Connie Booth

Connie Booth (born December 2, 1940<ref>"Connie Booth". BFI. Retrieved 13 July 2021.</ref>Template:Efn) 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.<ref name="camden" /><ref name=Independent/> Booth entered acting and worked as a Broadway understudy and waitress. She met John Cleese while he was working in New York City;<ref name=Independent/> they married on February 20, 1968.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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.<ref name="BFI">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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.<ref name="BFI"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1994, she played a supporting role in "The Culex Experiment", an episode of the children's science fiction TV series The Tomorrow People.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Psychotherapy career

Booth ended her acting career in 1995.<ref name=Independent/> After studying for five years at the University of London,<ref name="camden" /> she began a career as a psychotherapist, registered with the British Psychoanalytic Council.<ref name="camden">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=Independent/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Personal life

In 1971, Booth and Cleese had a daughter, Cynthia,<ref name="camden" /> who appeared alongside her father in the films A Fish Called Wanda and Fierce Creatures. Booth and Cleese divorced in 1978.<ref name=divorce>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Booth married John Lahr, author and former New Yorker senior drama critic, in 2000. They live in North London.<ref name=Independent>Template:Cite news</ref>

Selected filmography and theatrical appearances

Television

Year	Show	Role	Notes
1968	How to Irritate People	Various characters	Television film
1969–1974	Monty Python's Flying Circus
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
1983	The Hound of the Baskervilles	Laura Lyons
1985	Past Caring	Linda
1986	Bergerac	Monica McLoed	Episode: "Winner Takes All"
1987	The Return of Sherlock Holmes	Violet Morstan	Television film
1990	Wizadora	Wizadora	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
1994	The Tomorrow People	Doctor Lucy Connoe	Episode: "The Culex Experiment"
1995	The Buccaneers	Miss March	Final role

Film

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

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

External links

• Connie Booth at the British Film Institute
• [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 0095665

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• BBC Comedy Guide entry