Pamela Anderson

No one rocks a red bathing suit like Pamela Anderson. The former Playboy playmate is one of Hollywood’s enduring sex symbols. Pamela Denise Anderson was born July 1, 1967, in Ladysmith, British Columbia, Canada. Growing up, Pamela didn’t really aspire to be famous. Once she graduated from high school, she moved to Vancouver to work as a fitness instructor. Fate intervened during the summer of 1989 when Pamela was spotted in the stands at a Canadian Football League game wearing a Labatt’s t-shirt. On seeing the crowd’s reaction to the curvy beauty, the beer manufacturer offered her a modeling contract, which she accepted. In 1989, Pamela posed for the first of many covers of Playboy and was later voted Miss February for 1999.

Hoping to boost her career, Pamela moved to Los Angeles and dyed her naturally brunette locks blond. Her big break came playing the ‘Tool Time Girl’ on the ABC sitcom Home Improvement, starring Tim Allen. Pamela stayed with the show for two years until she was offered a role on the swim wear drama Baywatch. Co-starring with David Hasselhoff, the blond bombshell won over viewers as lifeguard C.J. Parker and forever changed the way men saw a red one-piece. In 1995, Pamela Anderson married her first husband, Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee. The videotape of their honeymoon exploits was leaked onto the Internet. The couple sued the video’s distributor, Internet Entertainment Group, and shared $1.5 million in profits. The tape became a runaway best-selling adult title, sparking the celebrity sex tape craze. (A previously recorded tape with Pamela and Poison frontman Bret Michaels surfaced in 1998.) Pamela and Tommy have two sons, Brandon Thomas Lee (born June 6, 1996) and Dylan Jagger Lee (born December 29, 1997). After filing for divorce and attempting reconciliation twice, the couple split for good in 1998, but have been seen looking semi-intimate ever since.

Pamela, hoping to find as much success on the big screen as she did on Baywatch, released her first feature film, the futuristic Barb Wire, in 1996. The flick was a critical and commercial flop. Her follow-up foray into television, the 1998 spy series V.I.P., was reviled by critics, but fans of the pneumatic actress kept the show on the air for four seasons. Proving she’s not just another pretty face, Pamela showed off her literary side, authoring two novels, Star in 2004 and its sequel Star Struck the next year. Pamela Anderson returned to series television with the comedy Stacked, playing a party girl-turned bookstore employee. The show spent two seasons on FOX. The actress took another shot at love when she married rocker/rapper Kid Rock in the summer of 2006 on a yacht in St. Tropez. Their union was turbulent and brief. They split, citing irreconcilable differences, on November 27, 2006. Rumors circulated that Kid was upset about Pamela’s appearance in the film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, where she was the object of Sacha Baron Cohen’s misguided affections.

Refusing to give up on love, Pamela gave marriage yet another try on October 6, 2007. On a break between her two nightly appearances as the lovely assistant to magician Hans Klok at Las Vegas’ Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino, she married Paris Hilton’s ex-boyfriend (and sex tape partner) Rick Salomon. Sadly, on February 22, 2008, Pamela petitioned that the marriage be annulled, citing fraud. Pamela recently teamed with Denise Richards for the poorly received comedy Blonde and Blonder and played superheroine Invisible Girl in 2008’s Superhero Movie. Regardless of whether she’s posing for Playboy or running down a California state beach, Pamela Anderson remains one of America’s hottest blonde bombshells.