Pam Grier’s 8 Most Iconic Movie Roles
As the revolutionary movie star turns 72, here’s a look at her impressive film career.
Considered one of the most prolific heroines of the 1970s, North Carolina-born actress Pam Grier is often lauded as the first female action movie star. She made her film debut in 1970 as an extra in Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls before her major roles in Jack Hill’s Coffy and Foxy Brown, as well as starring in Quentin Tarantino’s crime thriller Jackie Brown. Many of her leading roles were in a subgenre of film dubbed “blaxploitation”—named from combining “black” and “exploitation”—that marked a period of 1970s movies which attempted to appeal to Black audiences. Aside from kicking ass and taking names on-screen, Grier made a miraculous recovery from a grim stage four cervical cancer diagnosis and continues to act today. In honor of the industry icon’s 72nd birthday, here are Grier’s most memorable roles.
Grier’s first film with director Jack Hill was part of the “women in prison” movie subgenre. The Big Doll House (1971) was followed by a collaboration between the two with a similar subject, 1972’s The Big Bird Cage.
Grier stars alongside Margaret Markov as a dynamic duo of tough-as-nails female prisoners in Black Mama White Mama.
In another Jack Hill-directed thriller, Grier plays a nurse-turned-action hero hell-bent on getting justice for her heroin-addicted sister.
Grier embraces the femme fatale trope as she plays an undercover vigilante out to avenge her boyfriend’s death in the 1974 action film.
Sheba, Baby portrays Grier as a Chicago-based private detective making a homeward mission to Kentucky to help her dad fend off mobsters.
In Friday Foster (1975), Grier plays a glitzy magazine photographer-turned-action hero in the thriller based on a comic strip of the same name.
Grier stars in Quentin Tarantino’s third film alongside Samuel L. Jackson, Bridget Fonda, Robert DeNiro, and Michael Keaton.
While not a leading role, Grier plays a detective in the Heathers-inspired cult classic dark comedy movie Jawbreaker.
