biography

For Pamela Anderson, fame came early. She was born at 4:08 am on July 1st, 1967 in Ladysmith, British Columbia. This made her the first baby born in the area on Canada’s centennial. She appeared in numerous local newspapers. Some reports say that she was the first baby born in all of Canada on that day. This, however, is highly unlikely. Since British Columbia is on the east coast, it would have already been 7:08 am in Ontario. A lot of people live in Ontario, so it is very unlikely that nobody was born before that time on that day.

As a teenager, Anderson was heavily into sports. Her flexibility earned her the nickname “Rubber Girl”. She also devoted much of her time to playing the saxophone. During this time, she made tentative steps into the movie industry by playing extras. In 1979, she did the voice of Pebbles in The Flintstones Little Big League. In 1984 she played a hooker in Crimes of Passion. In 1987 she played a Party Guest in John Hughes’ Some Kind of Wonderful. None of these roles did much for her career.

Things took a radical step forward in 1989. While attending a CFL game, she was spotted by a cameraman, who put her on the big screen. When the crowd saw her, they began to cheer enthusiastically. Since she was wearing a T-shirt for Labatt, this brought her to the attention of company executives. They decided that she would be perfect for their ‘Blue Zone’ promotion. She then appeared on numerous posters that were shipped to bars all across Canada.

The poster campaign also brought her to the attention of Playboy. She soon made the first of her record six cover appearances for that magazine. After her first appearance, she had her breast augmentation surgery. An appearance in the 1991 Playboy Video Playmate Calendar and two episodes of “Married … With Children” followed.

With all of this publicity, a film part or a regular television role was inevitable. Surely enough, she was cast as Lisa, the Tool-Time Girl, on “Home Improvement”. This family/workplace sitcom starring Tim Allen was an immediate hit. This brought her to the attention of David Hasselhoff, executive producer and star of “Baywatch”. This show had become the most popular in the world, mostly because its appeal cut across language barriers. He offered Anderson the role of C.J. Parker, a lifeguard. Anderson took the role in 1992, citing that the character of CJ shared her interest in ‘new-age thinking’. This included meditation, crystals, and mythology. For a short time, Anderson split her time between “Home Improvement” and “Baywatch”. This proved to be too much of a workload, so she quit “Home Improvement”. Debbe Dunning replaced her.

Her newfound fame garnered Anderson more movie roles. In The Taking of Beverly Hills, she had a small uncredited part. More substantial was her role in Snapdragon (1993). She played Felicity, an amnesiac who has dreams about killing her lovers. Meanwhile, Sargent Peckham (Chelsea Field) is investigating a murder case in which two men were killed while having sex with a prostitute. Peckham consults her boyfriend, Police psychologist David Stratton. He is also overseeing Felicity. He does not make the connection until later.

Anderson’s next movie appearance came the next year in Raw Justice, which was made for HBO. The mayor’s daughter is killed after a bad date with Mitch (Robert Hays of Airplane and “Starman”). He immediately becomes the chief suspect. To follow him, the mayor hires an ex-cop named Mace (David Keith of An Officer and a Gentleman and The Indian in the Cupboard). He learns that a corrupt cop is out to get Mitch’s life. After Mace is seen with Sarah (Anderson), a prostitute, the cop tries to do the same with her. This cop is also trying to frame Mace by killing witnesses and faking evidence. The movie wasn’t very good, but nobody expected it to be.

Her next big movie was Naked Souls (1995). This was the story of Edward (Brian Krause), who was working on the secret of reading people’s thoughts, leaving him little time for his girlfriend Britt (Anderson). Longstreet (David Warner of The Omen, Tron, “Twin Peaks”) offered Edward lab space and research money. Of course, Longstreet has ulterior motives, since Edward was somehow about to discover the key to eternal life. The plot was unimportant, serving mostly to set up Anderson’s frequent nude scenes.

Anderson appeared in two more videos that year. One was Baywatch: Forbidden Paradise. The other was The Best of Pamela Anderson. This was a biographical video that contained footage from her Playboy video shoots. It went to number one on the video sales charts, knocking off Forrest Gump. Around the same time, the rapidly growing Internet, which included a huge number of pictures of her, propelled her to major stardom.

