Kim Cattrall

Kim Cattrall
Born	Kim Victoria Cattrall 21 August 1956 (1956-08-21) (age 53) Widnes, England
Awards won Golden Globe Awards Best Supporting Actress - Miniseries 2003 Sex and the City Screen Actors Guild Awards Best Ensemble - Comedy Series 2001 Sex and the City 2004 Sex and the City

Kim Victoria Cattrall (pronounced /kəˈtræl/, rhyming with shall; born 21 August 1956) is an English-Canadian actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones in the HBO comedy/romance series Sex and the City, and for her leading roles in the 1980s films Police Academy and Mannequin.

Early life

Cattrall, one of four children, was born in Widnes Lancashire, England.^[1] Her mother, Shane, was a secretary, and her father, Dennis, a construction engineer.^[2] When she was less than a year old, her family emigrated to Courtenay, British Columbia, Canada. At 11 she returned to England when her grandmother became ill, and she studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), before returning to Canada at 16 where she finished her final year of secondary school.

Career

Cattrall began her career after graduating from high school in 1972 when she left Canada for New York City. There, she attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and upon her graduation signed a five-year movie deal with director Otto Preminger, making her film debut in Preminger's Rosebud in 1975. A year later, Universal Studios bought out that contract and Cattrall became one of the last participants of the Universal Contract Player System. During her time with Universal, she guest starred in numerous television programmes of varying style and genre. In 1979 she played Dr. Gabrielle White in The Incredible Hulk and would go down in TV Hulk lore as one of the few characters who knew David Banner was alive and was the creature. Her work in television paid off, and she quickly made the transition to cinema. She starred opposite Jack Lemmon in his Oscar-nominated movie Tribute in 1980. The following year, she starred in the critically acclaimed Ticket to Heaven.

In 1982, Cattrall played Miss Honeywell in Porky's, followed two years later by a role in the original Police Academy. In 1985, she starred in three movies: Turk 182, City Limits and Hold-Up, the latter with French star Jean-Paul Belmondo. In 1986, she played Kurt Russell's brainy flame in the action film Big Trouble in Little China. In 1987, her lead role in Mannequin proved a huge success with audiences. One of her most well-known film roles is that of Lieutenant Valeris in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Aside from her film work, Cattrall is also a stage and theater actress, with performances in Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge and Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters to her credit. In 1997, she was cast in Sex and the City, Darren Star's series that was broadcast on HBO. As Samantha Jones, Cattrall gained international recognition. She capitalized on her success by appearing in steamy television commercials promoting Pepsi One. She also signed a publishing deal to write a book about sex with her third husband, Mark Levinson. In addition, she can be heard reading the poetry of Rupert Brooke on the CD Red Rose Music SACD Sampler Volume One.

Her film work continued during Sex and the City when she appeared in Britney Spears' first film venture, Crossroads. Sex and the City ended as a weekly series in spring 2004 with an audience of 10.6m viewers. Cattrall reprised the role of Samantha Jones in the Sex and the City film, released on May 30, 2008.

In 2005, she appeared in the Disney picture Ice Princess, in which she played the ice skating coach of the film's lead character. She also portrayed Claire, a paralyzed woman who wants to die, in the West End drama revival of Whose Life Is It Anyway? In October 2006 she appeared in a West End production of David Mamet's The Cryptogram at the Donmar Warehouse in London. Since late 2005, she has appeared in a number of British television commercials for Tetley Tea.^[3] In July 2006, a commercial for Nissan cars, which featured Cattrall as Samantha Jones, was withdrawn from New Zealand television, apparently because of complaints about its innuendo.^[4] In 2006 she starred alongside Brendan Gleeson in John Boorman's 2006 film The Tiger's Tail, a black comedy that focuses on the impact of the Celtic Tiger economy on Irish people. On 11 November on ITV, she starred alongside David Haig, Daniel Radcliffe, and Carey Mulligan in My Boy Jack, the story of author Rudyard Kipling's search for his son lost in World War I.

On 2 June 2008 Cattrall was reported to be set to star in and executive produce Sensitive Skin for HBO, an adaptation of the eponymous British series revolving around a middle-aged wife and mother who rediscovers her sexuality.^[5]

Personal life

Cattrall has been married three times. Her 1977-1979 marriage to Larry Davis was annulled; from him, she learned to speak German fluently, but admits she has forgotten a lot over the years ^[6]. Her second marriage was from 1982-89 to Andre J. Lyson. From 1998 to 2004, she was married to audio designer Mark Levinson. The two co-wrote the 2002 book Satisfaction: The Art of the Female Orgasm.^[7]

Cattrall has also been linked with former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, Houston Rockets stars Cuttino Mobley and Steve Francis, actor Daniel Benzali, French public intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy, and her Whose Life is it Anyway? co-star Alexander Siddig.^[8] She currently resides in New York City and in East Hampton, New York.

Filmography

Television

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• HBO official biography for Kim Cattrall
• Kim Cattrall at the Internet Movie Database
• Kim Cattrall at TV.com
• Kim Cattrall article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki
• Kim Cattrall speaking on BBC Radio Five Live
• Kim Cattrall speaking to madison Magazine about confidence
• AOL Books Interview about the book Being a Girl: Navigating the Ups and Downs of Teen Life
• Archive of the original Sex and the City newspaper columns
• Kim Cattrall unveils Mercedes-Benz Vision GLK concept at the 2008 Detroit auto show
• Kim Cattrall GPS Voice Download from Navtones.com[2]