! - Michelle went wild.
Over a glass of cocktail in a nearby bar, she herself didn’t notice how she told David about Claudia. He listened without interrupting. It was clear that the story made a strong impression on him. By the way, the friend who took her on a date described Kelly as a man with no skeletons in his closet. There were no marriages or high-profile novels behind him. And Michelle liked that about him too.
A few weeks later, the actress came with David to pick up Claudia from the baby’s home. He offered his help, and she did not refuse. The next day he came to visit them. Then I stopped by a day later. A month later, the two announced that they were going to get married. The wedding took place simultaneously with Claudia's christening. “David fell in love with Claudia first, and only then with me!” — joyful Michelle spoke frankly with reporters for the first time. Her next statement became a real sensation: on her wedding night, the actress became pregnant. Nine months later, Michelle and David had a baby boy.
“Sometimes we lack the determination to radically change our lives. But if we still gain strength, fate will reciprocate,” Pfeiffer said in an interview. She herself is a shining example of this. In record time, as if by a wave of a magic wand, she turned from abandoned and lonely into a happy wife and mother. Michelle is convinced her life changed the very day she decided to adopt Claudia.
Bathed in family prosperity, the actress spent almost all her time on a ranch near San Francisco. Rejecting the most tempting offers from directors, she managed the house, raised children, and painted in her spare time. And then the children grew up.
Her son once asked her:
- Mom, maybe you should go back to work?
“Maybe...” she answered and called her agent.
Ekaterina Ivanova, Telenedelya LLC, Moscow (especially for ZN), photo Getty Images/Fotobank, Global Look Press
© Telenedelya
Michelle Pfeiffer
Born: April 29, 1958 in Santa Ana (California, USA)
Family: husband - David Edward Kelly (57 years old), producer and screenwriter; son - John Henry (19 years old); adopted daughter - Claudia Rosa (20 years old)
Education: Graduated from Fountain Valley High School in 1976, studied at Golden West College (California)
Career: Starred in more than 100 films and TV series. Among them: “Batman Returns”, “Scarface”, “Dangerous Liaisons”, “Malavita”. In 1990, she was awarded the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in the drama The Famous Baker Brothers, as well as the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress in the film Dangerous Liaisons. Three-time Oscar nominee
Her money
income
$1 million - the actress’s minimum fee after the release of the film “The Witches of Eastwick” in 1987
$3 million - Michelle received for her role as Catwoman in the film “Batman Returns” in 1992
$10.5 million - that's what Pfeiffer earned for her role in the film What Lies Beneath in 2000, plus commissions from box office receipts
expenses
$15 million - spent by the actress and her husband on the purchase of an estate in Brentwood in 2000
Catwoman
In 1992, Michelle starred in Tim Burton's second part of the film about Bae. She got the image of Catwoman, the opponent of the title character. In that film, actors such as Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito and Christopher Walken played with her.
In the same 1992, Michelle starred in the film “Field of Love”, for which she received the “Silver Bear” at the Berlin Film Festival. This was followed by such films as “The Age of Innocence” (with Daniel Day Lewis and Winona Ryder), “The Wolf” (again with Jack Nicholson), “One Fine Day” (with George Clooney), “What Lies Beneath” (with Harrison Ford).
The actress in front of the Stardust poster
In the 2000s, the actress acted less frequently, but in her filmography during this period you can find the fairy tale “Stardust” (by Matthew Vaughn), the tragicomedy by Tim Burton “Dark Shadows” (together with Johnny Depp), the crime comedy by Luc Besson “Malavita” and the role of Kenneth Branagh, who directed his version of Murder on the Orient Express (again with Johnny Depp).
Her last film participation to date is Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. There, her filming partners were Angelina Jolie, Harris Dickinson and Elle Fanning. The film premiered in Russia on October 17, 2020. In Russia, the film started well, topping the weekend box office (705 million rubles), and was watched by 2.5 million people.
Among the actress’s current projects is the comedy “Leaving the French Way,” which is being directed by Azazel Jacobs. Pfeiffer plays Francie Price.
During her acting career, Michelle was nominated for an Oscar three times, but never received it. It turned out a little more successfully with the Golden Globe: the actress received a nomination five times and was able to take away the statuette once.
Successes and failures of actress Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Pfeiffer's success story includes 10 nominations for an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and three significant awards for Best Actress. She received a Golden Globe for the film The Famous Baker Brothers, a Bafta for her role in Dangerous Liaisons, and a Silver Bear for her work in the film Field of Love.
There were failures in her life, but they were more personal than professional. At the very beginning of her career, for a long time she was part of the Breatharian sect, which promoted complete abstinence from food and receiving energy from the sun. Then Michelle Pfeiffer almost died; all her fees for filming went into the common treasury of the “brotherhood”. The leaders of the sect strictly controlled Michelle’s social circle, however, one of her friends managed to snatch the girl from their “clutches.”
Pfeiffer and Maleficent
Many critics noted Michelle's performance in the continuation of the fairy tale. She did not star in the first part, but in the second she plays the supposed mother-in-law of Sleeping Beauty Aurora (Elle Fanning), the mother of Prince Philip (Harris Dickinson) Ingrid.
The scene of action becomes both the already known Marshy Swamps and the kingdom of Aurora, as well as the neighboring kingdom of Olstead, where Ingrid rules.
In his commentary on the film, critic Stanislav Zelvensky noted that the heroine Michelle Pfeiffer embodies the standard evil on the screen, a kind of Adolf Hitler in a skirt.
Pfeiffer herself, speaking about filming the film, noted her collaboration with Angelina Jolie, who also acted as the film’s producer. According to her, she liked being with Jolie on the set.
Personal life
At 23, Pfeiffer got married for the first time. Her chosen one was fellow actor Peter Horton, who later played in Children of the Corn. She met him in an acting class with Milton Katselas. The couple lived together for seven years before divorcing.
Michelle Pfeiffer and Fisher Stevens
The actress’s next chosen one was her other colleague, Fisher Stevens, known for two parts of the comedy film “Short Circuit.” She dated him for three years.
Between Horton and Stevens, Pfeiffer had a short affair with John Malkovich when they starred in the film “Dangerous Liaisons” in the late 80s, based on the book by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. Malkovich even divorced his then-wife, but his relationship with his colleague did not work out.
Michelle Pfeiffer and David Kelley
Michelle met her current husband, David Kelly, in early 1993, and in November of the same year they got married. Even before meeting her future husband, Pfeiffer decided to adopt an adopted child. Her adopted daughter was named Claudia Rose. And already in August 1994, the actress gave birth to her husband’s son, John Henry Kelly.
In 2020, it became known that Michelle had opened an Instagram account for herself. On the site she posts photos and videos with pets. The actress has over 900 thousand subscribers. Her photos can also be found on her Facebook page.
