Pamela Stephenson Connolly, née
Stephenson is a New Zealand born, naturalized Australian
actor, psychologist, and former comedienne.
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.
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". |
