Connie Booth

Birthday: 1940-12-02
Birthplace: Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Gender: Female
Owned By: Unowned

Constance "Connie" Booth (born 2 December 1940) is an American writer and actress, known for appearances on British television and particularly for her portrayal of Polly Sherman in the popular 1970s television show 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.

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.

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

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.

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. 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 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

Credits

Year Title Character
2018-01-07 Michael Palin: A Life on Screen
1993-02-26 Leon the Pig Farmer Yvonne Chadwick
1991-04-20 Smack and Thistle Ms Kane
1991-03-22 American Friends Caroline Hartley
1990-01-01 The World of Eddie Weary Madge
1988-11-18 High Spirits Marge
1988-08-05 Hawks Nurse Javis
1987-02-13 84 Charing Cross Road The Lady from Delaware
1987-01-10 The Return of Sherlock Holmes Violet Morstan
1986-11-02 Past Caring Linda
1986-05-05 Rocket to the Moon Belle Stark
1984-01-01 Nairobi Affair Mrs. Gardner
1983-11-03 The Hound of the Baskervilles Laura Lyons
1982-07-22 The Deadly Game Helen Trapp
1982-04-26 The Story of Ruth Ruth Baker
1980-12-01 Little Lord Fauntleroy Mrs. Errol
1980-03-30 Why Didn't They Ask Evans? Sylva Bassington-ffrench
1977-09-18 The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It Mrs. Hudson / Francine Moriarty
1977-09-10 The Mermaid Frolics Various
1977-02-27 Spaghetti Two-Step Sheila
1975-11-04 84 Charing Cross Road Ginny
1975-03-14 Monty Python and the Holy Grail The Witch
1975-01-16 The After Dinner Game Lee-Ann Good
1974-01-01 Romance with a Double Bass Princess Costanza
1973-06-01 Is This a Record? Various
1971-09-28 And Now for Something Completely Different Best Girl
1969-01-21 How to Irritate People Various