Early life

Pam Grier was born 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. Grier has stated that she is of mixed ancestry consisting of African-American, Hispanic, Chinese, Filipino and Cheyenne Indian heritage.

At age 6, Grier was raped by two boys when she was left unattended at her aunt's house. "It took so long to deal with the pain of that," she says, "You try to deal with it, but you never really get over it," she adds. "And not just me; my family endured so much guilt and anger that something like that happened to me."

Because of her father's military career, her family moved frequently during her childhood, to various places such as England, and eventually settled in Denver, where she attended East High School. While in Denver she appeared in a number of stage productions, and participated 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 as a receptionist at the American International Pictures (AIP) company. It is believed that she was discovered by director Jack Hill, 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 big, bold, assertive women, beginning with Jack 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 was noted as the first African-American female to headline an action film, as protagonists of previous blaxploitation films were males. 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. Grier subsequently 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), a witch in Something Wicked this Way Comes (1983), and 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". 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 '70s 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 recently appeared as a friend and colleague to Julia Roberts' college professor in Larry Crowne.

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

Personal life

In 1998 Grier was engaged to music executive Kevin Evans, but the engagement ended in 1999. From 2000 to 2008 she dated marketing executive Peter Hempel.. She also dated basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, comicsFreddie Prinze, Richard Pryor, and Soul Train host, Don Cornelius.She also had a brief relationship with basketball great Wilt Chamberlain.

She received her 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. She started the Pam Grier Community Garden and Education Center with the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum.. She lives in Colorado.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1970	Beyond the Valley of the Dolls	Partygoer
1971	The Big Doll House	Grear
	Women in Cages	Alabama
1972	Hit Man	Gozelda
	The Big Bird Cage	Blossom
	Cool Breeze	Mona
1973	Black Mama White Mama	Lee Daniels
	Scream Blacula Scream	Lisa
	Coffy	Coffy
	The Twilight People	Ayesa, the Panther Woman
1974	The Arena	Mamawi
	Foxy Brown	Foxy Brown
1975	Sheba, Baby	Sheba Shayne
	Bucktown	Aretha
	Friday Foster	Friday Foster
1976	Drum	Regine
1977	Greased Lightning	Mary Jones
	Twilight of Love	Sandra
1981	Fort Apache, The Bronx	Charlotte
1983	Something Wicked This Way Comes	Dust Witch
	Tough Enough	Myra
1984	The Vindicator	Hunter
1985	Badge of the Assassin	Alexandra 'Alie' Horn
	Stand Alone	Cathryn Bolan
1986	On the Edge	Cora
1985-1989	Miami Vice	Valerie Gordon (recurring)
1987	The Allnighter	Sgt. McLeesh
1988	Above the Law	Delores 'Jacks' Jackson
1989	The Package	Ruth Butler
1990	Class of 1999	Ms. Connors
1991	Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey	Ms. Wardroe
1993	Posse	Phoebe
1994	The Fresh Prince of Bel Air	Janice Robertson
1994	The Sinbad Show	Lynn Montgomery
1996	Mars Attacks!	Louise Williams
	Escape from L.A.	Hershe Las Palmas
	Original Gangstas	Laurie Thompson
1997	Jackie Brown	Jackie Brown	San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Nominated — Empire Award for Best Actress Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated — NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Actress Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
	Fakin' da Funk	Annabelle Lee
1999	Holy Smoke!	Carol
	In Too Deep	Det. Angela Wilson
	Linc's	Eleanor Braithwaite Winthrop	Nominated — NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series
	Jawbreaker	Detective Vera Cruz
2000	Snow Day	Tina
	3 A.M.	George	Nominated — Black Reel Award for Best Actress in Network/Cable Series Nominated — NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special
	Wilder	Detective Della Wilder
	Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child	The Empress' Nightingale	Nominated — Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program
	Fortress 2: Re-Entry	Susan Mendenhall
2001	Ghosts of Mars	Commander Helena Braddock
	Bones	Pearl	Nominated — Black Reel Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture
2002	The Adventures of Pluto Nash	Flura Nash
	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Asst. US Attorney Claudia Williams	Nominated — NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
2004-2009	The L Word	Kate "Kit" Porter	Nominated — NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
2005	Back in the Day	Mrs. Cooper
2008	Ladies of the House	Birdie	Television film
2010	Smallville	Agent Amanda Waller	Three episodes: "Absolute Justice", "Checkmate" and "Sacrifice"
	Just Wright	Janice Wright
	The Invited	Zelda
2011	Larry Crowne	Frances
2012	Woman Thou Art Loosed: On the 7th Day	Detective Barrick
2012	The Man with the Iron Fists	Jane
2013	Grand Theft Auto V	Herself	DJ on in-game radio station 'The Lowdown 91.1'
2015	Cleveland Abduction	Carla	Television film

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)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]