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 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
Photos
Films (42)
Fawlty Towers: The Play
2025 · Writer
The Cancellation Of Fawlty Towers
2025
Fawlty Towers: 50 Years of Laughs
2023 · Self
Michael Palin: A Life on Screen
2018
A Good Day to Die, Hoka Hey
2017 · Polly Sherman (archive footage)
Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened
2009 · Self / Polly Sherman
Fawlty Towers Revisited
2005 · Herself
The Funny Blokes of British Comedy
2005 · Polly Sherman (archive footage) (uncredited)
Remember the Secret Policeman's Ball?
2004 · Self
The Best of Monty Python's Flying Circus Volume 2
2004 · Self (archive footage)
The Best of Monty Python's Flying Circus Volume 1
2004 · Self (archive footage)
The Best of Monty Python's Flying Circus Volume 3
2004 · Self (archive footage)
The Monty Python Story
1999 · Self
Monty Python: From Spam to Sperm
1999 · Self
Leon the Pig Farmer
1993 · Yvonne Chadwick
Smack and Thistle
1991 · Ms Kane
American Friends
1991 · Caroline Hartley
The World of Eddie Weary
1990 · Madge
High Spirits
1988 · Marge
Hawks
1988 · Nurse Javis
84 Charing Cross Road
1987 · The Lady from Delaware
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
1987 · Violet Morstan
Past Caring
1986 · Linda
Rocket to the Moon
1986 · Belle Stark
Nairobi Affair
1984 · Mrs. Gardner
The Hound of the Baskervilles
1983 · Laura Lyons
The Deadly Game
1982 · Helen Trapp
The Story of Ruth
1982 · Ruth Baker
Little Lord Fauntleroy
1980 · Mrs. Errol
Why Didn't They Ask Evans?
1980 · Sylva Bassington-ffrench
Thank You, Comrades
1978 · Annie
Snavely
1978 · Creator
The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It
1977 · Mrs. Hudson / Francine Moriarty
The Mermaid Frolics
1977 · Various
Spaghetti Two-Step
1977 · Sheila
84 Charing Cross Road
1975 · Ginny
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
1975 · The Witch
The After Dinner Game
1975 · Lee-Ann Good
Romance with a Double Bass
1974 · Princess Costanza, Adaptation
Is This a Record?
1973 · Various
And Now for Something Completely Different
1971 · Best Girl
How to Irritate People
1969 · Various
Séries (17)
A Life on Screen
2014 · Self
The Buccaneers
1995 · Jackie March
Faith
1994 · Pat Harbinson
For the Greater Good
1991 · Naomi Balliol
Floodtide
1987 · Isabel
Worlds Beyond
1986 · Betty Hewart
American Playhouse
1982 · Belle Stark
Bergerac
1981 · Monica McLeod
Worzel Gummidge
1979 · Aunt Sally II
Dickens of London
1976 · Sophie
The Secret Policeman's Ball
1976 · Self
Fawlty Towers
1975 · Polly Sherman, Writer, Creator
Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus
1972 · Various Characters
Film '72
1971 · Self
Play for Today
1970 · Lee-Ann Good, Ginny
Monty Python's Flying Circus
1969 · Various, Second Juror
ITV Saturday Night Theatre
1969 · Libby