'''Pamela Denise Anderson''' (born July 1, 1967) is a Canadian-American television actress, glamour model, producer, TV personality and author. She was formerly known as '''Pamela Anderson Lee'''. Anderson is popularly known for modeling and television acting in the '90s and most notably for her large breast implants. Anderson has been called the sex symbol of the '90s.

Early life

Anderson was born near Ladysmith, British Columbia, Canada, of partially Finnish ancestry (her paternal grandfather, Hermanni Hyytiäinen, from Saarijärvi, left Finland in 1908). As the first baby born on Canada's Centennial Day (well past midnight, at 4:08 in the morning), the newborn Anderson won fame as the nation's "Centennial Baby".Maclean's November 27, 1995 Lee, Pamela Anderson (Profile) Accessed July 30, 2006 After her birth, her parents Barry and Carol Anderson moved to the town of Comox with Pamela, who was still a baby.

Career

In 1985, Anderson graduated from Highland Secondary School. In her high school yearbook, she wrote that she wanted to be a California beach bum. In 1988, Anderson moved to the city of Vancouver, where she got the taste of a city life and worked as a fitness instructor. During the summer of 1989, Anderson and her friends went to a Canadian football game. At some point during the game, Anderson was shown on the stadium screen. The crowd at the game cheered for the young Anderson, then 21. Anderson was taken to the field to get an ovation from the crowd.

During the game, Anderson wore a Labatt's t-shirt. The beer company offered Anderson a modeling contract and she agreed. Soon, Anderson was on posters in every bar in Canada. In late 1989, Pamela decided to model for ''Playboy'' magazine. She appeared on the October 1989 cover (credited as Pamela Anderson Ilicic) and decided to move to Los Angeles to continue her modeling career.

Acting and modeling

After her move to Los Angeles, Anderson dyed her hair blonde and got breast implants to enhance her look. In 1991, Anderson landed a minor role on the United States hit television sitcom ''Home Improvement'' (1991-1993). Gaining the attention of viewers, she got the role of C.J. Parker (1992-1997) on ''Baywatch''.

Later, she quit ''Home Improvement''. Anderson was still modeling for ''Playboy'' and appearing on the cover of the magazine each year. Her role as C.J. Parker gave Anderson more popularity and attention from international viewers.
In 1996, she appeared in a feature film, ''Barb Wire'', as a character known as Barbara Rose Kopetski, which was mistakenly thought by some to have been her real name. The movie failed to achieve commercial success. During the filming of ''Barb Wire'', Anderson suffered a miscarriage.

In April 1997, Anderson guest-hosted ''Saturday Night Live.'' During the beginning of the show, Anderson said, "You know, if you're nervous on stage, you actually should BE naked!" She then began a striptease. Her unmentionables, however, were covered by a small flesh-colored bra and a crotch patch that was also flesh colored (though they were still blurred out for the sake of the joke). The segment became fodder for late-night comedians for the following weeks. She also appeared on one of two covers for the September issue of ''Playboy''; the other cover pictured Jenny McCarthy.

In September 2000, Anderson starred in her produced series ''V.I.P.''. The show was very poorly received and a critical bomb. However, with enough people tuning in to just see Pamela Anderson, the show lasted four seasons before being cancelled in 2002.

On April 15, 1999, Anderson stunned the world by removing her breast implants. Many were shocked and wondered how Anderson's career could go on without big breasts, as they had been a staple and stepping stone for much of her life. Anderson stated that she needed to dedicate her time by raising her children and modeling less.

In March 2001, Christine Evelyn Roth was arrested while sleeping in a guest room of Anderson's home. She was only charged with the misdemeanor of trespassing and not the more serious crime of stalking. Roth pled guilty to the charge of trespassing and was deported to her home country, France.
In 2004, Anderson returned to the world. In May, Anderson appeared naked on the cover of ''Playboy'' magazine. It was the first time she appeared naked on any magazine cover. Later, she posed naked for ''Stuff'' magazine and ''GQ'' magazines. Many noticed that her breast size was larger than her pictorials from 2003-2004.

