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Fame at such an early stage comes for very few as it was for Pamela Anderson. The story of fame started for her as soon as she was born. Luckily she was the first baby to be born on Canada's one-hundredth birthday, earning her the title of The Centennial Baby. Her parents were awarded with cash prize too.
Once again she was brought to limelight when 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.
her parents Barry, a furnace repairman and Carol, a waitress, moved to Comox, British Columbia where they purchased a large six bedroom house on Douglas Street. Comox is about 200 kilometers north of Vancouver, British Columbia and it was there one day in a library that Pamela's modeling career would start. Pamela was sitting listening to a story with about one hundred other children when a photographer captured a picture of her that won the hearts of all that saw viewed it. It was quickly copyrighted and placed in all the libraries in British Columbia.
Pamela'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 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.
The Playboy spread generated activity on Pamela's career agenda. She had small parts on shows such as Fox's "Married with Children" and in 1991, she got the part of "Lisa", the "Tool-Time-Girl" on ABC Television's "Home Improvement". Luck wasn't finished playing a part in Pamela's life though, David Hasslehoff was a fan of the show and when he saw Pamela in the role of "Lisa", he knew he'd found his new lifeguard for his then-new series "Baywatch". C.J. Parker (Pamela's character name on Baywatch) was born. Pamela immediately jumped at the idea of Baywatch and she says that the character of C.J. (short for Casey Jean) and herself are very similar. Her grandfather Herman, a immigrant from Finland always taught Pamela to believe in "New Age Thinking", crystals, meditation and dream interpretation. C.J., according to Baywatch, has the same views.
Pamela has starred in several other roles outside of Baywatch including an unaccredited role in the 1992 flop, "The Taking of Beverly Hills". After that, she went on to star as "Felicity" in the thriller "Snapdragon". This one is highly recommended if you're a Pam fanatic. In 1994, she played the part of "Sarah" in the HBO movie "Raw Justice" with close friend of the Lee's David Keith. Mickey Spillane's detective series, "Mike Hammer" came calling later that year and Pamela found herself playing the very beautiful "Velda". 1995 came and Pamela played a quirky sculptor/artist in the TV movie, "The Evolution of Mr. E.", adapted from the H.G. Wells book of the same name.
1995 held other surprises as well for Pamela, one of which was a husband! On New Year's evening in 1994, Pamela was attending a party in New York where she met Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee. He came right up to her and licked her face! They talked off and on and after he begged her several times for her phone number, she finally gave in and let him have it. Tommy called Pamela over and over again for the next few weeks trying to arrange a date and in the first week of February 1995, he succeeded only to be cancelled on at the last moment. He wasn't about to give up on Pamela though, she'd been called away to Cancun, Mexico to do a photo shoot for her sun-tan lotion line and Tommy, determined to win over Pamela at any cost, followed her.
After four days of courting and endless parties, the two were married on a beach. Pamela wearing a white bikini and Tommy wearing a set of shorts. After returning to L.A., they had wedding rings tattooed on their fingers. Pamela's says "Tommy's" and Tommy's says "Pamela's". The got re-married for fun in silver space suits with friends there "just because".
Going against the advice of Nick Stevens, her personal manager at the time, Pamela accepted the role to play futuristic bounty hunter Barb Wire for Dark Horse Comics and Gramercy Pictures (Polygram in the UK). He thought it would be a tremendous mistake but Pamela thought otherwise and May 3rd, 1996, Barb Wire opened in 1500 theatres across the United States. The soundtrack to Barb Wire features a song Tommy wrote called "Planet Boom". If you like heavier music, this CD is the one to buy!. It's amazing.
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.
October 15th 1995 was a great day around here at the offices of Pamwatch. We received word before anyone else (media wise) that Pamela was pregnant again. Tommy and Pam were bouncing off the walls! If you can believe how devoted this woman is to her fans, she emailed us using her portable Apple PowerBooks from her hospital bed. Reports came in Monday from the media that Pamela tried to kill herself but it wasn't until Wednesday that word slipped out that she was pregnant.
In December of 1995, The Lee's were invited to England to spend the holidays by the U.K. newspaper "The Sun". Amazingly, they accepted the invitation. What was amazing about it is that "The Sun" is one of the worst "tabloid" type papers in the U.K. but Pamela and Tommy thought if they gave them an exclusive interview, then maybe they'd leave them alone for awhile. They were wrong. The paper printed the interview all right.. but it'd been doctored up to make it look like all that was talked about was sex! Leave it to the tabloids to have a perfect opportunity to print the truth but rather than take that opportunity, they lie!
While in England, Pamela and Tommy traveled with their close friend and personal assistant, Jon Roberts. They had a blast, Pamela was buying every fluffy hat she could find and the candles... ha! The candles are another story. She got in trouble trying to make the Queen's Guard lose their concentration. Tommy told us she was doing a good job until the Police broke it up. December 27th 1995 was spent in Venice, Italy where Tommy and Pamela renewed their wedding vows.
On Tuesday November 19, 1996, Pamela filed for divorce from husband Tommy Lee. Pamela plans on returning to her maiden name in the near future.
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