Samantha Jones

Samantha Jones (born 1958) is a fictional character in the HBO-produced television series Sex and the City. She is played by Kim Cattrall.

Character History

Warning! The following text is a spoiler.

Samantha is one of four single friends portrayed in the series. Of the four, she is the most sexually liberated, and most of her storylines revolve around the many men and sex she has. She is confident, strong, outspoken, and a self-proclaimed "try-sexual" (meaning she'll try anything once).

Samantha is the oldest of the four friends (in season 6, she reveals she is "forty fucking five"), and owns her own public relations company. Not much is known about Samantha's younger years, except that her parents were not wealthy, and she spent most of her teenage years selling Dilly bars at Dairy Queen to earn pocket money. Season 4 implies that she has at least two siblings, when she mentions that at her age her mother "was saddled with three kids and a drunk husband". She later mentions partying at Studio 54 during its heyday, implying she moved to New York City from wherever she grew up sometime in the mid-1970s.

In the early part of the series, she lives on the Upper East Side, but ends up moving to an expensive apartment in the Meatpacking District (after one of her late-night visitors lets in a mugger who attacks one of her older female neighbors).

One of Samantha's best qualities is her loyalty to her friends. When Carrie confesses to her that she's having an affair with her married ex-boyfriend (and cheating on her own boyfriend, as well), Samantha tells her that judging is not her style and offers her support. Although she fights with Charlotte a few times, they always manage to get past their differences and make up. Despite having trouble adjusting to Miranda having a child (in season 4), she willingly gives up a coveted hair appointment and sends Miranda in her place, staying behind to babysit and give her friend a much-needed break.

In the show's last season, Samantha is diagnosed with breast cancer. She faces the challenge head on, playing with her look by wearing crazy wigs after she loses her hair to chemotherapy. In one of the final episodes, she gives a speech for a cancer benefit and receives a standing ovation for removing her wig onstage and admitting that she was suffering hot flashes. The audience appreciated her candor and honesty, and many of the women in the audience stood up and removed their own wigs.

Relationships

Samantha's main love are men - many of them. Over the course of the series, she sleeps with plenty of interesting characters, including a man who will only "swing" with her if she takes an AIDS test, a seventy-two year old millionaire, Leonardo DiCaprio (in episode Four Women and a Funeral), a guy with "funky spunk," and a trainer from her gym who brands her by shaving her hair "down there" into a lightning bolt. She never keeps the men around for long, and she once said that she frequently loses underwear because she leaves them at guys' places and never returns. She even slept with her good friend Charlotte's brother, prompting an angry Charlotte to call her vagina "the hottest spot in town, [because] it's always open."

Samantha does have a few "serious" relationships throughout the run of the series:

James

Samantha meets a man named James, (James Goodwin), in a jazz bar at the end of Season 1. Unusually, for Samantha, she doesn't sleep with him right off the bat, instead taking a leaf from Charlotte's book, because she felt he was a man she could marry. After declaring that she was in love with him, the two finally sleep together, only for Samantha to discover that he was seriously under-endowed, to the point where she could not experience any physical pleasure. Though she tries to work through it, she eventually breaks up with him when threatened with the prospect of couples counseling.

Maria

She flirts with lesbianism and enters into a brief relationship with a woman, an artist named Maria, (Sonia Braga), in season 4. Samantha feels she is not a relationship person, and she initially only wants to remain friends with Maria. Once their sex begins to dwindle and they spend a lot of time talking, Samantha begins to tire of it. Maria also becomes upset when Samantha's sexual past catches up with them.

Richard Wright

Also in season 4, Samantha meets and falls in love with hotel magnate Richard Wright, (James Remar). Though the two seemed well matched, as they both liked to sleep around, Samantha became increasingly attached to Richard, and the two eventually commit themselves to a monogamous relationship. However, Samantha was only to have her heart broken when she catches him cheating on her. After giving Richard a second chance, she decides to end the relationship when she realizes she can't trust him.

Jerry Jerrod/Smith Jerrod

In the show's final season, she meets a twenty-something waiter/actor/model named Jerry Jerrod, (Jason Lewis). Although it seemed, at first, he was to be just another notch on her bedpost, he stuck around. Samantha uses her PR skills to jump start Jerry's acting career, and changes his name to Smith. He stuck with her through her brush with cancer, and he grows to "mean more to [her] than any man [she's] ever known." which, for Samantha, is a huge statement.

This article is based on a GNU FDL LGBT Wikia article: Jones (character) Samantha Jones (character)

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