Connie Booth

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 cowrote 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 Pythons Flying Circus 196974 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 preMonty 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 Cleeses Sherlock Holmes spoof as Mrs Hudson Booth and Cleese cowrote and costarred 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 Whartons 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 childrens science fiction TV series The Tomorrow People Booth also had a stage career primarily in the London theatre appearing in 10 productions from the mid1970s through the mid1990s notably starring with John Mills in the 19831984 West End production of Little Lies at Wyndhams Theatre