Connie Booth

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Connie Booth
A black and white image of Booth with a veil on her head.
Booth in 1968
Born (1940-12-02) December 2, 1940 (age 83)
Occupation(s)Writer, actress, psychotherapist
Years active1968–1995
Spouses
(m. 1968; div. 1978)
(m. 2000)
Children1
RelativesBert Lahr (father-in-law), Ed Solomon (former-son-in-law)

Connie Booth (born December 2, 1940[1][a]) 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[edit]

Booth was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on December 2, 1940. Her father was a Wall Street stockbroker and her mother an actress. The family later moved to New York State.[5][6] Booth entered acting and worked as a Broadway understudy and waitress. She met John Cleese while he was working in New York City;[6] they married on February 20, 1968.[7]

Acting career[edit]

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.[8]

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.[9]

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.[8][10] In 1994, she played a supporting role in "The Culex Experiment", an episode of the children's science fiction TV series The Tomorrow People.[11]

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.[12]

Psychotherapy career[edit]

Booth ended her acting career in 1995.[6] After studying for five years at the University of London,[5] she began a career as a psychotherapist, registered with the British Psychoanalytic Council.[5][6][13]

Personal life[edit]

In 1971, Booth and Cleese had a daughter, Cynthia,[5] who appeared alongside her father in the films A Fish Called Wanda and Fierce Creatures. Booth and Cleese divorced in 1978.[2] 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.[14][15]

Booth married John Lahr, author and former New Yorker senior drama critic, in 2000. They live in North London.[6]

Selected filmography and theatrical appearances[edit]

Television[edit]

Year Show Role Notes
1968 How to Irritate People Various characters Television film
1969–1974 Monty Python's Flying Circus Various characters
1972 Dickens of London Sophie
1975, 1979 Fawlty Towers Polly Sherman Also co-creator and writer
1978 Off to Philadelphia in the Morning Jane Parry Television drama
1980 Why Didn't They Ask Evans Sylvia Bassington-ffrench Television film
1982 The Deadly Game Helen Trapp Television film
1983 The Hound of the Baskervilles Laura Lyons Television film
1985 Past Caring Linda Television film
1986 Bergerac Monica McLoed Episode: "Winner Takes All"
1987 The Return of Sherlock Holmes Violet Morstan Television film
1990 Wizadora Wizadora Pilot episode[16]
1994 The Tomorrow People Doctor Lucy Connoe Episode: "The Culex Experiment"
1995 The Buccaneers Miss March

Film[edit]

Year Show Role Notes
1971 And Now for Something Completely Different Various characters
1974 Romance with a Double Bass 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 Little Lord Fauntleroy Mrs Errol
1981 The Story of Ruth Ruth
1987 84 Charing Cross Road the Lady from Delaware
1988 High Spirits Marge
1988 Hawks Nurse Jarvis
1991 American Friends Caroline Hartley
1992 Leon the Pig Farmer Yvonne Chadwick

Theatre[edit]

Year Play Role Theatre
1973–1974 Design for Living Helen Carver Phoenix Theatre, London
1977 The Glass Menagerie Cambridge Arts Theatre
1982–1983 Little Lies Agatha Posket Wyndham's Theatre
1984 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Royal Exchange Theatre
1985–1986 Edmond Royal Court Theatre
1986 The Women Mary National Theatre Studio, Royal National Theatre
1988 An Enemy of the People Katrine Stockmann Young Vic
1990–1991 The Manchurian Candidate Eugenie Cheyney New Vic Theatre
1991–1992 It's Ralph Comedy Theatre
1992–1993 Under the Stars Greenwich Theatre

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ There is speculation about Booth's birth year. Sources have also indicated 1939,[2] 1941,[3][4] and 1944.[5]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Connie Booth". BFI. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Divorce for Cleese". The Glasgow Herald. September 9, 1978. p. 5. Retrieved November 16, 2010.
  3. ^ Walker, John (June 2, 2003). Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies: 3rd edition. London: HarperCollins, p.58. ISBN 0-00-715085-7.
  4. ^ McFarlane, Brian (May 16, 2016). The Encyclopedia of British Film: Fourth edition. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9781526111968 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ a b c d e Smith, Sean. "Don't mention the classic comedy series". Camden New Journal. London Borough of Camden. Archived from the original on January 20, 2004.
  6. ^ a b c d e Milmo, Cahal (May 25, 2007). "Life after Polly: Connie Booth (a case of Fawlty memory syndrome)". The Independent. London, England: Independent Print, Ltd. Archived from the original on May 2, 2008. Retrieved September 8, 2011.
  7. ^ Wilmut, Roger (1980). From Fringe to Flying Circus: Celebrating a Unique Generation of Comedy 1960–1980. North Yorkshire, England: Methuen Publishing. ISBN 0-413-46950-6.
  8. ^ a b "Connie Booth". BFI. March 11, 2016. Archived from the original on December 18, 2022. Retrieved November 9, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  9. ^ Parker, Robin (March 23, 2009). "Gold to reopen Fawlty Towers". Broadcastnow. Archived from the original on March 26, 2009. Retrieved March 23, 2009.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  10. ^ Hayward, Anthony (October 24, 2022). "John Purdie obituary". the Guardian. Retrieved November 9, 2023.
  11. ^ "The Tomorrow People: The Culex Experiment – Part 1". theLogBook.com – The Official Site of What Tomorrow Looked Like Yesterday. January 4, 1994. Retrieved November 9, 2023.
  12. ^ "Theatre News: Production news". The Stage. London. April 14, 1983. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  13. ^ "Fawlty Towers: Where are they now?". UKTV Gold. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved November 21, 2013.
  14. ^ Cate, Hans ten (February 12, 1997). "NEWS 1997_02_12 – John Cleese Shoots Daughter Cynthia". Daily Llama. Archived from the original on September 24, 2018. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  15. ^ "THE SOCIAL SCENE – A Cleese Wedding Held Away From the 'Fawlty' Line / British comedian's daughter marries in the Napa Valley". SFGate. September 18, 1995. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  16. ^ Lee, Jeremy (August 22, 2019). "Campaign loves... summertime telly". Retrieved August 27, 2020.

External links[edit]