Biography
Pamela Anderson was born in Ladysmith, British Columbia, Canada and was discovered in 1989 when she was wearing a Labatt's beer t-shirt at a football game. She was hired by Labatt's to promote their product, and soon after, she appeared in Playboy magazine. Earlier, she had been famous as an infant for having been the "Centennial Baby", the first baby born on Canada's Centennial Day.
|
|
Another incident placed Pamela in the spotlight once again. She was sitting in a library at a storytelling session, when a photographer picked her out of a crowd of 100 other children, and took a photograph of her. The picture drew so much attention, it was placed in all the libraries in British Columbia and became copyrighted.
Pamela Anderson's teen years weren't anything out of the ordinary, she had braces and she was small chested. She excelled in virtually every sport she played, earning the nick-name "Rubber-Band" for her flexibility. Pat Lewis, one of Pamela's school coaches was quoted as saying "She was quite cute and competitive, but there was noting special about her." Her favorite sport was Volleyball and wasn't overly interested in movies, television or music the way other girls her age were at that time in their lives although she did love to play the saxophone every chance she got. She played sax in the school band and after school with friends when the opportunity presented itself. Pamela's Mother Carol remembers that "If someone did better than Pamela, she'd do anything to top them. She was always very determined.". Upon graduating from Highland Secondary School in 1985 her yearbook entry stated that her aspiration in life was "To be a California Beach Bum".
In 1988, Pamela Anderson moved to Vancouver to get a taste of the big city and get on with her life. She was working as a fitness instructor when her direction in life changed. It was the summer of 1989 when close friends of Pamela invited her to go to a Canadian Football League (CFL) game with them. One of her friends was a representative for Labatt's beer breweries. The game was between the British Columbia Lions and the Toronto Argonauts in B.C. Place and at one of the stoppages in play, the cameraman was roaming the crowd looking for someone to put up on the big screen for all to see. He found Pamela and when he put her bright smiling face up on the screen, the place erupted! Labatt's noticed the response this woman was getting and the fact that she was wearing a Labatt's shirt her friend had given her cemented the deal. She began modeling for Labatt's in their then current promotion for the "Blue Zone". As the "Blue Girl", Pamela's posters were plastered all over walls in bars and restaurants Canada wide.
A gentleman by the name of Ken Honey, a freelance photographer based out of Vancouver took a few pictures of Pamela and after convincing Pamela, he sent them into Playboy on Pamela's behalf. Playboy liked what they saw and in October of 1989, Pamela moved to Los Angeles, California to do a cover for the October (1989) issue of Playboy. The first time Pamela ever stepped in front of a motion picture camera was February 1990 at Playboy where she was preparing for an early sequence test for her upcoming pictorial.
Pamela Anderson's first major television role was on the United States hit television sitcom Home Improvement. But her rise to stardom came primarily from her role as C J Parker on Baywatch.
More recently, she has appeared in a feature film, Barb Wire, which failed to achieve commercial success, and in her own television series, V.I.P which was cancelled.
During this time, Pamela Anderson often stated that
her main goal was to find a husband and raise a family.
Among her early suitors were Dean Cain, Sylvester
Stallone, and Scott Baio, to whom she was briefly
engaged. The most successful was Tommy Lee, drummer for
Motley Crue. 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. Instead of rings, they
had their names tattooed on each other. The videotape
they made of their honeymoon night disappeared while
their house was under construction. It reappeared a
couple of years later, causing numerous headaches. The
homemade video was allegedly stolen from their house in
1995.
In 1996, Pamela Anderson starred in her first feature
film, Barb Wire, despite her manager's advice to refuse
the film role. She should have taken his advice, since
the film 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.
Unfortunately, stardom has a price. While filming Barb Wire, Pamela and Tommy suffered a miscarriage. They were both devastated but like Tommy told Pamwatch, "Our little angel is up there in good hands." There wasn't really anyone or anything to blame other than the fact that Pamela, being the hard worker that she is was simply overworked. Stress played it's roll on Pamela, she was filming Baywatch in the day and then after 10 hours in the Sun, she'd go to the set of Barb Wire and film some more. I recall days when Pamela would be so tired, her emails would be no more than four or five words. it's amazing she had strength to type at all.
Pamela Anderson filed for divorce twice and reconciled twice, before finally breaking her relationship with Lee. Pamela and super male model Marcus Schenkenberg became an item after her final split from Tommy Lee. Making her divorce from Tommy even more official, she dropped "Lee" from her name in June of 2000. Since, she has become engaged to model Marcus Schenkenberg, broke up with him, and became engaged to rock musician Kid Rock.
A pornographic home video of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee was stolen from their home, and made a huge stir on the Internet. Anderson sued an Internet company which was distributing the video, and some media sources reported that she settled the case for $10 million.
In March, 2001, a woman (Christine Evelyn Roth) pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of trespassing and was deported to her home country, France. The woman had been arrested while sleeping in a guest room of Anderson's home, but she was only charged with trespassing and not the more serious crime of stalking.
In March 2002, Pamela Anderson publicly stated that she had contracted the Hepatitis C virus from Lee (supposedly from sharing tattoo needles), and began writing a regular magazine column. Anderson became the celebrity spokesperson for the American Liver Foundation, and served as the Grand Marshall of the SOS motorcycle ride fundraiser in October. In October 2003, Ms. Anderson jokingly said on Howard Stern's radio show that she does not expect to live more than ten or fifteen years, but this was misconstrued and taken seriously by many Internet sites and tabloids.
Lee denies having the disease and claims this is part of a ploy to take custody of their children.
In 1999, Anderson received the Linda McCartney Award for animal rights protectors.