Connie Booth (born December 2, 1940)"Connie Booth". BFI. Retrieved July 13, 2021. is a retired 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 left acting and worked as a psychotherapist until her retirement.
Early life Booth was born Constance Booth Bollinger in Indianapolis, Indiana, on December 2, 1940. Her father Elmer Edward Bollinger was a Wall Street stockbroker and her mother Virginia Caylor Bollinger was an actress. The family, which included Connie's elder brother Conrad Booth Bollinger, 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.
Acting career Booth appeared in How to Irritate People (1968), a pre–Monty Python film starring Cleese and other future Python members; she went on to secure 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 starred in a German episode of Monty Python, playing the princess, and appeared in a short film entitled 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.
Booth and Cleese co-wrote and co-starred in Fawlty Towers (1975 and 1979), in which she played art student 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.
Booth played many other 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. In 1994, she played a supporting role in "The Culex Experiment", an episode of the children's science fiction TV series The Tomorrow People.
Booth also had a stage career, primarily in the London theatre, appearing in ten productions from the mid-1970s through the mid-1990s, including starring with John Mills in the 1983–1984 West End production of Little Lies at Wyndham's Theatre.
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.
Personal life In 1971, Booth and Cleese had a daughter, Cynthia. Booth and Cleese divorced in 1978 before the second series of Fawlty Towers was finished and aired.
Booth married John Lahr, author and former New Yorker senior drama critic, in 2000.
Selected filmography and theatrical appearances Television Year Show Role Notes 1968 How to Irritate People Various characters Television film1969–1974Monty Python's Flying Circus1972Dickens of LondonSophie1975, 1979Fawlty TowersPolly ShermanAlso co-creator and writer1978 Off to Philadelphia in the Morning Jane Parry Television drama 1980 Why Didn't They Ask Evans Sylvia Bassington-ffrench Television film 1981 Worzel Gummidge Aunt Sally II 1982 The Deadly Game Helen Trapp 1983 The Hound of the Baskervilles Laura Lyons1984Nairobi AffairMrs. Gardner 1985 Past Caring Linda1986BergeracMonica McLoed Episode: "Winner Takes All" 1987 The Return of Sherlock Holmes Violet Morstan Television film1990WizadoraWizadoraPilot episode1994The Tomorrow PeopleDoctor Lucy ConnoeEpisode: "The Culex Experiment" 1995 The Buccaneers Miss MarchFinal role
Film Year Show Role Notes1971And Now for Something Completely DifferentVarious 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 Errol1981The Story of RuthRuth 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 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
References
External links
Connie Booth at the British Film Institute
BBC Comedy Guide entry