Remember Kim Cattrall in the 70s and 80s?

Many people will associate Kim Cattrall with her character Samantha in 'Sex & the City,' but there was really an entire life of acting before that. Let's have a look!

Kim Cattrall's career and social life thrived from the 70s through the 90s, long before she signed up with the foursome of the hit series.

She played in classic movies and series while going out with the jet set and Hollywood elite. It would be a waste not to recognize her for all of her movie successes, fame, makeovers, and celebrity lifestyle before 'Sex & the City.'

Would you recognize her from this photo? Kim Cattrall was the teenager on the right. She was born on August 21,  1956, in Liverpool, England. Her mother was a secretary and her father was a construction engineer.

When she was a little girl, her parents moved to Canada. After some back and forth they would settle in North America and Kim would start acting at the young age of 16. It was 1975 and she moved to New York City for her first role in the film '‘Rosebud.'

Over the next three decades, Cattrall would have quite a busy career, appearing in at least twenty major TV movies and series. It began with roles in 'Columbo' (1978), 'Starsky and Hutch' (1978), 'The Incredible Hulk' (1979), and 'Charlie's Angels' (1979, image).

In 1980, she gave an interview on CBC, at just 23 years old. "I'm the best place I could be right now, the best place," she said according to the Canadian TV channel's website. "All the hard work has paid off."

In the 1980s, Kim Cattrall appeared in several classic comedies. Think of 'Porky's' (1981), where she played the gym teacher; 'Police Academy' (1984), as Cadet Karen Thompson, or 'Turk 182' (1985), an action comedy together with Tim Hutton (image).

She accompanied Kurt Russell in the action movie 'Big Trouble in Little China' (1986), playing Gracie Law, the love interest of the protagonist.

A typical 80s romantic comedy with fantasy elements, 'Mannequin' would gather a cult following over time. Kim Cattrall played the life-size doll Ema who comes to life and steals the heart of the sculptor, a role by 'Brat Pack' actor Andrew McCarthy.

By the 1990s, Kim Cattrall was everywhere: traveling in space with the fourth installment of the Star Trek franchise...

... or homesteading in the American West with Kris Kristofferson for the TV film 'Miracle in the Wilderness.'

She also starred with Rutger Hauer in 'Split Second' (1992) and with Kathleen Turner and Christopher Lloyd in 'Baby Geniuses' (1999). By then, however, people already started referring to her as 'Samantha.'

Kim Cattrall told Variety magazine during her time with 'Sex & the City' that she was nothing like Samantha Jones. She was a serial monogamist. That doesn't mean she's only been married once, though.

Her first husband was Larry Davis (1977 to 1979). Note that she was just 18 when she married him. Then, her second and third husbands were Andre J. Lyson (1982 to 1989) and Mark Levinson (1998 to 2004, picture).

Together with Mark Levinson, Kim Cattrall - then already known as Samantha Jones on TV - wrote the book 'Satisfaction: The Art of the Female Org...' (2002).

She also dated Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (Justin's father) in 1981, which goes to show that the actress went about the highest circles of society. 

Other flings that may have made Cattrall an excellent casting choice for Sex & the City's Samantha Jones were with men like the Brazilian actor Daniel Benzali, French intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy, the British-Sudanese actor Alexander Siddig, and, for the moment, producer Russell Thomas (image) who is 14 years her junior. 

With the American musician Gerald Casale, Kim Cattrall had a brief but lively affair in the early 90s. He and his new wave band Devo had scored a hit in the early 80s with the song 'Whip It.'

The actress and the musician would frequent red carpets in 1991, always surprising photographers with new outfits and accessories.

You could say that, with Casale, Kim Cattrall had a rather avant-gardist fashion phase, almost as if she was auditioning for the role of fashionista Carrie Bradshaw in 'Sex & the City.' But that show wouldn't come her way until 7 years later.