Nine
A careful Cinderella - Una Cenicienta cuidadosa

At this time Pfeiffer's looks and -charm were opening the doors more than her acting ability although she says, 'I don't know that I've ever felt that I was extraordinary looking. I've always felt that I was conventionally pretty.' But she has a deposit in the genetic bank. And it continues to pay dividends at a high rate. Her mother Donna is a remarkable woman who has retained a handsome figure and fine looks and a wide, open smile. Her father has a fit, outdoor look and a good attitude as deep as his tan. Their daughter Michelle also inherited her parents' belief that you have to care about others. The Pfeiffer's are very much a 'he-ain't-heavy-he's-my-brother' family.

But, strangely, Michelle Pfeiffer says she's hesitant in talking about her early days. She's admitted to being wild. She's admitted to doing drugs in high school. She'll talk about sexual attraction: 'I 'liked surfers. I spent most of my time hanging out at the beach. If a guy had a body like a "V", blonde hair and blue eyes that's all he needed. My father used to get frustrated because I always went for love. None of my boyfriends had any money.'

Sex? 'It worried my parents that I was with these guys. They were right to be worried. Let's just say I grew up on the beach.' She prides herself on her honesty. But when you delve deeper into the subject of those early years she says, 'Oh, great, everything that I would most want to hide.'

However, most people only remember how positive Pfeiffer was. Sandy Scouten, a checker at Vons supermarket in Long Beach, California, used to work alongside Pfeiffer in El Toro: 'Everyone still remembers her. She was a terrific worker, and everyone liked her. She had a dream, and she went after it. Back then every chance she got Michelle was off on auditions and trying out for bit parts. It wasn't easy, but it sure paid off. It sure gives us hope. If Michelle can make it to the top then, so can we. It's a real Cinderella story.'

But Pfeiffer was a careful Cinderella.

In a way, she was at the top - of Laurel Canyon, which is one of the twisting roads that cut through the Hollywood Hills, linking the San Fernando Valley with the west side of Los Angeles. She was renting part of a house and was going through an 'I want to be alone' phase. She was a young twenty-something and a long way, if not in miles in attitude, from her upbringing. And, as the Bombshell, she knew that on almost every cattle call or casting appearance she made some sexual move would be made on her.

But she retained her purpose. Much of her energy went into her acting classes. At one she met Lois Chiles, who starred with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow in The Great Gatsby and became a Bond girl in 1979, appearing with Roger Moore's 007 in Moonraker. After that the roles did not roll for Chiles, a former Texan model who was taking the acting classes to be regarded more seriously, to advance her career. Chiles and Pfeiffer shared an outlook. Pfeiffer's future husband Peter Horton would say in 1992: 'Fame is something Michelle has never been very curious about. I know that some actors are more in love with the idea of being an actor than actually being an actor. Michelle is the opposite.'

'The moment I laid eyes on Michelle I realized that as beautiful as she was she was not the stereotype,' said Lois Chiles. 'I could tell by the way she looked at people that she wanted to by observing. It was dear that she had grow very little vanity despite- her incredible looks.'

From those early days Pfeiffer has been as much troubled by her looks as others have been delighted by them. Do you have to be ugly to be a character actress? Her concerns were a variation of Paul Newman's ongoing nightmare, in which he wakes up and his eyes have turned brown. Without the blue eyes would he be such a star? Despite doubts and difficulties with herself Pfeiffer's looks were key to her early career.