:Connie Booth
{{short description|American writer and actress (born 1940)}}
{{for|the businesswoman|Connie Booth (business executive)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Connie Booth
| image = Connie Booth.jpg
| alt = A black and white image of Booth with a veil on her head.
| caption = Booth in 1968
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1940|12|2}}
| birth_place = Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.
| occupation = Writer, actress, psychotherapist
| years_active = 1968–1995
| spouse = {{plainlist|
- {{marriage|John Cleese|1968|1978|reason=divorced}}
- {{marriage|John Lahr|2000}}
}}
| children = 1
| relatives = Bert Lahr (father-in-law), Ed Solomon (former-son-in-law)
}}
Connie Booth (born December 2, 1940[https://web.archive.org/web/20160311174538/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba09afd6f "Connie Booth"]. BFI. Retrieved 13 July 2021.{{efn|There is speculation about Booth's birth year. Sources have also indicated 1939, 1941,Walker, John (June 2, 2003). Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies: 3rd edition. London: HarperCollins, p.58. {{ISBN|0-00-715085-7}}.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V7vPDQAAQBAJ&q=connie+booth+1941+indianapolis&pg=RA1-PA1910|title=The Encyclopedia of British Film: Fourth edition|first=Brian|last=McFarlane|date=May 16, 2016|publisher=Oxford University Press|via=Google Books|isbn=9781526111968}} and 1944.}}) is an American actress and writer. She has appeared in several British television programmes and films, including her role as Polly Sherman on BBC Two's Fawlty Towers, which she co-wrote with her then-husband John Cleese. In 1995, she quit acting and worked as a psychotherapist until her retirement.
Early life
Booth was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on December 2, 1940. Her father was a Wall Street stockbroker and her mother was an actress. The family later moved to New York State. Booth entered acting and worked as a Broadway understudy and waitress. She met John Cleese while he was working in New York City; they married on February 20, 1968.{{cite book|first1=Roger|last1=Wilmut|title=From Fringe to Flying Circus: Celebrating a Unique Generation of Comedy 1960–1980|publisher=Methuen Publishing|location=North Yorkshire, England|date=1980|isbn=0-413-46950-6}}
Acting career
Booth secured parts in episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969–74) and in the Python films And Now for Something Completely Different (1971) and Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975, as a woman accused of being a witch). She also appeared in How to Irritate People (1968), a pre-Monty Python film starring Cleese and other future Monty Python members; a short film titled Romance with a Double Bass (1974) which Cleese adapted from a short story by Anton Chekhov; and The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It (1977), Cleese's Sherlock Holmes spoof, as Mrs. Hudson.{{cite web | title=Connie Booth | website=BFI | date=2016-03-11 | url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba09afd6f | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221218072452/https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba09afd6f | archive-date=2022-12-18 | url-status=unfit | access-date=2023-11-09}}
Booth and Cleese co-wrote and co-starred in Fawlty Towers (1975 and 1979), in which she played waitress and chambermaid Polly. For thirty years Booth declined to talk about the show until she agreed to participate in a documentary about the series for the digital channel Gold in 2009.{{Cite news|author=Parker, Robin|date=March 23, 2009|url=http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/2009/03/gold_to_reopen_fawlty_towers.html|title=Gold to reopen Fawlty Towers|work=Broadcastnow|access-date=March 23, 2009|url-status=deviated|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326081807/http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/2009/03/gold_to_reopen_fawlty_towers.html|archive-date=March 26, 2009}}
Booth played various roles on British television, including Sophie in Dickens of London (1976), Mrs. Errol in a BBC adaptation of Little Lord Fauntleroy (1980) and Miss March in a dramatisation of Edith Wharton's The Buccaneers (1995). She also starred in the lead role of a drama called The Story of Ruth (1981), in which she played the role of the schizophrenic daughter of an abusive father.{{cite web | last=Hayward | first=Anthony | title=John Purdie obituary | website=the Guardian | date=2022-10-24 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/oct/24/john-purdie-obituary | access-date=2023-11-09}} In 1994, she played a supporting role in "The Culex Experiment", an episode of the children's science fiction TV series The Tomorrow People.{{cite web | title=The Tomorrow People: The Culex Experiment – Part 1 | website=theLogBook.com – The Official Site of What Tomorrow Looked Like Yesterday | date=1994-01-04 | url=https://www.thelogbook.com/2moro2-201/ | access-date=2023-11-09}}
Booth also had a stage career, primarily in the London theatre, appearing in 10 productions from the mid-1970s through the mid-1990s, notably starring with John Mills in the 1983–1984 West End production of Little Lies at Wyndham's Theatre.{{Cite news |author= |date=14 April 1983 |title=Theatre News: Production news |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001180/19830414/019/0032 |work=The Stage |location=London |access-date= 8 November 2023}}
Psychotherapy career
