Pamela Anderson (born July 1, 1967, Ladysmith,British Columbia, Canada) is a Canadian-born American model and actor who built a career largely based on her sex appeal and who has won praise for herresilience and grace. Her best-known role is as the lifeguard C.J. Parker (1992–97) in the TV seriesBaywatch.

Early life and discovery

Anderson was born to working-class parents in a small town onVancouver Island. She revealed in 2014 that she had suffered extensivesexual abuse as a child and teenager. Anderson graduated fromhigh school in 1985 and moved in 1988 toVancouver, where she worked as a fitness instructor and in a tanning salon. Her modeling career happened by chance: she was attending aCanadian Football League game and wearing a cutoff Labatt’s beer T-shirt when a camera operator scanning the crowd focused on her, projecting her image on the stadium’svideo board. The resulting attention led the beer company to hire her as a model in 1989. This, in turn, led toPlayboy magazine photographing her for the cover of its October 1989 issue.

Playboy andBaywatch

Anderson relocated toLos Angeles as she continued to model forPlayboy, including as a nude centerfold in 1990. She was aPlayboy model for 22 years and appeared on the magazine cover more often than anyone else. She also began anacting career, beginning with a guest appearance on the TV comedyCharles in Charge in 1990. In 1991 she was cast as the “Tool Time Girl” on the popular seriesHome Improvement, and the following year she began her role as a member of the rotating cast ofBaywatch. She quickly became the most popular of the red-swimsuit-clad cast of lifeguards. This led to a series ofmovie roles that similarly relied on her attractiveness rather than character in such films asSnapdragon (1993) andRaw Justice (1994).

In 1994 Anderson met and within a few weeks marriedTommy Lee, drummer for theheavy metal band Mötley Crüe. A videotape of their personal lives, including footage of the couple engaging in sex, was stolen from their home in 1995, and copies quickly became widely available. While she continued to appear onBaywatch and in movies, includingBarb Wire (1996), the so-called sex tape for a time came to overshadow her career and her life. She and Lee divorced in 1998 after he was jailed for spousal abuse following his arrest for striking her.

Later credits

Anderson continued her career in the wake of the sex tape but now appeared more frequently in self-aware parodies. She led the cast of the comedy action seriesV.I.P. (1998–2002). She provided the voice of the lead character of theStan Lee animated seriesStripperella (2003–04), about a stripper superhero, and she starred as a party girl who takes a job in a bookstore in the comedy seriesStacked (2005–06). Andersonreprised her role as C.J. Parker in the movieBaywatch: Hawaiian Wedding (2003) and played a stripper mistaken for an assassin in the comedy filmBlonde and Blonder (2008).

Anderson also appeared in numerousreality TV shows, includingBig Brother andDancing with the Stars. In 2006 Anderson played herself in the parody filmBorat, in whichSacha Baron Cohen portrayed a reporter from Kazakhstan who had seenBaywatch reruns and wanted to find and marry Anderson. In 2022 she performed as Roxie Hart in theBroadway production ofChicago. Two years later she earned praise—and aGolden Globe nomination—for her performance inThe Last Showgirl, about a Las Vegas dancer who learns that her show is closing after 30 years. In 2025 Anderson starred withLiam Neeson inThe Naked Gun, a remake of the 1988 slapstick comedy.

Other activities and personal life

In addition to acting and modeling, Anderson has written a number of books, including two novels based on her experiences,Star: A Novel (2004) andStar Struck: A Novel (2005). She also campaigned foranimal rights, appearing in ads forPETA and engaging in discussions inRussia on animalconservation, and she was an outspoken supporter ofWikiLeaks founderJulian Assange.

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Following her marriage to Tommy Lee (1994–98), Anderson had several brief marriages. She married and divorced singer Kid Rock in 2006, married and divorced actor and poker player Rick Salomon in 2007, married Salomon again in 2014 and divorced him in 2015, and was married to producer Jon Peters for 12 days in 2020. Later that year she wed bodyguard Dan Hayhurst, but the couple divorced in 2022.

In 2022 Anderson was unwillingly shoved into the spotlight with the release of the limited seriesPam & Tommy, dissecting her first marriage. With the support of her two sons from that marriage, Anderson determined to take control of her own story. She wrote a well-receivedautobiography,Love, Pamela: A Memoir of Prose, Poetry, and Truth (2023), and released a documentary about her life,Pamela: A Love Story (2023), for which her son Brandon Thomas Lee served as a producer. Also in 2023 Anderson made headlines with her decision toforgo makeup. That year she said in an interview, “I am much more comfortable in my own skin, but I also am in an industry that really focuses on beauty. And I thought, ‘I’m going to challenge beauty.’”