Memory Alpha
Register
Advertisement
Memory Alpha
Real world article
(written from a Production point of view)

Kim Cattrall (born 21 August 1956; age 67) is the English-Canadian actress who played Valeris in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. She received a Saturn Award nomination from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films for her performance in the film.

In early script drafts, Valeris was supposed to be Saavik, the original role for which Cattrall was already considered as an alternative back in 1981 for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. However, she turned out to be unavailable for the part, which ultimately went to Kirstie Alley, of whom Nicholas Meyer, the director of not only that movie, but of The Undiscovered Country as well, recalled, "She auditioned for me, along with many others." (Star Trek Movie Memories, 1995, pp. 123-124; Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (The Director's Edition) DVD-special feature, "audio commentary") When she was finally cast for the role of Valeris, Cattrall actually refused the part at first, as she was under the false impression that she had to be the third actress to portray Saavik (for which, ironically, Alley tuned out to be unavailable), but jumped at the opportunity when she learned that that was not to be the case, as she considered Saavik "just a girl," whereas she considered Valeris "a woman." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 22, No. 5, p. 31; Star Trek Movie Memories, 1995 ed., pp. 374-375)

She was also one of the thirteen final actresses who auditioned for the part of Vixis in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, but the role went to Spice Williams. (Source: Spice Williams)

Outside of Star Trek, Kim Cattrall is perhaps most famous for playing Samantha Jones on Sex and the City, as well as a number of Hollywood rôles.

Personal life[]

Cattrall was born in Mossley Hill, a suburb of Liverpool, England to a construction engineer father and a secretary mother. When she was three months old, Cattrall and her family emigrated to Courtenay, British Columbia, in Canada, but she has always remained proud of her Liverpool roots. [1]

Cattrall returned to England when she was eleven, where she took acting examinations with the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. [2] She soon returned to Canada to finish her final year of secondary school and left for the United States after graduating high school in 1972.

Cattrall has been married three times, with her most recent marriage to audio engineer Mark Levinson ending in 2004. She was at one time engaged to Star Trek: The Next Generation guest star Daniel Benzali, who played her husband in a 1997 episode of The Outer Limits; however, Cattrall and Benzali separated before going through with the marriage. In 2005, she was linked with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine regular Alexander Siddig, with whom she co-starred in a London stage production of Whose Life Is It Anyway?. [3]

Cattrall narrowly avoided being killed on board Pan Am Flight 103. The plane which was flying from London to New York had a bomb placed in it, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland on Wednesday December 21, 1988. Cattrall had missed a connection which forced her to take a later flight sparing her from becoming part of the tragedy.

Career[]

Cattrall starred in several popular 1980s films, including Porky's, Police Academy, Big Trouble in Little China, and Mannequin. She is perhaps best known, however, for her five-time Emmy Award-nominated role as Samantha Jones in the HBO series Sex and the City.

1975 – 1980[]

In the early 1970s, Cattrall signed a five-year movie contract with director-producer Otto Preminger. She made her film debut in Preminger's 1975 action-thriller Rosebud. The following year, her contract with Preminger was bought out by Universal Studios. She made appearances on several television series for Universal, including Quincy, M.E. (working with Adrienne Barbeau, Robert Ito, William O'Connell, and Garry Walberg), The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (in a two-parter directed by Joseph Pevney), Columbo (with Ed Begley, Jr. and Tricia O'Neil), and The Incredible Hulk (again directed by Joseph Pevney).

Another project she worked on for Universal was the 1978 mini-series The Bastard. This production also starred William Shatner, with whom Cattrall later co-starred on Star Trek VI. The cast of The Bastard also included Star Trek veterans John Colicos, John de Lancie, Ike Eisenmann, James Gregory, Alex Henteloff, and James Whitmore, Jr., while Robert F. Shugrue was among the editors, the film also starred William Daniels. Cattrall also appeared in the 1979 sequel to The Bastard, entitled The Rebels, which was directed by Russ Mayberry and which co-starred Paul Fix, Nehemiah Persoff, Warren Stevens, William Daniels, and Kevin Tighe. Gerald Fried was the movie's composer.

Cattrall's work with Universal also included two other TV movies, 1979's The Night Rider (with Percy Rodriguez, Harris Yulin, and Whit Bissell) and 1980's The Gossip Columnist (with Stanley Kamel). Outside of her contracted Universal projects, she was able to appear in the 1977 TV movie Good Against Evil (with Richard Lynch) and the 1977 film Deadly Harvest (directed by Timothy Bond and co-starring Nehemiah Persoff). She also guest-starred on such television shows as Logan's Run (in an episode written by Shimon Wincelberg), Switch (with John Fiedler), Starsky and Hutch (with David Soul and Joan Pringle), and Charlie's Angels (directed by Lawrence Dobkin and co-starring Parley Baer and Robert Walker).

After The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries and The Incredible Hulk, Cattrall continued her association with director Joseph Pevney by appearing in a segment of How the West Was Won (with Jorge Cervera, Jr., Rex Holman, Roy Jenson, and Mark Lenard) and an episode of Hagen (with David Opatoshu and Louise Sorel). In 1980, she appeared in the mini-series Scruples, along with Paul Carr, the aforementioned John de Lancie, Walker Edmiston, Gary Graham, John Hancock, and Bill Quinn.

1980 – 1990[]

In 1980, Cattrall began making a successful transition to film. That year, she starred in director Bob Clark's film Tribute. after which she starred opposite Meg Foster and Saul Rubinek in the 1981 Canadian film Ticket to Heaven. She then portrayed Miss Honeywell in Bob Clark's cult 1982 comedy Porky's, which became a box office smash. Her co-stars in this film included fellow Trek alumni Wyatt Knight, Cyril O'Reilly, and Nancy Parsons.

