Pam Grier



Born May 26, 1949, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Pam Grier is more than just a woman, she's an icon. Any time you see a woman kicking ass in movies, you can thank her.

Films:
 * Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
 * The Big Doll House
 * Women In Cages
 * Black Mama White Mama
 * Coffy
 * Scream, Blacula, Scream
 * Foxy Brown
 * Sheba Baby
 * Friday Foster
 * Something Wicked This Way Comes
 * Above the Law
 * Escape From LA
 * Mars Attacks!
 * Jackie Brown
 * Ghosts of Mars

TV series:
 * The L Word


 * Action Girl: Before Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor codified this trope in movies, she pretty much defined it.
 * Badass
 * Blaxploitation: She and Tamara Dobson became the genre's leading actresses.
 * Hot Chick in a Badass Suit: Two Words: Jackie Brown.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Her boobs were an important part of a whole generation of men's puberties.
 * One of Us: a self-described bookish nerd in real life. The Mars Attacks! role appealed to her because of the comics she grew up reading.
 * Or the sketch on Mad TV where she plays a back superhero from the future who goes back to the 1950s to reassure a bunch of black heroes from that era that their contribution to black hero-ing is indeed important.
 * Sassy Black Woman