Pamela Denise Anderson (born July 1, 1967) is an international television actress, model, and producer known as much for her tumultuous personal life as for her professional accomplishments.
Anderson was born in 1967 in Ladysmith, British Columbia, Canada As the first baby born on Canada's Centennial Day, the newborn Anderson won fame as the nation's "Centennial Baby".
She was subsequently "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.
Anderson's first major television role was on the United States hit television sitcom Home Improvement (1991-1993). But her rise to stardom came primarily from her role as C J Parker (1992-1997) on Baywatch. In 1996, she appeared in a feature film, Barb Wire, which failed to achieve commercial success; and in 1998 she appeared in her own television series, V.I.P., which ran for four seasons.
In addition to her fame from modelling and acting, Anderson has gotten a great deal of press attention for her flamboyant personal life. She married rock star Tommy Lee of the band Mötley Crüe after knowing him for only 96 hours. Anderson filed for divorce twice and reconciled twice, before finally breaking her relationship with Lee. During the period of her marriage, she was known professionally as Pamela Anderson Lee. Since her divorce, she has become engaged to model Marcus Schenkenberg, broken 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. The popularity and profitability of the 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 Internet channels (sometimes with, sometimes without the participants' co-operation).
In March 2001, 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, 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. 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 http://www.pamelaanderson.com/news/news.asp?item=2056, 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.
Anderson became a naturalized citizen of the United States on May 12, 2004, while retaining her Canadian citizenship. She has lived in California since 1989. She is currently a columnist for the Canadian Elle magazine and voices the title character on the animated series Stripperella.
