A celebration today of actress Pam Grier (b. 1949).
Grier was working as a receptionist at American International Pictures when the producers wisely judged that her talents were being wasted in the outer lobby. Standing 5′ 8″, the statuesque beauty possessed an intoxicating mix of African, Asian, European, and Native American genetic ancestry; it was as though someone had created a superwoman out of the building blocks of the entire human race. After a bit part in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970), she was cast in several women-in-prison, horror, and blaxploitation pictures, including The Big Doll House (1971), Women in Cages (1971), The Twilight People (1972), Cool Breeze (1972), The Big Bird Cage (1972), Hit Man (1972), Black Mama White Mama (1973), Coffy (1973), Scream Blacula Scream (1973), The Arena (1974), Foxy Brown (1974), Sheba Baby (1975), Bucktown (1975), Friday Foster (1975), and Drum (the 1976 sequel to Mandingo). The car race picture Greased Lightning (1977) was her last exploitation picture for AIP. At any rate, it’s plain that Grier’s talent as an actress as well as her popularity with audiences were major assets to the tiny studio.
Phase two of Grier’s career marked her ascension to “respectability”. During this period she was usually cast as a character actress in films and booked as a guest star on television programs. This new period begins with a role in the mini-series Roots: The Next Generations (1979), and films like Fort Apache The Bronx (1981) and Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983). Her TV work included a recurring role on Miami Vice (1985-90) and guests shots on Night Court, The Cosby Show, Frank’s Place, The Sinbad Show, In Living Color, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Martin, etc.
The third phase, which she’s still pretty much partaking of, began with a career revival in the mid 1990s. It’s actually something better than a revival: this is when she truly came into her own, though she certainly built on echoes of her past work. From this period includes her appearances in films like Posse (1993), Original Gangstas (1996), Escape from L.A. (1996), Mars Attacks! (1996), and Jackie Brown (1998), and roles in the regular casts of the Tim Reid show Linc’s (1998) and The L Word (2004-2009). Other movies have included Holy Smoke! (1999), Ghosts of Mars (2001), The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002), Bad Grandmas (2017), Poms (2019), and Pet Semetary: Bloodlines (2023). Her most recent work has been on the current season of Them.
(Travalanche) 
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