Pamela
Denise Anderson was born at 4:08am, July 1, 1967
in Ladysmith, British Columbia, Canada. 1967 was
Canada's centennial year and Pamela was the first
baby born this day in all of Canada earning her
the title "The Centennial Baby". This
earned her an article in the local newspaper,
the Ladysmith-Chemainus Chronicle. The Anderson's
received cash prizes and awards for having the
first baby born in Canada on this day, Canada's
100th Birthday. "That's where it all started"
says Pamela.
Shortly
after that, 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 had small breasts. 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. 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
remarried for fun in silver space suits with friends
there "just because". Going against
the advice of Nick Stevens, her personal manager,
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 will open 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 suffered a miscarriage. She and
Tommy were both devastated but like Tommy said,
"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 Pamela was pregnant again. Tommy and her
were bouncing off the walls! 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 edited in a way that 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.