During this time, Anderson often stated that her main goal was to find a husband and raise a family. Among her early suitors were Dean Cain (“Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman”), Sylvester Stallone, and Scott Baio (Chachi from ‘Happy Days’), to whom she was briefly engaged. The most successful was Tommy Lee, drummer for Motley Crue. The key to his success was persistence. When he first saw her at a party, he walked right up to her and licked her face. He pestered her repeatedly for her phone number. After she finally gave in, he called repeatedly with marriage proposals. She eventually agreed. In 1995, four days after they had met, they were married in Cancun. He wore shorts; she wore a bathing suit. Instead of rings, they had their names tattooed on each other. Anderson, now Pamela Anderson Lee, had Tommy’s name tattooed on her finger. One of the things that they brought with them on their honeymoon was a video camera. The videotape they made of that night disappeared while their house was under construction. It reappeared a couple of years later, causing numerous headaches.

Anderson’s career had reached the point where a starring role in a feature movie was warranted. The movie was Barb Wire, which was based on a comic book series. The shooting of the film was very difficult. Anderson was still part of the “Baywatch” cast, so she would act in “Baywatch” in the day and Barb Wire at night. Early in the shooting, the original director was fired and replaced. Rumours circulated that Tommy Lee would keep Anderson in her trailer, constantly having sex and delaying the filming. Anderson has admitted to the sex, but not to the delays. At one point in the shooting, Anderson suffered from fainting spells. When she went to the hospital, it was discovered that she had an ovarian cyst. It was promptly removed and she returned to the shooting. Shortly afterwards, she became pregnant, but had a miscarriage.

When the film was finally finished, it was a mess. The plot was ripped off from Casablanca, with changes made to fit in with the post-apocalyptic setting. Anderson played Barb Wire/Barbara Kopetski, a club owner in the last free city in America. The plot centres on the search for a set of secret contact lenses. These lenses prevent the wearer from being identified by a retinal scan. They must be found so that the leader of the resistance can escape the country. The movie bombed commercially and critically. At the 1997 Razzie Awards, Anderson ‘won’ for Worst New Star. The movie was also nominated for Worst Actress (Anderson), Worst Original Song (‘Welcome to Planet Boom’ by Tommy Lee), Worst Picture, Worst Screen Couple (for Anderson’s ‘impressive enhancements’) and Worst Screenplay.

These were just the beginnings of Anderson’s troubles. Less than two years after the marriage, Anderson filed for divorce among rumours of physical abuse. Although they quickly reconciled, it was not the last of their marriage troubles. In 1998, 911 received a call from Anderson claiming that Tommy had attacked her during an argument. He was charged for spousal and child abuse, as well as illegal firearm possession. After a conviction, he was sentenced to six months in prison. Anderson filed for divorce and for custody of their two children, Brandon and Dylan Jagger (born Dec 29th, 1997). She also had her Tommy tattoo changed to Mommy.

In 1997, stills from the stolen honeymoon tape were printed in the French edition of Penthouse. The tape was then released in its entirety over the Internet. Among the things revealed in the tape was the location of Tommy Lee’s tattoo of Pamela’s name. The Lee’s sued Internet Entertainment Group for invasion of privacy and buying stolen property. After settling out of court, the video was widely released in two version: The R-rated Stolen Honeymoon and the uncensored X-rated Hardcore & Uncensored.

Having left “Baywatch” in 1997, Anderson returned to the small screen with “V.I.P.”. The series, for which she was also the executive producer, starred Anderson as Vallery Irons. She was the head of Vallery Irons Protection (VIP), a Beverly Hills bodyguard agency. Strangely enough, all of the bodyguards happened to be models. As expected, the intelligence level of the show was at about the same level, if lower, as “Baywatch”.

Pamela Anderson has become the premiere sex symbol of the 1990’s. Although her talent as an actress has often been disparaged, it is not as though she has been working with the best scripts. Her fans don’t seem to care anyway. Just as long as she wears a tight fitting outfit or doesn’t wear a tight fitting outfit, they are happy.