Judy Pace, a groundbreaking actress and model who appeared in Peyton Place and Brian’s Song, has passed away. She was 83.
Shawn Pace Mitchell and Julia Pace Mitchell, Pace’s daughters, confirmed that their mother passed peacefully in her sleep on Wednesday while visiting family in Marina del Rey, Calif., in an official statement to Entertainment Tonight.
”Widely regarded as one of Hollywood’s most strikingly beautiful and elegant performers during her prime, Pace built a career that helped open doors for Black actresses in mainstream entertainment,” the statement read.
Born on June 15, 1942, in Los Angeles, Pace landed her first role after attending Los Angeles City College as a sociology major at 21. She appeared as the daughter of a diplomat from Liberia in the film 13 Frightened Girls.
Pace went on to have small roles in popular 60s series such as Bewitched, Batman, and Days of Our Lives.
COMING TO PROMINENCE
Her breakthrough role was Peyton Place, a primetime soap opera where she played Vickie, in its fifth and final season of the series. Pace shared screen time with the legendary Ruby Dee, who played Alma Miles.
In Brian’s Song, she played Linda Sayers, the wife of Chicago Bears great Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams). That ABC movie of the week also starring James Caan, was seen by 55 million people.
After Peyton Place, Pace starred in The Young Lawyers on ABC, playing a Boston attorney. For her performance, she won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series for the role in 1970.
Pace’s other efforts include Shaft, Sanford and Son, Good Times, and Cotton Comes to Harlem. Following her retirement from acting in 1975, she raised her two children with actor Don Mitchell. When they divorced in 1984, Pace married baseball legend Curt Flood, who is responsible for free agency in professional sports, in 1986.
Along with her daughters, Pace is survived by grandson Stephen Lamar Hightower III and son-in-law Otto Strong. In lieu of flowers, Pace’s family requests donations be made in her honor to the NAACP.