Judy Pace, the pioneering actress once described by Variety as “the most beautiful Black actress in Hollywood,” has died at the age of 83. