People | August 07, 2015 06:05 PM EDT
50 Facts About Michelle Pfeiffer – “Catwoman” From “Batman Returns”
Michelle Pfeiffer is an American actress and singer, known for her role as Elvira Hancock in “Scarface” (1993), and Selina Kyle/Catwoman in the movie “Batman Returns” (1992). Here are 50 interesting facts about the actress -
- Michelle Marie Pfeiffer was born on April 29, 1958 in Santa Ana, California.
- She was born to Dona and Richard Pfeiffer, an air-conditioning contractor. Her mother was a house wife.
- Although her parents are of German ancestry, they had a mixture of English, Welsh, French, Irish, Dutch and Swedish ancestry from paternal and maternal side.
- She has an elder brother and two younger sisters. One of her sister, Dedee Pfeiffer is an actress too.
- Though her family was from North Dakota, they moved to Midway City, California where Pfeiffer did her schooling at Fountain Valley High School.
- After her graduation from school she attended Golden West College, for a short course, wanting to be a court stenographer.
- Apart from college study, she worked at a supermarket as a check-out girl. This is when she thought of acting as a career.
- As a teenager with stunning beauty, she started participating in beauty pageant.
- She won Miss Orange County beauty pageant before finishing sixth in the Miss California contest in 1978.
- She started auditioning for a role in television and film. Her early stint in television was in “Fantasy Island” and “Delta House”.
- She entered acting career with the film “Hollywood Knight” and “Falling in Love Again” in the year 1980.
- With her film career not meeting box office success, she realized the need for acting lessons apart from good look and joined one of the oldest acting schools, Beverley Hills Playhouse.
- She married actor Peter Horton in Santa Monica in 1981, whom she met and dated during her time as a student of Milton Katselas acting class in Los Angeles.
- She came in to prominence with her performance in “Scarface” a remake of 1932 film of the same name.
- She was not the first choice of the Director Brian De Palma, but was persuaded by Martin Bregman, the producer.
- During the filming, she happened to hurt Al Pacino with a broken glass piece by accident.
- After “Scarface” success she was cast in John Landis’ comedy “In to the Night” opposite Jeff Goldblum in 1985.
- Varity magazine in its review of the film appreciated her flare for comedy apart from her good look.
- From 1985 to 1987 she was cast opposite leading stars in “Ladyhawke,” “Sweetliberty” and “Amazon Women on the Moon”, helping her to establish herself in the film industry.
- Her first major box-office hit was “The Witches of Eastwick” in 1987 along with Jack Nicholson.
- Starting from 1988, with her role in “Married to the mob,” she was nominated for six years successively at the Golden Globe.
- She won the BAFTA Award for Best actress in Supporting Role in “Dangerous Liaison” and was also nominated for Academy Award in 1988.
- As her devotion to her career preceded her marriage, she split with Horton in 1988 and eventually divorced.
- Her career took off as a commercial viable actress with her performance in “Batman Returns,” “What Lies Beneath” and “Hair Spray”.
- Pfeiffer was considered for the role of catwoman in “Batman Returns” because of former actress Annette Bening’s pregnancy.
- For the role of Catwoman in the film “Batman Returns” she trained in kickboxing and martial arts.
- This was the first time she learnt how to use a whip and even happened to cut her trainer’s face by mistake.
- Pfeiffer’s costume as Catwoman is of black leather stitched together costing $1000. Sixty designs were prepared for that particular character for the entire 6 months shoot.
- The costume would be sealed with vacuum, once she fits into it for any scene, leaving her a very short duration to perform for that particular scene.
- The costume was so tight, that she would not be able to hear her own voice, and often shout her dialogues rather than just saying it.
- In an interview in the year 2007, she said that just as the filming for “Batman Returns” was over, she never wanted to see the costume again till the end of her life.
- The Catwoman character was voted #3 in Empire's "69 Sexiest Movie Characters of All Time".
- Her first stage debut was in the play “Twelfth Night,” a New York Shakespeare Festival production staged in Central Park, in which she played the role of Olivia, in the year 1989
- She started dating actor and producer Fisher Stevens, who played the role of Sir Andrew Aguecheek in the play. However, the relationship lasted only for three years.
- In the film “The Fabulous Baker Boys,” a musical comedy, Pfeiffer despite having sung on screen she took professional assistance and trained for two months before the commencement film production.
- Her famous scene in the movie, singing 'Making Whoopee' on Jeff Bridges' grand piano, took nearly six hours for filming.
- The first choice for her role was Madonna, who turned it down stating the plot to be “too mushy.”
- She has also sung in Grease 2 (1982), The Prince of Egypt (1998) and Hairspray (2007).
- Pfeiffer turned down the role of Clarice Starling in the film “The Silence of the Lambs,” which went to Jodie Foster and won her Academy Award for best actress. Pfeiffer felt nervous about the subject.
- Pfeiffer, for her role as Dallas housewife in the movie “Love Field” won her best Actress award in the Berlin film festival. This film faced financial difficulties before being released.
- She is one of the few to be nominated thrice for Academy Award.
- In 1993 she was honored with Crystal Award, for her role as an outstanding woman in the film & entertainment industry.
- Her beauty kept her in media’s lime light and was featured on the cover of People’s magazine twice, with a distinction of appearing on its cover of annual issue.
- Pfeiffer also lent her voice for the character Eris in the movie “Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas ”
- 2013 film “The Family” where Pfeiffer plays the role of a mother is also released with title “Malavita” and “Cosa Nostra” to cater to different region.
- She married for the second time in 1993 to David E Kelley, a television writer and producer. The couple were set up on a blind date for their first meet.
- She adopter a daughter Claudia Rose and christened her on her wedding day to David E Kelley.
- She also gave birth to a son named John Henry Kelley in the year 1994, named after her husband’s father.
- Out of her personal experience with leukemia in her family, she is into charity and supports cancer society.
- When an Australian cricketer takes five wickets in an innings it’s referred as Michelle. As the surname Pfeiffer sounds similar to “Five for.”
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