Pam
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.
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 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 penitentary 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, 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. She 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).
But when the blaxploitation genre went into eclipse, so did her career. 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 she 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 she appeared in John Carpenter's
Ghosts of Mars (2001) and co-starred with Snoop Dogg
in Bones (2001). Her career of over thirty years has made her a well-known name
in Hollywood.
Interesting
Facts
Auditioned for a part in Pulp Fiction,
and was considered for the part of Bonnie (Jimmie's wife). She didn't land either role, until Jackie Brown 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.
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.
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]
She has never been wed, although she has been romantically linked to Richard Pryor and Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar.
A
couple of Grier's early pictures were filmed in the Philippines. 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.
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 measures up at 5' 8" (1.73 m) tall.
Graduated from East High School, Denver, Colorado.
Pam
is the cousin of pro
footballer Roosevelt Grier.
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Pam
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.