Pam Grier - Biography

Last Editor: chris2k99				Pam Grier Biography -   Name : Pam Grier Birth Name : Pamela Suzette Grier Date of Birth : May 26, 1949 Place of Birth : Winston-Salem, North Carolina Height : 5' 8'' Education : Graduated from East High School, Denver, Colorado. Nationality : American Profession : Actress, Witer Sometimes Called : Pam Greer; Pamela Grier

Pam Grier Trivia -

Auditioned for a part in Pulp Fiction (1994), and at the time, right after Rosanna Arquette took the nod, was considered for the part of Bonnie (Jimmie's wife). She didn't land either role, until Jackie Brown (1997) came along. Quentin Tarantino renamed the character of Jackie Burke from "Rum Punch" to "Jackie Brown" as homage to Foxy Brown (1974). While a student at UCLA, she sang back-up for singer-composer Bobby Womack. Interestingly, Womack's composition and 1972 recording of the song "Across 110th Street" was the theme song of the film Jackie Brown (1997), which marked a major comeback for Grier in the starring and title role. She was nominated for a Golden Globe and an NAACP Image Award for her performance. Was the first Black woman to appear on the cover of MS. Magazine (August 1975 issue). Named as one of Ebony Magazine's "100 Most Fascinating Women of the 20th Century". Awarded a "Career Achievement Award" at the 34th Annual Chicago International Film Festival. [17 October 1998] Dated comedian Richard Pryor. Her early films such as Women in Cages (1971) and The Big Doll House (1971) were filmed in the Phillipines. While there she contracted a deadly tropical disease and nearly died. She lost her hair and was temporarily blind for almost a month. It took nearly a year for her to recover. Cousin of actor Roosevelt Grier. Measurements: 38-22-36 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine) Grier was nominated for a Golden Globe and an NAACP Image Award for her comeback performance in the starring and title role of Jackie Brown. Awarded a "Career Achievement Award" at the 34th Annual Chicago International Film Festival. [17 October 1998] She has never been wed, although she has been romantically linked to Richard Pryor and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Pam was diagnosed with cancer in 1988 and given 18 months to live; she also lost a sister to cancer in 1990, which has had an effect on how she has chosen to live her life.

Pam Grier Detailed Biography -

Pam Grier was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on May 26, 1949 to Air Force mechanic, Clarence Grier, and nurse Gwendolyn Samuels. Dubbed the "Queen of Blaxploitation," Pam Grier brought a formidable presence to her leading roles in such formulaic, action crowd-pleasers from the 1970's as two of the Jack Hill films Coffy (1973), and Foxy Brown (1974), and William Girdler's Sheba Baby (1975), which were loaded with graphic nudity and liberal bloodletting. Pam Grier actually got her start in babes-in-bonds exploitation epics churned out by Roger Corman's New World Pictures, The Big Doll House (1971), about a woman's penitentiary and The Big Bird Cage (1972), which led her into a five year contract with Samuel Z. Arkoff of American International Pictures. Also in 1972, Pam Grier squared off against the equally statuesque Margaret Markov in Black Mama, White Mama - an outlandish female version of The Defiant Ones and The Arena (1974), where they played gladiators in Ancient Rome. Pam Grier followed those up by playing William Marshall's vampire victim in the 'Blacula' sequel, Scream, Blacula, Scream! (1973) and tried to broaden her appeal as the comic-strip character Friday Foster (also 1975). Pam Grier plays "Kit Porter" a musician and club owner, who is also Bette's half-sister. Kit is a straight women who is struggling with alcoholism, and trying to get her life in order. But when the blaxploitation genre went into eclipse, so did Pam Grier's career. Pam Grier's performance as the pathetic junkie in Fort Apache, The Bronx (1981) heralded her new career as a character actress. During the eighties she became a regular on "Miami Vice" (1984) and played a supporting role as an evil witch in Ray Bradbury's and Walt Disney Pictures Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983), a no-nonsense cop in The Allnighter (1987), returned to action as Steven Seagal's partner in Above the Law (1988), and portrayed a beleaguered high school teacher in Class of 1999 (1990). Her most famous role of the 90s was probably Jackie Brown (1997), directed by Quentin Tarantino, which was a homage to her earlier 70s action roles, but Pam Grier occasionally did supporting roles as in Tim Burton's Mars Attacks! (1996), In Too Deep (1999) and her funny performance in Jawbreaker (1999). More recently Pam Grier appeared in John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars (2001) and co-starred with Snoop Doggin Bones (2001). Her career of over thirty years has made her a well-known name in Hollywood.