She worked as a check-out girl at Vons supermarket, and attended Golden West College where she was a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority. Pfeiffer attended Fountain Valley High School, graduating in 1976. The family moved to Midway City, another Orange County community around seven miles (11 km) away, where Pfeiffer spent her early years. Her paternal grandfather was of German ancestry and her paternal grandmother was of English, Welsh, French, Irish, and Dutch descent, while her maternal grandfather was of Swiss-German-Italian descent and her maternal grandmother of Swedish ancestry. Her parents were both originally from North Dakota. She has an older brother, Rick, and two younger sisters, Dedee and Lori. Michelle Marie Pfeiffer was born on April 29, 1958, in Santa Ana, California, the second of four children of Donna Jean (née Taverna), a housewife, and Richard Pfeiffer, an air-conditioning contractor. Pfeiffer has played Janet van Dyne in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2018, beginning with Ant-Man and the Wasp. In 2020, she received her eighth Golden Globe Award nomination for French Exit (2020).

Opting to prioritize her family, she acted sporadically throughout the 2000s, appearing in What Lies Beneath (2000), White Oleander (2002), Hairspray (2007), and Stardust (2007).įollowing another hiatus during the early 2010s, Pfeiffer returned to prominence in 2017 with performances in Where is Kyra?, 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 also produced several of her own star vehicles under her company Via Rosa Productions, including Dangerous Minds (1995) and One Fine Day (1996). In 1992, she played Catwoman in Batman Returns and received her third Academy Award nomination for Love Field, which she followed with performances in The Age of Innocence (1993) and Wolf (1994). 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, winning a Golden Globe Award for the latter.Įstablishing herself as one of the highest-paid actresses of the 1990s, Pfeiffer starred in The Russia House (1990) and Frankie and Johnny (1991). 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. Disillusioned with being typecast in nondescript roles as attractive women, she actively sought more challenging material, earning her breakout role in 1983 as Elvira Hancock in Scarface. Beginning her career with minor television and film appearances, she attained her first leading role in the critically and commercially unsuccessful Grease 2 (1982). Pfeiffer briefly studied court stenography before pursuing acting.

In 2007, she was awarded a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The recipient of various accolades, she has received a Golden Globe Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award. A prolific performer whose screen career spans over four decades, she became one of Hollywood's most bankable stars during the 1980s and 1990s, as well as one of the era's most popular sex symbols. Michelle Marie Pfeiffer ( / ˈ f aɪ f ər/ FY-fər born April 29, 1958) is an American actress.

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