Pam Grier
| Pam Grier | |
|---|---|
 Pam Grier at L6 convention, in 2009. |
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| Born | Pamela Suzette Grier May 26, 1949 Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1970–present |
Pamela Suzette "Pam" Grier (born May 26, 1949) is an American actress. She became famous in the early 1970s, after starring in a string of moderately successful women in prison and blaxploitation films such as 1974's Foxy Brown. Her career was revitalized in 1997 after her appearance in Quentin Tarantino's film Jackie Brown. She is one of a few African-American actresses to receive a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. She has also been nominated for a SAG as well as a Satellite Award for her performance in the iconic film Jackie Brown. She received an Emmy Award nomination for her work in an Animated Program Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child. Rotten Tomatoes has ranked her as the second Greatest Female Action Heroine in film history.[1] Director Quentin Tarantino, in an interview promoting Jackie Brown on Charlie Rose, remarked that she may have been cinema's first female action star.
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Early life
Grier was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the daughter of Gwendolyn Sylvia (née Samuels), a homemaker and nurse, and Clarence Ransom Grier, who worked as a mechanic and Technical Sergeant in the United States Air Force. She has one sister and one brother.[2] Because of her father's military career, her family moved frequently during her childhood, to various places such as England, and eventually settled in Denver, Colorado, where she attended East High School. While in Denver, Colorado she appeared in a number of stage productions, and participated in beauty contests to raise money for college tuition toward Metropolitan State College. Contrary to previous reports she states that she is not the cousin of National Football League great Roosevelt Grier or to National Hockey League player Mike Grier.
Career
Grier moved to Los Angeles, California in 1967, where she was initially hired as a receptionist at the American International Pictures (AIP) company. She was discovered by director Jack Hill, who cast her in his women in prison films The Big Doll House (1971), and The Big Bird Cage (1972). While under contract at AIP, she became a staple of early 1970s blaxploitation movies, playing big, bold, assertive women, beginning with Jack Hill's Coffy (1973), in which she plays a nurse who seeks revenge on drug dealers; her character was advertised in the trailer as the "baddest one-chick hit-squad that ever hit town!" The film, which was filled with sexual and violent elements typical of the genre, was a box- office hit, and Grier was noted as the first African-American female to headline an action film, as protagonists of previous blaxploitation films were males. In his review of Coffy, film critic Roger Ebert noted that Grier was an actress of "beautiful face and astonishing form" and that she possessed a kind of "physical life" missing from other actresses.[3] Grier subsequently played similar characters in the AIP films Foxy Brown (1974), Friday Foster, and Sheba, Baby (both 1975).
With the demise of blaxploitation, Grier appeared in smaller roles for many years. She acquired progressively larger character roles in the 1980s, including a prostitute in Fort Apache the Bronx (1981), a witch in Something Wicked this Way Comes (1983), and Steven Seagal's detective partner in Above the Law (1988). She made guest appearances on Miami Vice, Martin, Night Court and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and also had a recurring role in the TV series Crime Story between 1986 and 1988. She also appeared on Sinbad, Preston Chronicles, The Cosby Show, The Wayans Brother Show, and Mad TV. In 1994, Grier appeared in Snoop Doggy Dogg's video for Doggy Dogg World.
According to The Lives of John Lennon by Albert Goldman, she was at the famed Troubadour night club in Hollywood the night Lennon was ejected for drunkenly heckling the Smothers Brothers.
In the late 1990s Grier was a cast member of the Showtime series Linc's. She again appeared in 1997 with the title role in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, a film that partly paid homage to her '70s blaxploitation movies. As of 2004[update], she appears in the cable television series The L Word as Kit Porter and occasionally guest-stars in such television series as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (where she is a recurring character).
In 2010, Grier began appearing in a recurring role on the hit sci-fi series Smallville as the villain Amanda Waller, also known as White Queen, head agent of Checkmate, a covert operations agency.
Also in 2010, she wrote her memoir, "Foxy: My Life in Three Acts" with Andrea Cagan.[4]
Personal life
Grier has never married and has no children. She dated basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar during the early 1970s and had a six-month affair with actor/comedian Richard Pryor around 1976-77. She was also romantically linked to actor/comedian Freddie Prinze in the 1970s.[4] In 1998, she was engaged to music executive Kevin Evans, but the engagement was terminated in 1999. From 2000 to 2008, she dated marketing executive Peter Hempel.
Filmography
Nominated NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (2004)
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | Beyond the Valley of the Dolls | Partygoer | |
| 1971 | Women in Cages | Alabama | |
| The Big Doll House | Grear | ||
| 1972 | Hit Man | Gozelda | |
| Black Mama, White Mama | Lee Daniels | ||
| The Big Bird Cage | Blossom | ||
| Cool Breeze | Mona | ||
| 1973 | The Arena | Mamawi | |
| Scream Blacula Scream | Lisa | ||
| Coffy | Coffy | ||
| The Twilight People | Ayesa, the Panther Woman | ||
| 1974 | Foxy Brown | Foxy Brown | |
| 1975 | Friday Foster | Friday Foster | |
| Bucktown | Aretha | ||
| Sheba, Baby | Sheba Shayne | ||
| 1976 | Drum | Regine | |
| 1977 | Greased Lightning | Mary Jones | |
| 1981 | Fort Apache the Bronx | Charlotte | |
| 1983 | Something Wicked This Way Comes | Dust Witch | |
| Tough Enough | Myra | ||
| 1984 | The Vindicator | Hunter | |
| 1985 | On the Edge | Cora | |
| Miami Vice | Valerie Gordon | ||
| 1987 | The Allnighter | Sgt. McLeesh | |
| 1988 | Above the Law | Delores 'Jacks' Jackson | |
| 1989 | The Package | Ruth Butler | |
| 1990 | Class of 1999 | Ms. Connors | |
| 1991 | Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey | Ms. Wardroe | |
| 1993 | Posse | Phoebe | |
| 1996 | Mars Attacks! | Louise Williams | |
| Escape from L.A. | Hershe Las Palmas | ||
| Original Gangstas | Laurie Thompson | ||
| 1997 | Jackie Brown | Jackie Brown | San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated SAG Award for Best Actress Nominated Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Nominated Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture Nominated Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress Nominated Silver Bear for Best Actress |
| 1997 | Fakin' da Funk | Annnabelle Lee | |
| 1999 | Holy Smoke! | Carol | |
| In Too Deep | Det. Angela Wilson | ||
| Linc's | Nominated NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series (1999) Nominated NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series (2000) |
||
| Jawbreaker | Detective Vera Cruz | ||
| 2000 | Snow Day | Tina | |
| 3 AM | Nominated NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special (2002) | ||
| Wilder | Detective Della Wilder | ||
| Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Ever Child | Nominated Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program | ||
| 2001 | Ghosts of Mars | Commander Helena Braddock | |
| Bones | Pearl | Nominated Black Reel Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture | |
| 2002 | The Adventures of Pluto Nash | Flura Nash | |
| Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Asst. US Attorney Claudia Williams | ||
| 2003 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Asst. US Attorney Claudia Williams | Nominated NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series |
| 2004–2009 | The L Word | Kate "Kit" Porter | Nominated NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (2005) Nominated NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (2006) |
| 2005 | Back in the Day | Mrs. Cooper | |
| 2008 | Ladies of the House (TV movie) | Birdie | |
| 2010 | Smallville | Agent Amanda Waller | Three episodes: "Legends," "Checkmate" and "Sacrifice" |
| Just Wright | Janice Wright | ||
| The Invited[5] | Zelda | ||
| 2011 | Larry Crowne | TBA | filming |
Discography
- "Long Time Woman" (1971, from the film The Big Doll House)
References
- ↑ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wanted/news/1737200/total_recall_the_25_best_action_heroines_of_all_time
- ↑ Virginian-Pilot Archives
- ↑ "RogerEbert.com". Coffy. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19730613/REVIEWS/301010307/1023. Retrieved May 11, 2006.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/books/05grier.html
- ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0490236/
External links
- Pam Grier at the Internet Movie Database