Michelle Pfeiffer — Movies, Bio, Popularity, Filmography & Fame Trend

Summary

Updated 2026-06-09

She was one of Hollywood's most bankable stars through the '80s and '90s — the actress who could carry a hit, earn Oscar nominations three years running, and still vanish for stretches to raise her kids without the industry forgetting her name.

Biography

About

Pfeiffer started with television bit parts in the late '70s, then landed her first lead in Grease 2 in 1982. The following year, playing Elvira Hancock in Scarface, she broke through. Mainstream success came with The Witches of Eastwick and Tequila Sunrise, then back-to-back Academy Award nominations for Dangerous Liaisons in 1988 and The Fabulous Baker Boys in 1989, the latter winning her a Golden Globe. By the early '90s she was among the world's highest-paid actresses: Catwoman in Batman Returns, a third Oscar nod for Love Field, then The Age of Innocence and Wolf. She produced films throug…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Michelle Pfeiffer

Michelle Pfeiffer

said2007

So I do the test, and we do this scene, and it's the scene at the end where I throw dishes, and so I threw some dishes... and 'Cut!'...

— On auditioning for Scarface, from Inside the Actors Studio (2007)

Michelle Pfeiffer

said2007

I don't like improvisation. I really don't. I'm the only one that will admit it. Because I think people think you're not a real actor if you don't like to improv. I don't like it.

— Inside the Actors Studio (2007)

Michelle Pfeiffer

said2007