Pamela Mason

Pamela Helen Mason (née Ostrer; 10 March 1916 – 29 June 1996), also known during her career as Pamela Kellino, was an English actress, author and screenwriter. She was the creative partner and first wife of the actor James Mason.

Born Pamela Helen Ostrer in either Westgate-on-Sea, Kent, or Southend-on-Sea, Essex, Mason was the daughter of Helen (née Spear-Morgan) and Isidore Ostrer, a wealthy Jewish industrialist and banker who became president of the Gaumont British Picture Corporation in the early 1920s. Pamela left school at age 9, and married cinematographer Roy Kellino at age 18 in 1934, thereafter taking the name "Pamela Kellino".

In 1935, Pamela Kellino met actor James Mason on the set of his second film, Troubled Waters, on which her husband was working as a cinematographer. James Mason and Kellino were quickly attracted to each other. Mason became close friends with both Kellinos, moved in with them, and collaborated with them on several stage and screen projects, culminating in the 1938 film I Met a Murderer, in which he and Kellino played lovers on the run. Shortly afterwards, Roy Kellino divorced Pamela, naming James Mason as co-respondent, and she married Mason in 1940. Roy Kellino remained on friendly terms with the Masons and directed their later films Lady Possessed and Charade. After her divorce and remarriage, Pamela Mason continued to use the name "Pamela Kellino" for some years in her acting and writing work.

The Masons moved from London to Hollywood in the late 1940s, occupying the mansion previously owned by Buster Keaton, where Pamela became a popular hostess of parties. They had two children: daughter Portland (1948–2004), and son Morgan (who later became an advisor to President Ronald Reagan and married Belinda Carlisle). Portland was named for the Masons' friend Portland Hoffa, the wife of the American radio comedian Fred Allen.

Pamela Mason filed suit for divorce from James in 1962, claiming that he had committed adultery. According to their son Morgan and other sources, Pamela herself had had numerous affairs, but due to her attorney Marvin Mitchelson's skill, she won a monetary settlement of at least $1 million ($9.275 million today) when the marriage was finally dissolved in 1964; it was reported as "America's first million-dollar divorce". As a result of this success, Mitchelson became a sought-after celebrity divorce attorney. Pamela Mason continued to live in the Keaton mansion in Beverly Hills until her death, sharing it "with a multitude of free-range cats." She remained someone who was listened to and outspoken "with unrepentant, undeviating, withering aim."

Mason (as Pamela Kellino) made her film debut in 1934 in the Gaumont British big-budget film Jew Süss. She remained under contract to Gaumont British (her father's film company) for several years, despite acting in films only sporadically while also working as a screenwriter, producer, and author.

From the late 1930s through the 1950s, Pamela Mason (often credited as Pamela Kellino, including after her marriage to James Mason), wrote, produced and/or appeared in several films in collaboration with James Mason and/or Roy Kellino. Most notably, she co-starred with James Mason in the films The Upturned Glass and Charade (directed by Roy Kellino), both of which she also co-wrote. The Masons co-produced the films I Met a Murderer and Lady Possessed, both of which were directed by Roy Kellino and lost money. Pamela Mason also had small roles in a number of other films starring James Mason.

Later films in which she appeared without James Mason included The Child (1954) (a short film directed by James Mason, in which their daughter Portland also appeared), Sex Kittens Go to College (1960), Five Minutes to Live (1961) and The Sandpiper (1965).