Editing Phoebe Cates (section)

== Early life and education ==
Cates was born on July 16, 1963, in New York City,<ref>{{cite web|website=TCM|title=Phoebe Cates|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/30870%7C0/Phoebe-Cates#overview|accessdate=May 4, 2022}}</ref> to a family of television and Broadway production insiders. She is the daughter of Lily and Joseph Cates (originally Joseph Katz),<ref name="NYT">{{Cite web | last=Thomas | first=Robert McGill Jr. |author-link=Robert McG. Thomas, Jr. |date=October 12, 1998 |title=Joseph Cates, 74, a Producer Of Innovative Specials for TV |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/12/nyregion/joseph-cates-74-a-producer-of-innovative-specials-for-tv.html |access-date=May 16, 2013 |website=The New York Times}}</ref> who was a major Broadway producer and a pioneering figure in television, and who helped create ''[[The $64,000 Question]]''.<ref name="cates1">{{Cite news |last=Wakin |first=Daniel J. |date=June 3, 2005 |title=Heiress Is Identified as Victim in Case Against Arts Patron |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/03/nyregion/03vilar.html?ex=1275451200&en=63a1abdb4f49f5f5&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss |access-date=June 12, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=American Greed: Fraudster of the Opera |url=https://www.cnbc.com/id/40535892/ |access-date=July 16, 2013 |publisher=[[CNBC]]}}{{dead link|date=November 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> Her uncle, [[Gilbert Cates]], produced numerous television specials, often in partnership with Cates's father, as well as several annual [[Academy Awards]] shows. Her father was Jewish and her mother was Catholic.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.irishamerica.com/2000/12/reclining-with-kevin-2/ | title=Reclining with Kevin &#124; Irish America | date=December 2000 }}</ref> Cates is of Eurasian<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cohen |first=Matthew Isaac |s2cid=147291754 |year=2009 |title=British performances of Java, 1811–1822 |journal=South East Asia Research |publisher=IP Publishing Ltd |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=87–109 |doi=10.5367/000000009787586389|quote=Due to her dark looks, she enjoyed particular prominence in South East Asia ... Few people in those pre-Internet days, however, knew that Cates's estranged mother was of Chinese Filipino descent. Cates's South East Asian heritage was not featured in 1994 publicity or criticism for the film ... Cates's Caraboo, her last major film role, contributes in no small part to her current celebration as an icon of Eurasian identity.}}</ref> or mixed European and Asian descent. Her mother was born in Shanghai, China<ref>{{Cite web |title=ABC7 Eyewitness News - WABC-TV New York |url=http://7online.com/archive/6456025/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150418174744/http://7online.com/archive/6456025/|archive-date=April 18, 2015}}</ref> to a family of Chinese-Filipino heritage. Cates's father is American and from Manhattan.<ref name="NYT"/><ref>{{Cite news |last=Villasanta |first=Boy |date=June 23, 2010 |title=Pinoys who made it in Hollywood |work=[[ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs]] |url=http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/entertainment/06/23/10/filipinos-also-shine-hollywood |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100625123854/http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/entertainment/06/23/10/filipinos-also-shine-hollywood |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 25, 2010 |access-date=May 28, 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Slater |first=Judith J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Oz5cvi3z3EC&q=%22Phoebe%20Cates%22%20Filipino&pg=PA183 |title=Teen life in Asia |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-313-31532-9 |location=Westport, Connecticut |page=183 |access-date=May 28, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cohen |first=Matthew Isaac |s2cid=147291754 |year=2009 |title=British performances of Java, 1811–1822 |journal=South East Asia Research |publisher=IP Publishing Ltd |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=87–109 |doi=10.5367/000000009787586389}}</ref> 

Cates attended the [[Professional Children's School]] and the [[Juilliard School]].<ref name="people" /> A few years later, she wanted to become a dancer, and eventually received a scholarship to the [[School of American Ballet]], but quit after a knee injury at age 14.<ref name="people" />