Anderson became a naturalized citizen of the United States on May 12, 2004, while retaining her Canadian citizenship, for the purpose of sponsoring her parents (or at least her mother) for a green card. She has lived in southern California since 1989.

Anderson has often spoken revealingly about her private life. On a visit to the David Letterman show in 2004, she said she had not been dating for some time, and when Letterman asked her how she was coping, she responded, "There's not a square corner left anywhere in my house!" Letterman left that comment unanswered while the audience hooted.

In 2004, Pamela Anderson released the book ''Star'', co-written by author Eric Shaw Quinn, in which she describes a young teenager doing different things in order to reach fame. After this, she began touring across the States, signing autographs to fans at Wal-Mart stores nationwide.

Her second book, a sequel, ''Star Struck'', released in 2005, is a thinly veiled look at her life with Tommy Lee and the travails of celebrity life.

In January 2005, Anderson confessed that she got new breast implants. Anderson said that she didn't feel like herself and decided to get them back. Anderson also claimed that the new breast implants were bigger than her old implants that she took out in 1999.

In April 2005, Anderson starred in a new FOX sitcom ''Stacked'' as Skyler Dayton, a party girl (with implants) who goes to work at a bookstore.''Stacked'' was cancelled on May 18th, 2006, but the show ran until the end of the 2nd season.

She produced a statement in late 2005 saying "I am the greatest slut..." obviously speaking her openness about sex and her opinions in free sex. During summer 2005, (August 14, 2005) Comedy Central created the ''Roast of Pamela Anderson'' to honor the sex symbol for the past decade.

In December 2005, NBC cut off a video of Anderson pole dancing topless on Elton John's The Red Piano. NBC said that the footage was inappropriate for primetime. The video was shown on huge screens during the event, while John was playing a song. Anderson was topless, but stars were painted on her breasts.

In March 2006, it was announced that Anderson would receive a star on Canada's Walk of Fame thanks to her many years as a model and actress. She is only the second model to receive a star. In April, Anderson hosted Canada's Juno Awards. She became the first non-singer and model to host the awards.

Pamela Anderson will be making a cameo appearance in the film ''Borat''.

Personal life

In addition to her fame from modeling and acting, Anderson has gotten a great deal of press attention for her well-publicized personal life.

Her relationships have made headlines in gossip magazines for years. She married Tommy Lee, drummer of Mötley Crüe, on February 19, 1995 after knowing him for only 96 hours and eventually bore him two sons, Brandon and Dylan. During this time, she was known professionally as '''Pamela Anderson Lee''. After reported incidents of spousal abuse and alcoholism on the part of Lee, Anderson filed for divorce from him twice and reconciled with him twice, before the couple finally broke up for good. In March 2002, Anderson publicly stated that she had contracted the Hepatitis C virus from Lee (supposedly from sharing tattoo needles), and began writing a regular column for ''Jane'' magazine. In October 2003, Anderson jokingly said on Howard Stern's radio show that she does not expect to live more than ten or fifteen years (see http://web.archive.org/web/20041029141238/www.pamelaanderson.com/news/news.asp?item=2056), but this was misconstrued and taken seriously by many Web sites and tabloids. Lee denies having the disease. Today, Anderson and Lee are just friends.

Anderson has also had relationships with Scott Baio, ''"Baywatch"'' co-star David Charvet, and musician Bret Michaels of the band Poison. She has also allegedly has had affairs with celebrities including Sylvester Stallone, Dean Cain, surfer Kelly Slater, John Travolta's nephew Rikki Lee Travolta, Ben Affleck, Fred Durst, reality TV star Eric Nies, Stephen Dorff and former Formula One driver Eddie Irvine. She has also dated Welsh T4 presenter, Steve Jones and remains close friends with him.
A pornographic home video of Anderson and Tommy Lee was stolen from their home, and made a huge stir on the Internet. Anderson sued the company, the Internet Entertainment Group, that was distributing the video. Ultimately the courts awarded Anderson and Lee $1.5 million plus attorney fees for their share of the profits.http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0226/nc-anderson.shtml

A second tape, which was made before the Tommy Lee tape involving Anderson and musician Bret Michaels from Poison was later distributed on the Internet. Frames of the video first appeared in ''Penthouse'' magazine in March, 1998. The popularity and profitability of the Anderson and Tommy Lee video sparked a miniature genre within the porn film industry and since then many homemade porn videos of celebrities have been released to the public through home video and Web channels (either with or without the participants' co-operation).

Since her divorce, she has become engaged to both Marcus Schenkenberg and Kid Rock. She broke up with Schenkenberg in 2001, and broke up with Kid Rock in 2003. It was announced on July 18, 2006 that she would marry Kid Rock on July 29, 2006 on a yacht near St. Tropez, France. "Feels like I've been stuck in a time warp," said Anderson in her blog entry. "Not able to let go of MY family picture ... it's been sad and lonely and frustrating ... I've raised my kids alone in hope of a miracle. Well my miracle came and went. And came back and back because he knew that I'd wake up one day and realize that I was waiting for nothing." "I'm moving on," she declared. "I feel like I'm finally free ... I'm in love." There was extensive unconfirmed media speculation that the marriage is pregnancy-related, but the theory was based only on Anderson's representatives refusal to comment on the question. http://www.pattayadailynews.com/shownews.php?IDNEWS=0000000731

She put her Malibu, California, home up for sale in order to move to a more private location. In an interview with Gavriel Maynard, Anderson stated "I dont know why people consider me stupid, I'm actually really smart."

Anderson has a small bald patch on her scalp due to an injury involving the removal of a brunette wig. http://abstracts.net/pamela-anderson/pamela-september.html

Charitable work and activism

Anderson is a vegetarian, an advocate for animal rights, and an active member of the animal protection organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), taking part in many several campaigns for animal rights.

One of Anderson's campaigns as a member of PETA has been against the use of fur. In 1999, Anderson received the first Linda McCartney Memorial Award for animal rights protectors, in recognition of her campaign against fur. In 2003, Anderson stripped down for PETA's "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" advertising campaign. On June 28, 2006, Anderson posed naked with other protesters on a window display of the Stella McCartney boutique in London, England. It was a PETA gala event before the PETA Humanitarian Awards. Anderson went inside the boutique and said she would take her clothes off if the event raised enough money for PETA, which it did. She took off her clothes and went to stand on a pedestal at the window display. Of course, Anderson covered her breasts. They wore a banner that read:We'd rather bare skin than wear skin." The event sparked a media frenzy in London. http://www.thesuperficial.com/2006/06/29/pamela_anderson_bares_skin.html#comment-81245

She has also actively campaigned against Kentucky Fried Chicken. In 2001, Anderson released a letter in support of PETA's campaign against Kentucky Fried Chicken; stating, "What KFC does to 750 million chickens, each year, is not civilized or acceptable." She later made a video about KFC's treatment of chickens. http://www.KentuckyFriedCruelty.com In January 2006, Anderson requested that the Governor of Kentucky remove a bust of Colonel Sanders, the founder of KFC, from display but her request was denied, even when she offered her own bust in exchange. In February 2006, Anderson decided to boycott the Kentucky Derby because of its support for Kentucky Fried Chicken.

In addition, she has campaigned against seal hunting in her native Canada. In March of 2006, Anderson asked to speak to Prime Minister Stephen Harper about the annual seal hunt. Her request was denied. In May of 2006, Pamela Anderson petitioned random individuals on the street for their opinion on the Canadian Seal Hunt.

Anderson became the celebrity spokesperson for the American Liver Foundation, and served as the Grand Marshall of the SOS motorcycle ride fundraiser.

