'70s Star Pam Grier Is Still Stunning Decades Later
Pam Grier's bombshell beauty dominated the 1970s and has continued to wow us decades later, well into her elder years. Regarded by Hollywood hitmakers like Quentin Tarantino as "cinema's first female action star," Grier managed to redefine beauty through her naturally toned physique, statement afros, and sultry smoky eye, seen across Blaxploitation films of the day.
Maintaining an onscreen presence across film and television over the last five decades has only cemented Grier's legacy as a beauty icon — her name was even among the popular baby names from the 1970s that deserve a resurgence. Still, the "Foxy Brown" star maintains a humble outlook on the admiration she receives as a trailblazer. "I'm just so pleased when I go to the Oscars party and here's Mary J. Blige, here's Gabrielle Union, here's Keke Palmer, here's Teyana Taylor. Here's Queen Latifah—all these women coming to me saying, 'If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be here,'" she told Essence when celebrating her 77th birthday in May 2026.
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When it comes to Grier's longevity in Hollywood, she doesn't chalk it up to her physical beauty and action star persona. It's her modest upbringing and farmer roots that get all the credit. "My great-grandmother and grandfather were Cheyenne, Wyoming sugar beet farmers," she told TASTY CLIPS in 2019 (per Wave Publication). "They taught all of us girls how to hunt, fish, shoot, and to be resourceful. Those kinds of management skills helped me to have 50 years in the film industry."
Pam Grier took a build-it-and-they-will-come approach to her career
As a trailblazer and beauty icon, Pam Grier enjoyed several "firsts" throughout her career. She remains regarded as the first Black female action star, through leading roles in cult-classic hits like 1973's "Coffy" and 1974's "Foxy Brown." As the first of her kind, Grier resorted to performing her own stunts during the early start of her career due to the lack of Black stuntwomen. Fed up with the standards at the time, Grier was the first Hollywood star to advocate and even pay for the inclusion of Black female professionals in the stunt industry. Talk about successfully advocating for yourself in the workplace!
Grier's beauty landed her on a 1975 cover of Ms. Magazine, and she was the first Black woman to do so. Decades after her dominance in Blaxploitation films of the 1970s, Grier was petitioned by Quentin Tarantino, who wrote the lead role of his 1997 film "Jackie Brown" specifically for her, making her the first female actor to have a starring role in one of his films. The role added to Grier's cemented legacy and earned her Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nods. Her iconic look at the 1998 Golden Globes made the right lists and was definitely not among the most inappropriate outfits in Golden Globes history.
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Looking back on her success in Hollywood, Grier is aware of her role in history and the representation she brought to the industry as well as the way it transcended on screen. "The audience saw themselves in the leads and the characters and that expanded the marketplace," she told Entertainment Weekly in 2023. "Sometimes you just have to do it — build it and they will come."