<\/p>\n
Judy Pace, a pathbreaking model and star of \u201cblaxploitation\u201d films who appeared in television shows through the 1960s and \u201970s and the hit made-for-TV movie \u201cBrian\u2019s Song,\u201d died last week at age 83.<\/p>\n
The woman once described by Variety as \u201cthe most beautiful black actress in Hollywood\u201d died in her sleep Wednesday while visiting family in Marina del Rey, her family said.<\/p>\n
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Pace graduated from Dorsey High School and studied sociology at Los Angeles City College. Her family said she was the first Black woman under contract with Columbia Studios, the first Black bachelorette on \u201cThe Dating Game\u201d and the first spokesmodel for Fashion Fair Cosmetics.<\/p>\n
She won her first film role in 1963\u2019s \u201c13 Frightened Girls\u201d as a diplomat\u2019s daughter but found greater renown as a backstabbing schemer on the ABC soap \u201cPeyton Place\u201d a few years later. In 1970, she won an NAACP Image Award for her role as an unapologetic career woman on the series \u201cThe Young Lawyers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pace had \u201ca rather schizophrenic career,\u201d according to the Encyclopedia of African American Actresses in Film and Television by Bob McCann. She had \u201cgood girl\u201d roles, such as a football player\u2019s wife, in the 1971 TV film \u201cBrian\u2019s Song,\u201d and played characters of \u201cbland, perky professionalism\u201d in shows like \u201cI Dream of Jeannie\u201d and \u201cThe Flying Nun.\u201d<\/p>\n
In contrast, McCann wrote, her feature film roles were \u201cmilitant, overtly sexual, cocky, totally confident characters.\u201d She played the scheming, seductive Iris in the 1970 blaxploitation comedy classic \u201cCotton Comes to Harlem.\u201d <\/p>\n
One of the characters introduces her character with the warning: \u201cShe\u2019s a stone fox \u2014 watch your ass.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCann numbered her among the \u201clast generation of truly pioneering black actresses,\u201d along with Brenda Sykes, Pam Grier and Rosalind Cash. <\/p>\n
The critic Roger Ebert praised Pace as \u201ca quick, funny actress who can put an edge on a line and keep a scene sparkling\u201d in his (otherwise negative) review of the 1968 film \u201cThree in the Attic,\u201d in which Pace played a wronged, revenge-seeking girlfriend.<\/p>\n