Kim Cattrall was born in Liverpool, England, but grew up in Canada and made her professional stage debut in a production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. She has acted in numerous TV movies, but became a household name in her role as Samantha Jones on the hit series, Sex and the City, a role she has received three Emmy nominations for, so far.
Among the movies Cattrall has made are: Porky's, Masquerade, Tribute, and The Return of the Musketeers.
Career Highlights: Ticket to Heaven, Police Academy, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
First Major Screen Credit: Crossbar (1979)
Biography
A popular screen figure of the 1980s and '90s whose casting in HBO's runaway hit series Sex and the City provided her career with a solid second wind, Emmy-winning actress Kim Cattrall has endured to prove that older women can retain their sexuality and femininity while simultaneously maintaining a vital screen presence. Born in Liverpool, England, Cattrall's parents immigrated the family to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, when the future actress was three years old. After returning to England at age 11 to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, Cattrall finished high school in Vancouver, and at age 16 struck out on her own after winning a scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.
Though director Otto Preminger would sign Cattrall to a five-year contract and give the actress her film debut in Rosebud (1975), Universal would soon step in to buy out her contract, making Cattrall one of the last actors to participate in the now defunct Universal Contract Player System. Following with television appearances in Starskey and Hutch and Charlie's Angels, and turning up in such features as Deadly Harvest (1977), it appeared as if good things were in store for Cattrall in the future. The dawn of the 1980s found Cattrall's star ascending in such features as Porky's (1981), and with the release of Police Academy in 1984 her face was becoming a familiar one to film and television audiences.
Following up with such typically '80s fare as Turk 182! (1985), Cattrall essayed the role of the green-eyed girl whose fate was questionable in John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China (1986), the year before her most famous (until Sex and the City of course) role in Mannequin (1987). Essentially a typical '80s throwaway comedy, Cattrall's effervescent presence, combined with Starship's catchy title tune "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now," gave the film such a boost that it even spawned a Cattrall-less sequel. It was following Mannequin that Cattrall's career began to stall in the wake of such instantly forgettable films as Honeymoon Academy (1990) and the Gary Busey actioner Breaking Point (1993), though her role in 1995's Live Nude Girls proved a curious precursor to her role on Sex and the City.
A frank and funny HBO series based on the writings of New York Observer columnist Candace Bushnell, Sex and the City gave Cattrall a chance to shine as a lusty an unabashedly sexual PR executive whose confidence in the bedroom rivals only her confidence in the boardroom. A runaway hit that's popularity only grew as the show entered is sixth season, Sex and the City once again made Cattrall a household name as it influenced everything from fashion to the drinks of the New York scene. Cattrall's character proved so popular that in mid-2003 it was announced that once Sex and the City drew to a close, she would star in her own spin-off series. Though she would inexplicably continue to release such vapid feature fare as Baby Geniuses (1999), appearances in such efforts as the Britney Spears road drama Crossroads ensured that Cattrall would remain a familiar face to young audiences. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Kim Cattrall was born in Widnes, a town in North Cheshire, near Liverpool. Her mother, Shane Cattrall, was a housewife; her father, Dennis Cattrall, was a builder. Cattrall
has three siblings. When she was less than a year old, her family immigrated to Courtenay, British Columbia, Canada. When her grandmother became ill, she returned to England at the age of 11. During this time she took
lessons at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
(LAMDA). Cattrall returned to Canada at age sixteen, finishing her final year of high school
there.
Career
Cattrall began her career after graduating 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 directorOtto Preminger. 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 the role of Dr
Gabrielle White in The Incredible Hulk and would go down in TV Hulk Lore
as one of the few characters that 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.
Aside from her film work, Cattrall is also a stage and theatre actress, with performances in Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge and
Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters. 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 capitalised on her
success by appearing in steamy television commercials promoting the
Pepsi product 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 starred as Caroline in Britney Spears' first film venture, Crossroads.
Reports claim that Cattrall's high financial demands and a strained relationship with co-star Sarah Jessica Parker are responsible for the end of Sex and
the City, but whatever the cause, Cattrall played Samantha for the last time in Spring 2004.
In 2005, she appeared in the Disney picture Ice Princess, in which she played the character of Tina Harwood, the ice skating coach of the film's
lead character. Unfortunately, Ice Princess was not a financial success. She also portrayed Claire, a paralyzed
woman who wants to die, in the West End drama revival of Whose Life Is It Anyway. In early 2006, it was rumored that Cattrall will soon join the
cast of Desperate Housewives, playing Edie's (Nicollette Sheridan) wild sister. In October of 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.[1] In July 2006, a
commercial for Nissan cars, which featured Kim in her Samantha character from Sex and the City, was withdrawn from New
Zealand television, apparently because of complaints about the innuendo.[2] 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. In 2007, she will star
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 WWI.
Preparations are already underway for a Sex and the City feature film. HBO is currently in
negotiations with executive producer Michael Patrick King and the cast from the TV
series of the same name, including Cattrall.[1]
Cattrall is very excited to reprise her role of Samantha Jones for the upcoming Sex and the City movie.[2][3]
She is also set to star in "The Truth About Wildebeasts: One Woman's Incredible TAle of Self-Discovery" on the Lifetime
Network.
Personal life
Cattrall has been married three times: to Larry Davis; Andre J. Lyson, whom she divorced in 1989; and audio designer Mark Levinson, whom she divorced in
2004. She was previously engaged to actor Daniel Benzali.
Cattrall has also been linked with former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau,
Houston Rockets star Cuttino Mobley and her
Whose Life is it Anyway? co-star Alexander Siddig[3]. She has dated Canadian chef Alan Wyse since the summer of 2004, and in July 2007 the British tabloid
press reported the two were engaged to be married.
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