Kim Cattrall

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Kim Victoria Cattrall (pronounced /kəˈtræl/, rhyming with shall; born August 21, 1956) is an Anglo-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, England, 16 miles from Liverpool.^[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 the role of 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 cult classic 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 the traitor 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 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. 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 2008-05-30.

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 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 Kim in her Samantha character from Sex and the City, was withdrawn from New Zealand television, apparently because of complaints about the 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 November 11 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 June 2, 2008 Cattrall was reported to be set to star in and executive produce Sensitive Skin for HBO, an adaptation of the same-named British series revolving around a wife and mother of a certain age who rediscovers her sexuality.^[5]

Personal life

Cattrall has been married three times. Her 1977-1979 marriage to Larry Davis was annulled. Her second marriage was from 1982-89 to Andre J. Lyson. During her Sex and the City fame she was married (1998-2004) to audio designer Mark Levinson. The two co-wrote the 2002 book Satisfaction: The Art of the Female Orgasm.^[6]

Cattrall has also been linked with former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, Houston Rockets stars Cuttino Mobley and Steve Francis, French public intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy, and her Whose Life is it Anyway? co-star Alexander Siddig.^[7] 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.

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

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia