Pamela Rabe was born as Pamela June Koropatnick in Oakville, Ontario, Canada, on April 30, 1959, to parents Reta Ursula (Rabe) and William Koropatnick.

• She’s the seventh of eight children with two of them being twins. The names of her siblings are Bill, Jacqueline, Jim, Patrick, Ray, Ron and Shelley.
• Being that her surname Koropatnick was an anglicized version of her dad’s original name, she never felt a real connection to it and therefore adopted her mother’s maiden name (Rabe) as her professional name.
• Her Mum is from Hannover, Germany (Rabe means Raven)
• Even though she’s the only person in her family who launched a professional career in the arts, she partly credits the many different characters of her large clan for shaping her as an actress. Pamela distinctly remembers her mother’s side of the family being notorious for laughing until they cried, which perfectly blended with the Eastern European traits of her dad’s family side. Another major influence were her two drama teachers in high school.