Her Career Michelle graduated from Fountain Valley High School in 1976, and attended one year at the Golden West College, where she studied to become a court reporter. But it was while working as a supermarket checker at Vons - a large Southern California grocery chain - in El Toro that she realized that her only career options from there were to manage a grocery store. She knew she didn't want to spend her life there, and that realization set her on a path for Hollywood. In 1978, Michelle took the advice of her neighborhood hairdresser who thought she should give modeling a try. Upon learning that talent scouts often attended beauty pagents she decided to enter the Miss Orange County Pagent in order to attract the attention of a Hollywood agent. She would win the Miss Orange County title, and go on to the Miss Los Angeles pagent. She lost that one but got the agent she wanted, and that gave her the start she needed, doing bit parts and commercials. Her first speaking part was a one-liner on the show "Fantasy Island".
After mariage to Peter Horton ("Gary" of "Thirtysomething") in 1981, she had a three year relationship with actor Fisher Stevens. When that didn't work out, Michelle decided she didn't want to wait any longer before having her own family, and in March of 1993, she adopted a baby girl, Claudia Rose. On November 13th of the same year, she married lawyer-turned-writer/producer David E Kelley (creator of "Picket Fences" and "Chicago Hope"). On August 5, 1994 their son, John Henry was born. Back to movie business, she has created her own company, Via Rosa which produced the box-office¡¯s hit "Dangerous Minds", "One Fine Day" and her next movie "A Thousand Acres".
Her Family
The eldest Pfeiffer child, Rick, is the family¡¯s only son (He is married and has three kids of his own).
Michelle is the eldest girl, who was soon followed by Dedee, also an actress (Dedee can currently be seen playing Cybill Shepherd¡¯s eldest daughter on the CBS sitcom ? Cybill ?). She was married on October 13, 1996 to Greig Fein, who is in the computer business and owns a company called Macmania.
The youngest sibling is Lori, who almost followed in the footsteps of her sisters when she began a career as an actress and model. She soon decided it wasn't the lifestyle for her, and she is now married to the singer, recording artist Jude Cole and has two young children of her own.
