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Pam Grier
The reigning queen of cool, Pam Grier was born Pamela Suzette May 26, 1949, in Winston-Salem,
North Carolina. Her father was in the USAF, and as a result Grier spent her youth raised
on military bases around the world. At 18 years of age, she entered the "Miss Colorado
Universe" beauty pageant. Although she came in as first runner-up, she caught the
attention of an agent. While working as a switchboard operator for American International
Pictures, she met Roger Corman, who helped her secure a role in Russ Meyer's cult film
Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls (1970).
Roles were sparse, and Grier struggled for a few years, working on
exploitation films such as Women In Cages (1972) and Naked Warriors. In
1973, she broke through with
Coffy (1973), playing vengeful nurse
Coffin,
which helped her rise to the
forefront of the blaxploitation genre. Films like
Foxy Brown (1974), and Sheba, Baby
(1975) only solidified her reputation as a tough, streetwise, and sexy lead actress.
Fearing typecasting, Grier tried other films, such as 1977's Greased
Lightning, Fort Apache, The Bronx
(1981), and played the Dust Witch in Something Wicked This This Way Comes (1983),
but she returned to action films in 1988 with Above The Law, and played a teacher
turned cyber-assassin in Class Of 1999 (1990). In 1997, she played the lead in
Quentin Tarantino's
Jackie Brown, which not only enabled
her to demonstrate her acting prowess but also reaffirmed her position as the queen of cool.
Other films have followed, from playing hard-boiled Chicago police detective Della Wilder
in Wilder (aka: Slow Burn, 2000), to top cop Commander
Helen Braddock in
John
Carpenter's
Ghosts Of Mars,
and a part in the horror pic
Bones
to her latest effort, a television appearance as Kit Porter in 2004's The 'L' Word.
Octavio Ramos Jr
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