Booth ended her acting career in 1995. After studying for five years at the University of London, she began a career as a psychotherapist, registered with the British Psychoanalytic Council.{{Cite web |url=http://www.camdennewjournal.co.uk/archive/f231003_1.htm |title=Don't mention the classic comedy series |last=Smith |first=Sean |website=Camden New Journal |location=London Borough of Camden |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040120230617/http://www.camdennewjournal.co.uk/archive/f231003_1.htm |archive-date=January 20, 2004 |url-status=dead}}{{cite web |url=http://gold.uktv.co.uk/fawlty-towers/article/fawlty-towers-where-are-they-now/ |publisher=UKTV Gold |title=Fawlty Towers: Where are they now? |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203034053/http://gold.uktv.co.uk/fawlty-towers/article/fawlty-towers-where-are-they-now/ |archive-date=December 3, 2013 |url-status=dead |access-date=November 21, 2013 }}
Personal life
In 1971, Booth and Cleese had a daughter, Cynthia, who appeared alongside her father in the films A Fish Called Wanda and Fierce Creatures. Booth and Cleese divorced in 1978.{{Cite news|title=Divorce for Cleese|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=PwI-AAAAIBAJ&pg=4335,1935462|access-date=November 16, 2010|newspaper=The Glasgow Herald |date=September 9, 1978 | page = 5}} With Cleese, Booth wrote the scripts for and co-starred in both series of Fawlty Towers, although the two were actually divorced before the second series was finished and aired. Their daughter Cynthia married screenwriter Ed Solomon in 1995.{{cite web | last=Cate | first=Hans ten | title=NEWS 1997_02_12 – John Cleese Shoots Daughter Cynthia | website=Daily Llama | date=February 12, 1997 | url=http://www.dailyllama.com/news/1997/llama062.html | access-date=March 3, 2019 | archive-date=September 24, 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180924184151/http://www.dailyllama.com/news/1997/llama062.html | url-status=dead }}{{cite web | title=THE SOCIAL SCENE – A Cleese Wedding Held Away From the 'Fawlty' Line / British comedian's daughter marries in the Napa Valley | website=SFGate | date=September 18, 1995 | url=https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/THE-SOCIAL-SCENE-A-Cleese-Wedding-Held-Away-3024670.php | access-date=March 3, 2019}}
Booth married John Lahr, author and former New Yorker senior drama critic, in 2000. They live in North London.{{Cite news|last=Milmo | first= Cahal | title = Life after Polly: Connie Booth (a case of Fawlty memory syndrome) | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/life-after-polly-connie-booth-a-case-of-fawlty-memory-syndrome-450289.html|work=The Independent|publisher=Independent Print, Ltd.|location=London, England|date=May 25, 2007|access-date=September 8, 2011 |url-status=dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080502123852/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/life-after-polly-connie-booth-a-case-of-fawlty-memory-syndrome-450289.html | archive-date=May 2, 2008}}
Selected filmography and theatrical appearances
=Television=
| class="wikitable" |
| style="background:#b0c4de; text-align:center;"
! Year ! Show ! Role ! Notes |
| 1968
| Various characters | Television film |
| 1969–1974
|Various characters | |
| 1972
| Sophie | |
| 1975, 1979
|Also co-creator and writer |
| 1978
| Off to Philadelphia in the Morning | Jane Parry | Television drama |
| 1980
| Sylvia Bassington-ffrench | Television film |
| 1982
| Helen Trapp | Television film |
| 1983
| The Hound of the Baskervilles | Laura Lyons | Television film |
| 1985
| Past Caring | Linda | Television film |
| 1986
|Monica McLoed | Episode: "Winner Takes All" |
| 1987
| The Return of Sherlock Holmes | Violet Morstan | Television film |
| 1990
|Wizadora |
| 1994
|Doctor Lucy Connoe |Episode: "The Culex Experiment" |
| 1995
| Miss March |Final role |
=Film=
| class="wikitable" |
| style="background:#b0c4de; text-align:center;"
! Year ! Show ! Role ! Notes |
| 1971
|And Now for Something Completely Different |Various characters | |
| 1974
| Princess Costanza | |
| 1975
| Monty Python and the Holy Grail | The Witch | |
| 1977
| The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It | Mrs Hudson / Francine Moriarty | |
| 1980
| Mrs Errol | |
| 1981
|The Story of Ruth |Ruth | |
| 1987
| the Lady from Delaware | |
| 1988
| Marge | |
| 1988
| Hawks | Nurse Jarvis | |
| 1991
| Caroline Hartley | |
| 1992
| Yvonne Chadwick | |
=Theatre=
| class="wikitable" |
| style="background:#b0c4de; text-align:center;"
! Year ! Play ! Role ! Theatre |
| 1973–1974
| Helen Carver |
| 1977
| |
| 1982–1983
| Little Lies | Agatha Posket |
| 1984
| |
| 1985–1986
| Edmond | |
| 1986
| Mary | National Theatre Studio, Royal National Theatre |
| 1988
| Katrine Stockmann |
| 1990–1991
| The Manchurian Candidate | Eugenie Cheyney |
| 1991–1992
| It's Ralph | |
| 1992–1993
| Under the Stars | |
Notes
{{notelist}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category|Connie Booth}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20160311174538/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba09afd6f Connie Booth] at the British Film Institute
- {{IMDb name|0095665}}
- [https://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/people/connie_booth_person_page.shtml BBC Comedy Guide entry]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Booth, Connie}}
Category:20th-century American women writers
Category:21st-century American women writers
Category:20th-century American comedians
Category:21st-century American comedians
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:21st-century American actresses
Category:Actresses from Indianapolis
Category:Actresses from London
Category:Actresses from New Rochelle, New York
Category:Alumni of the Open University
Category:American expatriate actresses
Category:American expatriates in England
Category:American psychotherapists
Category:American television actresses
Category:American women comedians
Category:American women television writers
Category:American television writers
Category:Comedians from Indianapolis
Category:Comedians from London
Category:Comedians from New York (state)
Category:Scientists from London
Category:Scientists from New Rochelle, New York
Category:Screenwriters from New York (state)