Pamela Reed

Pamela Reed (born April 2, 1949) is an American actress. She is known for playing Ruth Powers in various episodes of TV's The Simpsons, as Arnold Schwarzenegger's hypoglycemic partner in the 1990 movie Kindergarten Cop and as the matriarch Gail Green in Jericho. She currently appears as Marlene Griggs-Knope on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation.

Biography

Personal life

Reed was born in Tacoma, Washington, the daughter of Vernie Reed.^[1] She received her B.F.A. at the University of Washington. Reed has been married to Sandy Smolan since 1988. Since 2004, she has resided in Hancock Park, California, with her husband and two children, Reed and Lily, both adopted.

Career

Reed earned a Drama Desk Award for the off-Broadway play Getting Out and an Obie award for "sustaining excellence in performance in theater". She had minor film and television work in the 1980s. She won a Cable Ace Award for Best Actress for the HBO series Tanner '88 (1988). Her notable film roles include The Long Riders (1980), The Right Stuff (1983), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Bean (1997), and Proof of Life (2001). Reed played Janice Pasetti in the quirky NBC sitcom Grand, and then played a judge and single mother in the short-lived NBC sitcom The Home Court. She had also guest-voiced in a episode of the 1994-1995 animated series The Critic. She has recently played a main role in Jericho and appeared as Leslie Knope's (Amy Poehler) mother on Parks and Recreation.^[2]

In 2005 Reed portrayed Executive Producer Esther Shapiro in Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure, a fictionalized television movie based on the creation and behind the scenes production of the 1980s prime time soap opera Dynasty.^[3][4]

Reed has also worked for Storyline Online, reading Stellaluna.

Filmography