From scar to star, Pam Grier is best described as a random action heroine. She is an actress who has gained prominence for her impressive roles in several blaxploitation movies. Also known as America’s first modern donkey-kicker, Grier has a legacy as a transformative female character in cinema. With a career that began in the early 1970s, she is credited as blaxploitation cinema’s first female action heroine.
biography
The actress was born Pamela Suzette Grier on May26. 1949 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She is the daughter of Gwendolyn Sylvia (a nurse and housewife) and Clarence Ransom Grier Jr. (a US Air Force engineering sergeant). She grew up on military bases across Europe before her family including her two siblings (a sister and a brother) eventually settled in Denver, Colorado. According to Grier, in its founding years it had an experience of rural sensitivity during times of racial segregation. Grier had a lonely and traumatized childhood when, at the age of six, she was raped by two boys while left unattended at an aunt’s house.
She attended East High School in Denver and later Metropolitan State College in Denver in 1967 with the intention of becoming a doctor. To get through college, she entered beauty pageants and a few stage productions. She was the second runner-up in the 1967 Miss Colorado pageant. It was at the pageant that she caught the attention of a Hollywood agent who encouraged her to pursue a career in acting. In 1968, Grier moved to Los Angeles, where she attended acting classes. After several somber auditions in Hollywood for not being “negro enough,” Grier landed a job as a switchboard operator and receptionist at AIP (American International Pictures).
acting career
Grier’s acting career began in 1970 with a supporting role in the film Beyond the Valley of the Dolls . The next year she landed a starring role in the film The Big Doll’s House. Her other subsequent works include The Big Birdcage (1972), Black Mama White Mama and Scream Blacula Scream (1973).
Grier is best known for her starring roles in blaxploitation films (a series of action films portraying African Americans and based on urban stereotypes of black life) such as Coffy (1973), Foxy Brown (1974), Sheba, Baby (1975) and Friday Foster (1975).
She left Hollywood for a while to immerse herself in theatrical productions. Thereafter, Grier spent most of the decade performing on stage before building a reputation as a solid and versatile star in various film and television productions. From 1985 to 1990 she played recurring roles on the small screen such as Miami Vice and also appeared in Crime Story (1986 to 1988).
In the late 1980s, Grier revitalized her film career with prominent roles in the 1981 blockbuster Fort Apache, The Bronx, Something Bad Comes This Way (1983) and Above the Law (1988). She also gave impressive performances in the hit Original Gangstas, Escape from LA, and in the sci-fi comedy Attacks of Mars!, all released in 1996.
Grier’s notable performance in Quentin Tarantino’s 1997 film Jackie Brown earned her the San Diego Film Critics Society award for Best Actress. She also received National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Golden Globe Award nominations. More recently, the talented actress starred in the lesbian -themed television series The L Word from 2004 to 2009. Though her prime may be over, Grier remains active in the film industry.
Pam Grier’s children
Pam Grier has no children and has never been married. However, she had celebrity relationships with basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1970 to 1973), comedian Richard Pryor (1975 to 1978) and music director Kevin Evans. Pam Grier and Evans were reportedly engaged in 1998 but called it off the next year. From 2000 to 2008, Pam was Marketing Manager Peter Hempel. As Ms. Grier continues to live a unique life on her own terms, the famous actress once admitted that she still dreams of her dream wedding.
Net worth (income) and other interesting facts
1. Through her versatile roles in several films and on television, Pam Grier is considered an icon who helped change the role of women in films. The successful actress has earned an estimated net worth of $10 million.
2. Grier is ethnically mixed as she is of Cheyenne Indiana, Filipino, Chinese, Hispanic and African American heritage.
3. In her late 30s, Grier suffered a devastating battle with cervical cancer. Fortunately, after being diagnosed with stage four cancer in 1988 and only having 16 to 18 months to live, Pam survived the disease.
4. Pam, who currently resides in Colorado, published a memoir Foxy: My Life in Three Acts in 2010 . The book uncovers many unexplained chapters of her life including her childhood experiences, her family, her personal relationships, her battle with cancer and much more.
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