Model and actress Judy Pace died on March 11 at the age of 83
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Pace was known for her role in the celebrated TV movie Brian's Song
She won an NAACP Image Award for Best Actress in 1970 for her trailblazing role as Pat Walters in The Young Lawyers
Judy Pace, a model and actress known for her roles inPeyton Placeand the celebrated TV movieBrian's Song, has died. She was 83.
Pace's daughters, attorney Shawn Pace Mitchell and actress Julia Pace Mitchell, announced through a spokesperson that their mother "died peacefully in her sleep" on March 11 while visiting family in Marina Del Rey, Calif.
Pace was born in Los Angeles in 1942. Before beginning her acting career, she trained as a model, becoming the youngest in the Ebony Fashion Fair's 1961-1962 tour. She made her film debut in 1963's13 Frightened Girls, playing a Liberian teenager, a role that launched her career and led to her becoming the first Black woman under contract at Columbia Studios.
Pace went on to star as Vickie Fletcher in the primetime drama seriesPeyton Placefrom 1968 to 1969. She won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series in 1970 for her trailblazing role as Pat Walters inThe Young Lawyers(1969-1971).
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Her other film and television credits includeThe Fortune Cookie(1966),Three in the Attic(1968),The Thomas Crown Affair(1968),Cotton Comes to Harlem(1970),Frogs(1972) andCool Breeze(1972).
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She starred in the celebrated 1971 TV movieBrian's Song, playing the wife of football legend Gale Sayers. The movie, which also starredJames Caan, was watched by 55 million people — half of those in the United States who owned a television at the time — when it aired, perVariety.
Pace also guest-starred on many popular TV series, includingBewitched,Good Times,I Spy,I Dream of Jeannie,Mod Squad,That's My MamaandSanford and Son. Her final acting credit was a four-episode arc inBeauty and the Ballerin 2017.
In 1971, the late actress co-founded the Kwanza Foundation alongside Nichelle Nichols. The organization focused on supporting Black women working in film and providing scholarships to minority students pursuing careers in the arts.
Pace shared her two daughters with her ex-husband, actor Don Mitchell, with whom she was married from 1972 to 1984. She wed Major League Baseball star Curt Flood in 1968. After Flood's death in 1997, Pace remained a passionate advocate for his legacy and induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Pace is survived by her daughters, her grandson, Stephen Lamar Hightower III, and her son-in-law, Otto Strong. To honor her memory, her family has requested that donations be made to the NAACP.
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