kim cattrall | biography (b. 1956) | gallery

Kim Cattrall

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B I O G .

Actress

Date of birth:

21 August 1956
Liverpool, UK

Birth name:

Kim Victoria Cattrall

Height:

5' 9½"

Spouse:

Mark Levinson (4 September 1998 - 2004) (divorced)
Andre J. Lyson (1982 - 1989) (divorced)
Larry Davis (1975 - ?) (divorced)

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Facts

Kim Cattrall won attention as the sex-starved coach in the surprise hit teen comedy, Porky's (1981) and was excellent as a bitchy socialite opposite Rob Lowe in Bob Swaim's stylish thriller, Masquerade (1988), although she may be probably best remembered as the animated alter ego of the titular clotheshorse in the 1987 romantic comedy Mannequin. With a long list of credits in better forgotten low-budget features, Cattrall did more impressive work on the small screen with roles as the mysterious former lover of James Belushi in the Oliver Stone-produced, Twin Peaks-style miniseries, Wild Palms (ABC, 1993), a former beauty queen, wife and mother having an affair with the stable boy in the short-lived Angel Falls (CBS, 1993) and a fortyish femme fatale PR agent living the high life in NYC on the hit HBO series Sex and the City (1998-2004).

Born in Liverpool, England, but raised in Canada, Cattrall did some acting as an 11-year in a Liverpool theater during a visit back home. She dropped out of high school at age 16 to move to NYC and try her hand at acting. She became possibly the youngest graduate ever of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and made her professional stage debut in a production of The Rocky Picture Horror Show. She has since appeared infrequently on stage: she was Masha in a 1985 production of Three Sisters and co-starred with Ian McKellen in the unsuccessful Chekhov adaptation Wild Honey (1986). Other credits include The Misanthrope in 1989 at Chicago's famed Goodman Theatre and the title role of Miss Julie (1992) at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey.

A lovely brunette who also made a convincing blonde intermittently throughout her career, Cattrall made her feature film acting debut for producer-director Otto Preminger in Rosebud (1975), but it was not until 1980 that she had a truly showy part, that of the young woman hand-picked by Jack Lemmon to bring his stuffy son Robby Benson alive in Tribute. She followed with a memorable scene amidst smelly gym socks in Porky's, was among the ensemble in the first Police Academy (1984) and starred opposite Kurt Russell as a sharp lawyer in John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China (1986). Her spate of unremarkable film work has been punctuated by such memorable work as her turn as the villainous Justine DeWinter in the otherwise uninspired reunion film The Return of the Musketeers (1989), Mr. Spock's protege Valeris in Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country (1991) and the high school friend about to embark on third marriage in Live Nude Girls (1995).

On the small screen, Cattrall won notice as Melanie Adams in the CBS miniseries Scruples (1980) and played an aspiring political columnist who ends up writing something else entirely in The Gossip Columnist (syndicated, 1980). She kept busy with turns in such forgettable fare as 1984's Sins of the Past (ABC) and 1991's Miracle in the Wilderness (TNT), but returned with a spark to the role of Susan, the title character's best friend, in The Heidi Chronicles (TNT, 1995). Work in the miniseries thrillers Robin Cook's 'Invasion' (NBC, 1997) and Peter Benchley's 'Creature' (ABC, 1998) kept the alluring actress in the public eye.

Cattrall finally landed a role that made the most of her youthful good looks and onscreen poise and charisma and earned her popularity and critical acclaim: public relations maven Samantha Jones on the racy HBO sitcom Sex and the City (1998-2004). The most carnally adventurous of a group of successful NYC professionals, Samantha would have to be played by an exceptionally self-assured performer and Cattrall's strikingly unreserved but polished and skilled portrayal of the straight-talking socialite earned the actress five Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Cattrall never landed the trophy, however, but did take home a 2003 Golden Globe). Easily the show's most outrageous, if sometimes cartoonish, character, Samantha was integral to the show's comedic success, and when Cattrall balked at the big-screen version of the series--officially due to scheduling issues, but reportedly due to friction with Sarah Jessica Parker and her other co-stars and producers--the project was scuttled.

Off the success of the show, Cattrall also landed roles in the features Baby Geniuses (1999), which reunited her with Porky's director Bob Clark; 15 Minutes (2001) opposite Robert DeNiro; The Devil and Daniel Webster (2001); and, as Britney Spears' neglectful mother, in Crossroads (2002). Playing off of her character's seductive reputation, Cattrall also co-wrote the 2002 sex-tip tome Satisfaction: The Art of the Female Orgasm with her then-husband Mark Levinson--ironically, the couple split shortly after the book's publication. She took a role in the Disney film Ice Princesss (2005) as a hard-driving ice skating coach with big plans for her daughter--the family-oriented film was the project Cattrall took instead of the Sex and the City feature (though Cattrall said she would definitely consider returning to the character should a big screen effort finally come to fruition).