In 1982, Cattrall guest-starred in an episode of the medical drama Trapper John, M.D., working alongside Ellen Geer, William Windom, and series regular Madge Sinclair. (Cattrall previously appeared on the series in 1979.) In 1983, Cattrall appeared on the short-lived adventure series Tales of the Gold Monkey, which starred Stephen Collins and Marta Dubois. Cattrall subsequently co-starred with Kirstie Alley in the 1984 TV movie Sins of the Past. This latter project also featured John Anderson, Roger Aaron Brown, Gene Dynarski, and Megan Gallagher.

Following the success of Porky's, Cattrall starred in the 1984 comedy Police Academy, which was also a hit at the box office. David Graf had a supporting role in this film, as did Scott Thomson. Unlike many of her co-stars (including Graf), Cattrall did not appear in any of the six Police Academy sequels that followed. Her next film was the action-comedy Turk 182!, her third collaboration with director Bob Clark. Unlike Porky's, however, it was a box office flop. Turk 182! also featured Paul Sorvino.

Cattrall's next major film project was John Carpenter's action-adventure hit Big Trouble in Little China, in which Jerry Hardin also appeared. The music for this film was co-written by Alan Howarth, who created sound effects for the first six Star Trek films. Cattrall then starred as a mannequin who comes to life in the cult 1987 comedy Mannequin. Phil Rubenstein and Steve Vinovich were among those who had supporting roles in this film.

In 1988 and 1989, Cattrall's film credits included Palais Royale (with Brian George and Dean Stockwell), Masquerade (with John Glover), and The Return of the Musketeers, in which she played Milady De Winter's vengeful daughter. In 1988, she starred in the comedy Honeymoon Academy (co-starring Jonathan Banks, Charles Rocket, and Leigh Taylor-Young), though it was not released until May 1990.

In 1990, she had a supporting role in the critically-panned film adaptation of Tom Wolfe's novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities. This film marked her second film acting collaboration with Saul Rubinek after 1981's Ticket to Heaven and also featured F. Murray Abraham, Kirsten Dunst, Louis Giambalvo, John Hancock, and Richard Libertini. This appearance shares an odd similarity to her previous Vulcan role – her character is an upmarket woman, supposed to be so obsessed with maintaining her youthful looks, that she avoids any major facial expressions.

1991 – present[]

After her portrayal of Lieutenant Valeris in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Cattrall starred Split Second (1992, co-starring Michael J. Pollard. Her subsequent films included Above Suspicion (1995, co-starring Ron Canada and Natalia Nogulich), Live Nude Girls (with Olivia d'Abo), Unforgettable (1996, with Christopher McDonald, David Sobolov, and Azalea Davila), and Where Truth Lies (opposite John Savage and Malcolm McDowell and co-starring Eric Pierpoint). She also collaborated with her Porky's director Bob Clark for the fourth and final time, starring with Christopher Lloyd in Baby Geniuses (1999).

On television, Cattrall was a regular on the short-lived series Angel Falls, as was Jean Simmons. She also appeared in Wild Palms (1993, with Brad Dourif, Bob Gunton, Bebe Neuwirth, Charles Rocket, and David Warner. She also starred or co-starred in several made-for-TV movies during the 1990s, including Running Delilah (1993, with Rob LaBelle), Tom Clancy's Op Center (1995, with Sherman Howard, France Nuyen, John Savage, and Todd Waring) and The Heidi Chronicles (co-starring Sharon Lawrence), 1997's Robin Cook's Invasion (with Rosana DeSoto and Neal McDonough), 1998's Modern Vampires (with John Fleck) and Creature (with Michael Reilly Burke), and 1999's 36 Hours to Die (again working with Saul Rubinek).

From 1998 through 2004, Cattrall starred as sexually promiscuous public relations executive Samantha Jones in the HBO series Sex and the City. Jeffrey Nordling appeared in the pilot episode of that hit series and Willie Garson was a recurring guest actor. Cattrall's performance as Samantha earned her five Emmy Award nominations, four Golden Globe nominations (one of which she won), and two Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award nominations. In addition, Cattrall and her three principal co-stars (Sarah Jessica Parker, Cyntha Nixon, and Kristin Davis) won two SAG Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series and another three nominations in the same category.

While Sex and the City was still in production, Cattrall continued taking roles in feature films. She had a supporting role in 15 Minutes (2001), which also featured Deep Space Nine star Avery Brooks and Next Generation guest actor Kelsey Grammer. She then acted in The Devil and Daniel Webster (with John Savage), which, despite being filmed in 2001, was not released until 2004. Cattrall also played the mother of Britney Spears' character in Crossroads (2002, co-starring Zoë Saldana).

After Sex and the City wrapped production in 2004, Cattrall co-starred as an ice skating coach in the 2005 live-action Disney film Ice Princess. In 2008, she reprised her role as Samantha Jones in the feature film adaptation of Sex and the City, in which she appeared alongside Willie Garson and Buddy Joe Hooker.

In 2009, Cattrall was the star of an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? This is a long running and popular BBC documentary series which looks into various celebrities' ancestors (a different episode was devoted to Patrick Stewart). In the episode she was able to solve several family mysteries, including her grandfather who had disappeared when her mother was eight.

Cattrall then starred in the acclaimed 2010 Roman Polanski film The Ghost Writer. The same year, she was again seen as Samantha Jones in Sex and the City 2. Like the television series and the first film, the sequel also featured Willie Garson in his role as Stanford Blatch.

Cattrall currently stars in the CBS All Access series Tell Me a Story. She played Agrippina the Younger, the mother of the Roman Emperor Nero, in the 2019 movie Horrible Histories: The Movie – Rotten Romans.

External links[]

Advertisement