Pamela Denise Anderson (born July 1, 1967) is a Canadian-born actress, sex symbol, glamour model, producer, TV personality, and author. She holds both American and Canadian citizenship.[1] For a time, she was known as Pamela Anderson Lee after marrying the drummer for Mötley Crüe, Tommy Lee.

Early life

Anderson was born in Ladysmith, British Columbia, 90 km northwest of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, the daughter of Carol, a waitress, and Barry Anderson, a furnace repairman.[2] Her great-grandfather, Juho Hyytiäinen, was Finnish, a native of Saarijärvi, and left Finland in 1908[3] changing his name to Anderson when he arrived as an immigrant. Anderson has Dutch ancestry on her mother's side.[4] The newborn Anderson won fame as Canada's "Centennial Baby", because she was thought to have been the first baby born on Canada's Centennial Day (she was born at 4:08 in the morning). However, the Campbell River Upper Islander of July 5, 1967 reported a baby born two hours earlier on the same Canada Day.[5] After her birth, her parents and her brother, Gerry Anderson, moved to the town of Comox with Pamela.

Career
After graduating from Highland Secondary School in 1985, Anderson moved to Vancouver and worked as a fitness instructor. During the summer of 1989, Pamela went with her friends to a BC Lions game at BC Place; at some point during the game she was shown on the stadium screen wearing a Labatt's t-shirt, causing the crowd to cheer for the 21-year-old Anderson. She was taken down to the field to get an ovation from the crowd. Labatt's immediately offered Anderson a modeling contract and she accepted. In late 1989, Pamela decided to model for Playboy magazine: she appeared on the October 1989 cover (credited as Pamela Anderson Ilicic) and decided to move to Los Angeles to continue her modeling career. She was the February 1990 playmate and has appeared in Playboy several times in the 1990s and the following decade.

Acting and modeling

After her move to Los Angeles, Anderson bleached her brunette hair blonde and underwent breast augmentation. In 1991, she landed a minor role on the United States hit television sitcom, Home Improvement (1991-1997). Having gained viewer attention, she landed the role of C. J. Parker (1992-1997) on Baywatch, and left Home Improvement after its second season. Anderson was still modeling for Outdoor Life and appearing on the cover of the magazine each year....Read more about Pamela Anderson.