Kim Cattrall biography
Date of birth : 1956-08-21
Date of death : -
Birthplace : Mossley Hill, Liverpool, England, U.K.
Nationality : English-Canadian
Category : Arts and Entertainment
Last modified : 2011-06-15
Credited as : Actress, Sex and the City, Porky's
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Kim Victoria Cattrall 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, Big Trouble in Little China, Mannequin, and Porky's.
From an early age, it was obvious that Kim had what it took to be a star; when she was only 11, she was accepted to the prestigious Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in London.
She returned to Canada at the age of 16, where she completed high school and soon after won a scholarship to New York's American Academy of Dramatic Arts. In 1975, Kim scored a role in preeminent director Otto Preminger's Rosebud. Kim returned to the theater in Canada, but soon after received a contract with Universal Studios for TV work.
However, it wasn't until the late '80s that Kim Cattrall became known to the entertainment world. She had roles in the definitive teen sex comedy, Porky's (1982), and other -- well perhaps "bad" isn't the word, but "differently" enjoyable -- '80s films like Police Academy (1984), Turk 182! (1985), John Carpenter's campy masterpiece, Big Trouble in Little China (1986), and Mannequin (1987) with Andrew McCarthy. She also landed roles in The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) and the sixth Star Trek film, 1991's The Undiscovered Country.
By the time the '90s hit, Kim's star had faded a bit, though she still found work in made-for-TV movies, a few obscure films and theater. By the late '90s, Kim once again found the limelight on HBO's smash hit, Sex and the City, as the sultry "cocktail tease," public relations exec Samantha Jones. She remained on the show for all six seasons, winning a Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe for her role in 2003.
Her more recent movies -- 1999's Baby Geniuses, 2001's The Devil and Daniel Webster and 15 Minutes, and 2002's Crossroads with Britney Spears -- were mostly flops, but she isn't giving up. In 2005, she starred in Ice Princess and has more projects to come. If there's one thing her career has taught us, it's to never count Kim out.
Kim hasn't been as successful at the altar; after a brief marriage to a Canadian writer, she wed German architect Andre Lyson in 1982, only to divorce in 1989. Next, she married executive Mark Levinson, from whom she is presently separated. Recent rumors have linked her to ex-Friends star David Schwimmer.
In 2005, she also became the official spokesperson for Bacardi's low-calorie cocktails.
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 Cattrall 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 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.
In early 2009, Kim Cattrall played Amelia Bly in Roman Polanskí's well received The Ghost Writer, which was released in 2010. On 16 June 2009, it was announced that Cattrall would receive a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto. The induction ceremony was held on 12 September 2009. In November 2009 whilst filming Sex and the City 2 in Marrakech, she took part in an seminar, 'Being directed' with Director John Boorman as part of the 3rd Edition of the Arts in Marrakech Festival.
On 24 February 2010, Cattrall began a critically acclaimed run in the West End of London at The Vaudeville Theatre as leading lady, Amanda, opposite Matthew Macfadyen, almost twenty years her junior, in a revival of Noel Coward's play Private Lives. She performed until 3 May 2010.
Cattrall will play Cleopatra in a production of Antony and Cleopatra, directed by Janet Suzman, opposite Jeffery Kissoon as Anthony, in Liverpool at the Playhouse in October 2010. Also scheduled for release is her movie Meet Monica Velour, in which Cattrall plays an out-of-shape former adult star.
In 2010, Cattrall was named an Honorary Fellow of Liverpool John Moores University in recognition of her contributions to the dramatic arts.
