fiction.wikisort.org - Actor

Pamela Suzette Grier (born May 26, 1949) is an American actress and singer. Described by Quentin Tarantino as cinema's first female action star,[1] she achieved fame for her starring roles in a string of 1970s action, blaxploitation, and women in prison films for American International Pictures and New World Pictures. Her accolades include nominations for an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Satellite Award, and a Saturn Award.

Pam Grier
Grier in February 2012
Born	Pamela Suzette Grier (1949-05-26) May 26, 1949 (age 73) Winston-Salem, North Carolina, U.S.
Alma mater	Metropolitan State College
Occupation	Actress, singer
Years active	1970–present
Known for	Coffy Foxy Brown Sheba, Baby Friday Foster Jackie Brown The L Word
Relatives	Rosey Grier (cousin)

Grier came to prominence with her titular roles in the films Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974); her other major films during this period included The Big Doll House (1971), Women in Cages (1971), The Big Bird Cage (1972), Black Mama, White Mama (1973), Scream Blacula Scream (1973), The Arena (1974), Sheba, Baby (1975), Bucktown (1975), and Friday Foster (1975). She portrayed the title character in Quentin Tarantino's crime film Jackie Brown (1997), and also appeared in Escape from L.A. (1996), Jawbreaker (1999), Holy Smoke!, (1999), Bones (2001), Just Wright (2010), Larry Crowne (2011), and Poms (2019).

On television, Grier portrayed Eleanor Winthrop in the Showtime comedy-drama series Linc's (1998–2000), Kate "Kit" Porter on the Showtime drama series The L Word (2004–2009), and Constance Terry in the ABC sitcom Bless This Mess (2019–2020). She received praise for her work in the animated series Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child (1999).

IndieWire named Grier one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.[2]

Early life

Grier was born on May 26, 1949, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the daughter of Gwendolyn Sylvia (née Samuels), a homemaker and nurse, and Clarence Ransom Grier, Jr., who worked as a mechanic and technical sergeant in the United States Air Force. She has one sister and one brother.[3] Grier said she is of mixed ancestry, namely of African American, Hispanic, Chinese, Filipino, and Cheyenne heritage.[4] She was raised Catholic and later baptized as a Methodist.[5]

Because of her father's military career, the family moved frequently during Grier's childhood. In 1956, they relocated to Swindon in South West England, United Kingdom, where her father worked on an airforce base.[6] By Grier's account, hers was one of the only black families in town, though she recalled that they faced no racism or segregation compared to that in the United States: "They didn’t care that I was black since they hadn’t been raised to hate blacks. Instead they’d been raised to hate Germans... In the U.S., especially in the South, we were never able to get buses to stop for us, we couldn’t eat in certain restaurants, couldn’t use certain bathrooms. Up until 1969, there were department stores in which my father and I weren’t even allowed to try on clothing."[6][7]

The family returned to the United States in 1958, when Grier's father was transferred to California's Travis Air Force Base, eventually settling in Denver, Colorado, near Lowry Air Force Base.[8] Grier spent part of her upbringing on her maternal grandparents' sugar beet farm in rural Wyoming, where their ancestors had homesteaded after fleeing west via the Underground Railroad to escape slavery.[9] Grier attended East High School in Denver, and appeared in a number of stage productions, as well as participating in beauty contests to raise money for college tuition at Metropolitan State College.

Career

Grier moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1967, where she was initially hired to work the switchboard at American International Pictures (AIP).[10] She is believed to have been discovered by the director Jack Hill,[11] 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 bold, assertive women, beginning with 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. Grier is considered to be the first African-American female to headline an action film, as protagonists of previous blaxploitation films were men. In his review of Coffy, critic Roger Ebert praised the film for its believable female lead. He noted that Grier was an actress of "beautiful face and astonishing form" and that she possessed a kind of "physical life" missing from many other attractive actresses.[12]

Grier played similar characters in the AIP films Foxy Brown (1974), Sheba, Baby, and Friday Foster (both 1975). With the demise of blaxploitation later in the 1970s, Grier appeared in smaller roles for many years. She acquired progressively larger character roles in the 1980s, including a druggie prostitute in Fort Apache, The Bronx (1981) and a witch in Something Wicked this Way Comes (1983). In 1985, Grier made her theatrical debut in Sam Sheppard's Fool for Love at the Los Angeles Theatre Center.[13]

Grier returned to film as Steven Seagal's detective partner in Above the Law (1988). She had a recurring role on Miami Vice from 1985 to 1989 and made guest appearances on Martin, Night Court, and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. She had a recurring role in the TV series Crime Story between 1986 and 1988. Her role in Rocket Gibraltar (1988) was cut due to fears by the film's director, Daniel Petrie, of "repercussions from interracial love scenes."[14] She appeared on Sinbad, Preston Chronicles, The Cosby Show, The Wayans Brothers Show, and Mad TV. In 1994, Grier appeared in Snoop Dogg's video for "Doggy Dogg World".

