KIM CATTRALL

Born 21 August 1956
Kim Victoria Cattrall is a British born actress who grew up in Canada and now lives in the United States of America. 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 and Mannequin.

Cattrall 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. In 1979 she played the role of 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.

In 1982, Cattrall played Miss Honeywell 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 cult classic Big Trouble in Little China. In 1987, her lead role in Mannequin proved a huge success with audiences. One of her most well-known film roles is that of the traitor Lieutenant Valeris in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

In 1997, she was cast in Sex and the City, Darren Star's series that was broadcast on HBO. As Samantha Jones, Cattrall gained international recognition. She capitalized on her success by appearing in steamy television commercials promoting the Pepsi product 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 starred as Caroline in Britney Spears' first film venture, Crossroads. Sex and the City ended as a weekly series in spring 2004 with an audience of 10.6m viewers. Cattrall reprised the role of Samantha Jones in the Sex and the City film, released on 30 May 2008.

In July 2006, a commercial for Nissan cars, which featured Kim in her Samantha character from Sex and the City, was withdrawn from New Zealand television, apparently because of complaints about the 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 Cattrall was reported to be set to star in and executive produce Sensitive Skin for HBO, an adaptation of the same-named British series revolving around a wife and mother of a certain age who rediscovers her sexuality