Pamela Stephenson
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Pamela Stephenson (also known as Pamela Stephenson Connolly), (born December 4, 1949 in Takapuna, Auckland) is a New Zealand-Australian actress, psychologist, and former comedian, now resident in Beverly Hills, California.
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[edit] 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, Stephenson pursued a successful acting career in Australia for several years before moving to London in 1976, where she continued to act (theatrically and in 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 Scottish comedian Billy Connolly, whom she married in 1989. 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.
Her personal contribution as a comedienne added to the success of Not The Nine O'Clock News and led to a collaboration with comedic/satirist writers Mark Lepine and Mike Leigh. This spawned a book, How To Be A Complete Bitch, and a board game.
She has also featured in the American sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (1984-1985), becoming the first SNL castmember to be born outside of North America (the second is Horatio Sanz). She has appeared in such films as Superman III, Bloodbath At The House Of Death and Mel Brooks's History Of The World Part 1.
[edit] Recurring characters on SNL
- Angela Bradleigh (Weekend Update commentator)
[edit] Celebrity impersonations on SNL
- Madonna, in a fake commercial parodying the singer's "Lucky Star" music video.
- Billy Idol
- Debby Douillard
- Peggy Ashcroft
- Joan Collins
- Cyndi Lauper
[edit] Celebrity impersonations on Not The Nine O'Clock News
- Kate Bush, in a song called "Oh England My Leotard".
- Janet Street Porter
[edit] 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, and for a time hosted the short-lived Australian television series Sex (also hosted by Sophie Lee). 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".
[edit] Personal life
Initially married to actor Nicholas Ball, she met Scottish comedian Billy Connolly when spoof-interviewing him in the guise of Janet Street-Porter on the TV series "Not The Nine O'Clock News". They married in Fiji on December 20, 1989, and have three children: Daisy (b. 1983), Amy (b. 1986) and Scarlett (b. 1988).
She is a practising Buddhist[1]
Her sister Leslie is an opera singer in Switzerland
[edit] Travels
In late 2004, she sold her house in California and spent a year on a sailing cruise around the South Pacific Ocean, following the path of Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Stevenson. Although not related to either, she said she was inspired by Fanny (also married to a Scotsman) who had convinced her husband to travel to the tropics for the sake of his fragile health. Her travels were documented in her book, "Treasure Islands." The boat she bought was re-christened "Takapuna" after her birthplace.
A year later, she went on another voyage to discover the fate of an ancestor, a sailing captain who had disappeared in the South Seas. The voyage was the subject of a documentary for Australian television, "Murder or Mutiny."
[edit] Books
- Stephenson, Pamela, Billy, Overlook Hardcover, 2002, ISBN 1-58567-308-0
- Stephenson, Pamela, Bravemouth: Living with Billy Connolly, Headline Book Publishing, 2003, ISBN 0-7553-1284-8
- Stephenson, Pamela, Treasure Islands: Sailing the South Seas in the Wake of Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson, Headline Book Publishing, 2005, ISBN 0-7553-1285-6
- Stephenson, Pamela, Murder or Mutiny, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006, ISBN 1-84188-270-4