In the late 1990s Grier was a cast member of the Showtime series Linc's. She appeared in 1996 in John Carpenter's Escape from L.A. and 1997 with the title role in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, films that partly paid homage to her 1970s blaxploitation movies. She was nominated for numerous awards for her work in the Tarantino film. Grier appeared on Showtime's The L Word, in which she played Kit Porter. The series ran for six seasons and ended in March 2009. Grier 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 science-fiction series Smallville as the villain Amanda Waller, also known as White Queen, head agent of Checkmate, a covert operations agency. She appeared as a friend and colleague to Julia Roberts' college professor in 2011's Larry Crowne.

In 2010, Grier wrote her memoir, Foxy: My Life in Three Acts, with Andrea Cagan.[15]

Grier received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in 2011. That same year, she received an honorary Doctorate of Science from Langston University.[16]

According to Essence magazine, in Grier's career, "[s]o revolutionary were the characters Grier played that women reportedly would stand on chairs and cheer."[17]

She founded the Pam Grier Community Garden and Education Center with the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum. The purpose is to teach people about organic gardening, health and nutrition among other things.[18] The museum named its first garden in honor of Grier in 2011.[19]

In January 2018, Grier revealed a biopic based on her memoir is in the works, entitled Pam.[20]

In April 2022, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) announced the fourth season of their podcast, The Plot Thickens, would focus on Grier's life and career.[21]

Personal life

Grier lives on a ranch in Colorado.[22]

Grier met the basketball player Ferdinand Lewis (Lew) Alcindor before he became a Muslim; soon after they began dating, he converted to Islam and changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Abdul-Jabbar proposed to Grier, but gave her an ultimatum to convert to Islam.[23] He said, "If you don't commit to me today, I'm getting married at 2 this afternoon. She's a converted Muslim, and she's been prepared for me," adding, "once you become Muslim, you might appreciate another wife." Grier declined, so he got married that day.[24][25]

Grier met the comedian Freddie Prinze while promoting her film Coffy in 1973. They began a relationship and considered marriage.[24][25][26] Prinze wanted her to have his baby, but she was reluctant due to his history of depression and drug addiction.[15][27] They remained in touch after she left him. She was one of the last people Prinze spoke to before he died in 1977.[20]

Grier met the comedian Richard Pryor through her relationship with Prinze, but they did not begin dating until they were both cast in Greased Lightning.[24] She helped Pryor learn to read and tried to help him with his drug addiction.[20][15] After six months of sobriety, he relapsed.[24] In her memoir, Grier described how her sexual relationship with Pryor caused cocaine to enter her system. Grier confronted Pryor about protecting her health, but he refused to use a condom.[27] Pryor married Deborah McGuire while dating Grier in 1977.[28]

Grier was formerly romantically linked to Jimmie “Big Wheel" Wheeler, a famous boxing promoter, Soul Train host Don Cornelius[29] and basketball player Wilt Chamberlain.[30] In 1998, Grier was engaged to RCA Records executive Kevin Evans, but the engagement ended in 1999.[31]

