Kim Cattrall Biography

Kim Cattrall Sexy and sophisticated actress Kim Cattrall was born on August 21, 1956, in Widnes, North Cheshire, United Kingdom. Cattrall's family moved to British Columbia, Canada, when she was three years old. At age eleven, Cattrall's family moved back to their native England when her grandmother became ill, and Cattrall began studying at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. By her mid-teens, Cattrall was off to New York after winning a scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.At the beginning of her career, Cattrall teamed up with director Otto Preminger, who signed her to a five-year contract in which she made her film debut in Rosebud in 1975. After Cattrall was bought out of the contract by Universal Studios, she appeared in various television shows such as Starsky and Hutch and Charlie's Angels. At the beginning of the 1980s, Cattrall found further fame by parlaying her sex-appeal in goof ball comedies like Porky's in 1981 and Police Academy in 1984. Cattrall continued to work steadily for the mid-latter part of the decade, starring in Turk 182 in 1985, John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China in 1986, and Mannequin in 1987, alongside James Spader.The beginning of the 1990s saw Cattrall starring as Lieutenant Valeris in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. By the end of the decade, however, Cattrall had traded in the cosmos for cosmopolitans when she took on the role of irrepressible PR executive Samantha Jones on HBO's Sex and the City. Based on the writings of New York Observer columnist Candace Bushnell, the series was credited with glamorizing the lives of single women, and simultaneously popularizing New York nightlife even spawning Sex and the City themed vacation packages and tours. The show also starred Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, and Cynthia Nixon. Despite the success of the television series, Cattrall continued to appear in forgettable films that were considered unwise career choices, such as Baby Geniuses in 1999 and the Britney Spears coming-of-age road trip drama, Crossroads in 2002.In 2004, Cattrall hung up her high heels on Sex and the City amidst reports claiming that her high financial demands and conflicts with co-star and series producer Sarah Jessica Parker had brought the series to an end. A Sex and the City film was highly-anticipated; however, it was reported that Cattrall was the missing piece of the puzzle who would not join the cast due to her unmet demands of script approval and a salary equivalent to Parker s. Cattrall has claimed that her request to see a script was never answered, and so the film never materialized. Cattrall is rumored to have made up with Parker after being reunited at Parker's fortieth birthday party.In 2005, Cattrall appeared with Michelle Trachtenberg in the Disney movie Ice Princess. Also in 2005, Cattrall played a quadriplegic woman who wants to die in the West End drama revival of Whose Life Is It Anyway?. Other stage productions Cattrall has acted in include Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge and Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters.Cattrall has been married and divorced three times: to Larry Davis, Andre J. Lyson, and Mark Levinson, whom she divorced in 2004. She has also previously been romantically linked to Daniel Benzali, former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and Canadian chef Alan Wyse. Cattrall is currently in a relationship with her Whose Life is it Anyway? co-star Alexander Siddig.In early 2006, Cattrall was reported to be joining the cast of popular HBO series Desperate Housewives as the sister of Edie who is played by Nicollette Sheridan.

• AskMen.com - Kim Cattrall