Kim Cattrall

Screen and stage actress Kim Cattrall was best known for her role as New York PR agent and femme fatale Samantha Jones on the hit HBO series "Sex and the City" (1998-2004). Prior to her lusty adventures in Manolo Blahnik shoes, Cattrall built up a long list of credits in forgotten low-budget features and TV movies during the 1980s, earning some notoriety for playing sexpots in "Porkys" (1982), "Police Academy" (1984) and "Mannequin" (1987).

She was born on August 21, 1956 in Mossley Hill, Liverpool, England. Her mother, (Gladys) Shane, née Baugh, was a secretary, and her father, Dennis, a construction engineer. When she was three 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 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. She made her film debut in Preminger's Rosebud in 1975.

She made several television appearances throughout the 1970s and worked mostly in movies in the 1980s. Her films ranged from a starring role opposite Jack Lemmon in 1980’s Tribute, to the lowbrow comedy of Porky’s, Police Academy and Mannequin.

In 1998, Cattrall became an international celebrity when she was cast as the scandalously promiscuous Samantha Jones in HBO’s award-winning comedy series Sex and the City.

She earned a Golden Globe for her role in 2003, the same year the show decided to call it quits, much to the disappointment of its legions of fans. The show, however, returned as an original theatrical film in 2008.

Cattrall has been married three times, to author Larry Davis, German architect Andreas Lyson and most recently to executive Mark Levison.

Sources: Wikipedia, Yahoo, Biography

Due to an erroneous entry in the Internet Movie Database, it is often believed that Cattrall's birth name was "Clare Woodgate". This is, in fact, the birth name of British actress Georgina Cates.

In the January 2 edition of The Observer newspaper, an interview with Cattrall repeated the "Clare Woodgate" mistruth. The Observer later published a correction stating that, "Our interview ... was wrong to repeat a website which said [Cattrall] was born ... 'as plain Clare Woodgate'. She was born to Shane and Dennis Cattrall in Liverpool as Kim Victoria Cattrall. Apologies." (Source)