Grier was diagnosed with stage-four cervical cancer in 1988, and was told she had 18 months to live. Through vigorous treatment she made a recovery and has been in remission.[32]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1970	Beyond the Valley of the Dolls	Partygoer		[33]
1971	The Big Doll House	Grear		[33]
	Women in Cages	Alabama		[33]
1972	The Twilight People	Ayesa		[33]
	Cool Breeze	Mona		[33]
	The Big Bird Cage	Blossom		[33]
	Hit Man	Gozelda		[33]
1973	Black Mama White Mama	Lee Daniels		[33]
	Coffy	Nurse Flower Child 'Coffy' Coffin		[33]
	Scream Blacula Scream	Lisa Fortier		[33]
1974	The Arena	Mamawi		[33]
	Foxy Brown	Foxy Brown		[33]
1975	Sheba, Baby	Sheba Shayne		[33]
	Bucktown	Aretha		[33]
	Friday Foster	Friday Foster		[33]
1976	Drum	Regine		[33]
1977	Twilight of Love	Sandra		[34]
	Greased Lightning	Mary Jones		[33]
1981	Fort Apache, The Bronx	Charlotte		[33]
1983	Tough Enough	Myra		[33]
	Something Wicked This Way Comes	Dust Witch		[33]
1985	Stand Alone	Cathryn Bolan		[35]
1986	The Vindicator	Hunter		[35]
	On the Edge	Cora		[33]
1987	The Allnighter	Sgt. McLeesh		[33]
1988	Above the Law	Detective Delores 'Jacks' Jackson		[33]
1989	The Package	Ruth Butler		[33]
1990	Class of 1999	Ms. Connors		[33]
1991	Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey	Ms. Wardroe		[33]
1993	Posse	Phoebe		[33]
1996	Original Gangstas	Laurie Thompson		[33]
	Escape from L.A.	Jack 'Carjack' Malone / Hershe Las Palmas		[35]
	Mars Attacks!	Louise Williams		[35]
1997	Strip Search	Janette
	Fakin' da Funk	Annabelle Lee		[35]
	Jackie Brown	Jackie Brown		[33]
1999	Jawbreaker	Det. Vera Cruz		[35]
	No Tomorrow	Diane		[35]
	In Too Deep	Det. Angela Wilson		[35]
	Holy Smoke!	Carol		[35]
2000	Snow Day	Tina		[35]
	Fortress 2: Re-Entry	Susan Mendenhall		[35]
	Wilder	Detective Della Wilder		[35]
2001	3 A.M.	George
	Love the Hard Way	Linda		[35]
	Ghosts of Mars	Commander Helena Braddock		[33]
	Bones	Pearl		[33]
2002	The Adventures of Pluto Nash	Flura Nash		[35]
	Baby of the Family	Mrs. Williams
2005	Back in the Day	Mrs. Cooper		[35]
2010	Just Wright	Janice Wright		[35]
	The Invited	Zelda		[35]
	Machete Maidens Unleashed!	Herself	Documentary	[35]
2011	Larry Crowne	Frances		[35]
	Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel	Herself	Documentary	[35]
2012	Woman Thou Art Loosed: On the 7th Day	Detective Barrick		[33]
	The Man with the Iron Fists	Jane		[35]
	Mafia	James Womack		[35]
2017	Bad Grandmas	Coralee		[35]
	Being Rose	Lily		[35]
2019	Poms	Olive		[35]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1979	Roots: The Next Generations	Francey	Episode: "Part IV (1917–1921)"
1980	The Love Boat	Cynthia Wilbur	Episode: "Kinfolk/Sis & the Slicker/Moonlight & Moonshine/Too Close for Comfort/The Affair: Part 1 & 2"
1985	Badge of the Assassin	Alexandra Horn	TV movie
1985–90	Miami Vice	Valerie Gordon	Recurring cast (season 1–2, 5)
1986	Night Court	Benet Collins	Episode: "Hurricane: Part 1 & 2"
1986–88	Crime Story	Suzanne Terry	Recurring cast
1987	The Cosby Show	Samantha	Episode: "Planning Parenthood"
1988	Frank's Place	Neema Sharone	Episode: "Frank's Place – The Movie"
1989	Midnight Caller	Susan Province	Episode: "Blood Red"
1990	Knots Landing	Lieutenant Guthrie	Recurring cast (season 12)
1991	Monsters	Matilde	Episode: "Hostile Takeover"
1992	Pacific Station	Grace Ballard	Episode: "My Favorite Dad"
	A Mother's Right: The Elizabeth Morgan Story	Linda Holman	TV movie
1994	In Living Color	Herself	Episode: "Mrs. Ikefire"
	The Sinbad Show	Lynn Montgomery	Episode: "The Telethon"
	The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air	Janice Robertson	Episode: "M is for the Many Things She Gave Me"
1995	The Marshal	Marshal Vanetta Brown	Episode: "Rainbow Comix"
	Martin	Herself	Episode: "All the Players Came"
1996	Sparks	Ms. Grayson	Episode: "Pillow Talk"
	The Wayans Bros.	Erica	Episode: "Goin' to the Net"
1998	Mad TV	Host	Episode: "#3.25"
	Pinky and the Brain	Julie Auburn (voice)	Episode: "Inherit the Wheeze"
	Family Blessings	Mrs. Quincy	TV movie
1998–2000	Linc's	Eleanor Winthrop	Main cast
1999	The Wild Thornberrys	Mother Springbok (voice)	Episode: "Stick Your Neck Out"
	Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child	The Empress' Nightingale (voice)	Episode: "The Empress' Nightingale"
	Hayley Wagner, Star	Sam	TV movie
	For Your Love	Brenda	Episode: "The Sins of the Mother and... the Boyfriend"
2001	Strange Frequency		Episode: "Time Is on My Side"
	The Feast of All Saints	Suzzette Lermontant	TV movie
2002	Night Visions	Dr. Lewis	Episode: "Switch"
	Justice League	My'ria'h (voice)	Recurring cast (season 1)
2002–03	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Asst. US Attorney Claudia Williams	Episode: "Disappearing Acts" & "Pandora"
2003	First to Die	Claire Washburn	TV movie
2004–09	The L Word	Kit Porter	Main cast (70 episodes)
2008	Ladies of the House	Roberta "Birdie" Marchand	TV movie
2010	Smallville	Amanda Waller	Recurring cast (season 9)
2015	Cleveland Abduction	Nurse Carla	TV movie
2018–19	This Is Us	Grandma	Episode: "This Big, Amazing, Beautiful Life" & "The Dinner and the Date"
2019	A Christmas Wish	Mary	TV movie
2019–20	Bless This Mess	Constance Terry	Main cast (26 episodes)
2022	The Great North	Neckbone (voice)	Episode: "Slide & Wet-Judice Adventure"

