Pamela Stephenson
Pamela Stephenson Connolly, née Stephenson (born December 4, 1949) is a New Zealand born, naturalized Australian actor, psychologist, and former comedienne, now resident in Beverly Hills, California.
She was born in Takapuna, Auckland.
Comedy and acting
After attending the University of New South Wales and then Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art, from which she graduated in 1971, she pursued a successful acting career in Australia for several years before moving to London in 1976, where she continued to act (theatrically and television). Probably her most widely-recognised role was in the classic 1980s UK comedy television sketch show Not the Nine O'Clock News, alongside Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones.
It was on this programme that she met Billy Connolly, while spoof-interviewing him in the guise of Janet Street-Porter; they married in Fiji on December 20, 1989. Her personal contribution as a comedienne added to the success of Not the Nine O'Clock News, led to a collaboration with comedic/satirist writers Mark Lepine and Mike Leigh which spawned a book, How to be a Complete Bitch, and also a board game of the same name.
She has also featured in such films as Superman III, Bloodbath at the House of Death and Mel Brooks's History of the World Part 1.
She has recorded several singles, including Unusual Treatment, Italian Shoes, I Like Truckin', The Ayatollah Song, Oh Bosanquet, and (probably) Typing Pool as 'Pam and the Paperclips', all (including the latter?) Not the Nine O'Clock News tie-ins.
Psychology
In 1996 she gained a doctorate in clinical psychology from the California Graduate Institute, where she is now an adjunct professor; she also works in private practice in Beverly Hills. She is a highly-regarded researcher in the fields of human sexuality and sex therapy, in particular intersexuality and BDSM. Her psychological background proved useful when she wrote a biography of her husband, Billy, in which she analysed his behaviour and related elements of it to his being sexually abused by his father.
In her capacity as a psychologist and academic, she uses the names "Pamela Connolly" or "P.H. Connolly".
External link
- IMDb entry
- Biography at pamelaconnolly.com (currently incomplete)
- Psychological work