Work

Film

*''The Taking of Beverly Hills'' (1991)
*''Good Cop Bad Cop'' (1993)
*''Snapdragon'' (1993)
*''Raw Justice'' (1994)
*''Naked Souls'' (1995)
*''Barb Wire'' (1996)
*''The Making of Bret Michaels'' (2002) (documentary)
*''Scooby-Doo'' (2002) (Cameo)
*''Earthlings'' (2003) (documentary)
*''Pauly Shore Is Dead'' (2003)
*''Scary Movie 3'' (2003)
*''No Rules'' (2005) (Cameo)

Television

*''Home Improvement'' (cast member from 1991-1993)
*''Baywatch'' (cast member from 1992-1997)
*''Come Die with Me: A Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer Mystery'' (1994)
*''V.I.P.'' (1998-2002) (also executive producer)
*''Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding'' (2003)
*''Stripperella'' (2003-2004) (voice)
*''Stacked'' (2005-2006)
*Has guest starred on the cartoon ''Futurama'' twice. Once as herself and another doing a one line cameo.
*Featured in the video for Kanye West's "Touch The Sky".

Appearances in Playboy special editions

Anderson has appeared 11 times on the cover of ''Playboy'' magazine (1989-2004), more than anyone else in the magazine's history.

*''Playboy's '''Playmate Review''''' Vol. 7 June 1991.
*''Playboy's '''Nudes''''' December 1991 - cover.
*''Playboy's '''International Playmates''''' January 1992.
*''Playboy's '''Girls of Summer '92''''' June 1992.
*''Playboy's '''Girls of Summer '93''''' June 1993 - pages 6-7, 44.
*''Playboy's '''Wet & Wild Women''''' July 1993.
*''Playboy's '''Video Playmates''''' August 1993.
*''Playboy's '''Book of Lingerie''''' Vol. 33 September 1993.
*''Playboy's '''Book of Lingerie''''' Vol. 34 November 1993.
*''Playboy's '''Book of Lingerie''''' Vol. 35 January 1994.
*''Playboy's '''Book of Lingerie''''' Vol. 36 March 1994.
*''Playboy's '''Playmates in Paradise''''' March 1994 - pages 38-43.
*''Playboy's '''Book of Lingerie''''' Vol. 37 May 1994.
*''Playboy's '''Girls of Summer '94''''' June 1994.
*''Playboy's '''Book of Lingerie''''' Vol. 38 July 1994.
*''Playboy's '''Nudes''''' November 1994.
*''Playboy's '''Hot Denim Daze''''' May 1995 - page 15.
*''Playboy's '''Nude Celebrities''''' June 1995 - cover.
*''Playboy's '''Sexy 100''''' February 2003 - cover.

In the original ''Playboy'' spread, one of Pamela's poses was a little more revealing than ''Playboy'' normally provides. In subsequent reprintings in Newstand Specials, as well as in a mass-market poster, that area was airbrushed.

Pro wrestling

*During an appearance at the World Wrestling Federation's Royal Rumble in 1995, Anderson promised that she'd accompany the winner of the Royal Rumble to WrestleMania. Pamela returned for her appearance at the World Wrestling Federation's Wrestlemania XI on April 2, 1995, as the guest valet for WWF World Heavyweight Champion Diesel. Diesel wrestled Shawn Michaels, who had been accompanied to the ring by Jenny McCarthy. After pinning Michaels, Diesel left with both Anderson ''and'' McCarthy.
*In anticipation of her appearance at the Royal Rumble, several skits featured wrestlers fawning over Pamela were produced. One commercial featured Pamela coming home and checking her answering machine. As Pamela strips down behind a curtain, messages from wrestlers such as Shawn Michaels, Diesel, and Doink the Clown can be heard.
*At the 2006 Canada's Walk Of Fame, Anderson shared a kiss with professional wrestler Trish Stratus.

References

External links

* Official site
* Pamela Anderson Video
vi:Pamela Anderson

For more information about Pamela Anderson, please visit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_Anderson

Biography courtesy of the brilliant Wikipedia!