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2013	Grand Theft Auto V	Herself (Radio presenter)	DJ on in-game radio station 'The Lowdown 91.1'
2017	Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare	Herself	Shaolin Shuffle DLC

Music videos

Year	Title	Artist	Role	Notes
1994	"Doggy Dogg World"	Snoop Dogg	Foxy Brown

Discography

• "Long Time Woman" (1971, from the film The Big Doll House)
• Communication by Bobby Womack (1971, backing vocals)
• Understanding by Bobby Womack (1972, backing vocals)

Bibliography

• 2010: Foxy: My Life in Three Acts (ISBN 9780446548502)

Accolades

Awards

• 1998: San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress — Jackie Brown
• 1999: Acapulco Black Film Festival Career Achievement Award
• 2000: Csapnivalo Award for Best Female Performance — Jackie Brown
• 2001: High Falls Film Festival Susan B. Anthony 'Failure is Impossible' Award
• 2003: Special Achievement in Film Trumpet Award[36][37]
• 2008: RiverRun International Film Festival Master of Cinema Award
• 2018: 20/20 Award for Best Actress — Jackie Brown[38]
• 2018: Catalonian International Film Festival Time-Machine Honorary Award
• 2018: Tallgrass International Film Festival Ad Astra Award

Nominations

• 1997: Awards Circuit Community Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role — Jackie Brown
• 1998: Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress — Jackie Brown
• 1998: Empire Award for Best Actress — Jackie Brown
• 1998: Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy — Jackie Brown
• 1998: NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture — Jackie Brown
• 1998: Online Film & Television Association for Best Drama Actress — Jackie Brown
• 1998: Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy — Jackie Brown
• 1998: Saturn Award for Best Actress — Jackie Brown
• 1998: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role — Jackie Brown
• 1999: NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series — Linc's
• 2000: NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series — Linc's
• 2000: Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program — Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child
• 2002: Black Reel Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture — Bones
• 2002: NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special — 3 A.M.
• 2002: Black Reel Award for Best Actress in Network/Cable Series — 3 A.M.
• 2003: NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series — Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
• 2004: NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series — Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
• 2005: NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series — The L Word
• 2006: NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series — The L Word
• 2008: NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series — The L Word

References

Further reading

• Sims, Yvonne D. (2006), "Here comes the queen", in Sims, Yvonne D. (ed.), Women of blaxploitation: how the black action film heroine changed American popular culture, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers, pp. 71–92, ISBN 978-0-7864-2744-4.

External links

• Pam Grier discography at Discogs
• Pam Grier at IMDb
• Pam Grier on Twitter
• Pam Grier Happy Birthday, Pam Grier: Interview with the Accidental Action Heroine at Bright Lights Film Journal

На других языках

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[de] Pam Grier

Pamela Suzette „Pam“ Grier (* 26. Mai 1949 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina) ist eine US-amerikanische Schauspielerin.

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- [en] Pam Grier

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[es] Pam Grier

Pamela Suzette Grier (Winston-Salem, 26 de mayo de 1949) es una actriz estadounidense.

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[ru] Гриер, Пэм

Пэм Гри́ер (англ. Pam Grier; род. 26 мая 1949 года) — американская актриса. Заметная актриса эксплуатационных фильмов 1970-х годов направлений «женщины в тюрьме» («Дом большой куклы», «Женщины в клетках», «Большая клетка для птиц», «Чёрная мама, белая мама») и блэксплотейшн («Коффи», «Фокси Браун»). Получила множество номинаций за роль в фильме «Джеки Браун» (1997) Квентина Тарантино.

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