Kim Cattrall Biography / Pictures

Kim Cattrall (pronounced /kəˈtræl/, rhyming with shall; born 21 August 1956) is a Golden-Globe award winning English-Canadian actress. Kim Cattrall is known for 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.

Biography

Kim was born in Widnes, Cheshire, England. When she was less than a year old, her family emigrated to the Canadian city of Courtenay, British Columbia. At 11, she returned to Cheshire 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.

Kim 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 Kim 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 and play as Guest Star at TV Mini-Series Scruples.

In 1982, Kim played Miss Honeywell (Lassie) 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 best-known film roles is that of Lieutenant Valeris in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Aside from her film work, Kim 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 which was broadcast on HBO. As Samantha Jones, Kim gained international recognition. She capitalized on her success by appearing in steamy television commercials promoting Pepsi One.

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 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. In July 2006, a commercial for Nissan cars, which featured Kim as Samantha Jones, was withdrawn from New Zealand television, apparently because of complaints about its innuendo. 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 Kim 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.

Kim has also been linked with former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, Houston Rockets stars Cuttino Mobley and Steve Francis, actor Daniel Benzali, musician Gerald Casale of the New Wave group Devo, French public intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy, and her Whose Life is it Anyway? co-star Alexander Siddig. She currently resides in New York City and in East Hampton, New York.