Michelle Pfeiffer, American actress
Michelle Marie Pfeiffer (; born April 29, 1958) is an American actress. Known for playing eclectic roles from a wide variety of film genres, she is recognized as one of the most prolific actresses of the 1980s and 1990s. Throughout her career spanning over four decades, Pfeiffer has received numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award.
Born and raised in Santa Ana, California, Pfeiffer briefly studied to be a court stenographer before deciding to pursue acting. After beginning her acting career in 1978 with minor television and film appearances, she attained her first leading role in Grease 2 (1982), a critical and commercial failure in which she was distinguished as a positive exception. Disillusioned with being typecast in nondescript roles as attractive women, she actively sought more challenging material, earning her breakout role in 1983 as gangster moll Elvira Hancock in Scarface. She achieved further success with roles in The Witches of Eastwick (1987) and Married to the Mob (1988), for which she was nominated for her first of six consecutive Golden Globe Awards. Her performances in Dangerous Liaisons (1988) and The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) earned her two consecutive Academy Award nominations, for Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress respectively. She won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for playing lounge singer Susie Diamond in the latter film.
Establishing herself as a leading lady with several high-profile roles during the 1990s, Pfeiffer became one of the decade's highest-paid actresses. In 1992, she starred in Batman Returns as Selina Kyle / Catwoman to widespread acclaim, and received her third Academy Award nomination for Love Field. She drew praise for performances in The Age of Innocence (1993), Wolf (1994) and White Oleander (2002), while producing and starring in several successful films under her production company Via Rosa Productions, including Dangerous Minds (1995). Choosing to spend more time with her family, she acted sporadically over the next few years, voicing characters in two animated films for DreamWorks. In 2007, she returned from hiatus with villainous roles in the blockbusters Hairspray and Stardust. Following another sabbatical, she earned rave reviews in 2017 for Where Is Kyra?. That year she also had supporting roles in Mother! and Murder on the Orient Express, and received her first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for playing Ruth Madoff in The Wizard of Lies. She debuted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Janet van Dyne / Wasp in Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) before earning her eighth Golden Globe Award nomination for French Exit (2020).
Awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007, Pfeiffer has remained one of Hollywood's most bankable actresses for four decades. Considered a sex symbol, she has been cited as one of the world's most beautiful women.