Kim
Victoria Cattrall (pronounced /kəˈtræl/, rhyming with shall; born 21 August
1956) is an
English 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, and
Mannequin.
Cattrall was born in
Mossley Hill,
Liverpool, England. Her mother, (Gladys)
Shane, née Baugh, was a secretary, and her father,
Dennis, a construction engineer. When she was 3 months old, her family emigrated to the
Canadian city of
Courtenay, British Columbia. At 11, she returned to
England when her grandmother became ill, and she took a number of acting examinations with the
London Academy of Music and
Dramatic Art (
LAMDA), before returning to
Canada at age 16 to finish her final year of secondary school.
Cattrall began her career before graduating from high school in
1972, when she left Canada for the
United States. 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 1978, she co-starred with
Peter Falk and
Nicol Williamson in the
Columbo episode How to
Dial a
Murder. In
1979, she played Dr.
Gabrielle White in
The Incredible Hulk and would go down in television
Hulk lore as one of the few characters who knew
David Banner was alive and was the Hulk. In a successful transition to cinema, Cattrall starred opposite
Jack Lemmon in his Oscar-nominated movie
Tribute in
1980.
The following year, she starred in the critically acclaimed
Ticket to Heaven. She also had a guest role in the
TV miniseries Scruples.
In
1982, Cattrall 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, 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 and
Wild Honey 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, Cattrall gained international recognition. She capitalized on her success by appearing in steamy television commercials promoting 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 appeared in
Britney Spears' first film venture,
Crossroads. Sex and the City ended as a weekly series in spring 2004 with
10.6 million viewers. Cattrall reprised the role of Samantha Jones in the Sex and the City film, released on May 30, 2008. She will also appear in a sequel planned for release in
2010.
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 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.
On June 16, 2009, it was announced that Cattrall would receive a star on
Canada's Walk of Fame in
Toronto. The induction ceremony was held on
September 12, 2009.
- published: 05 Dec 2009
- views: 25570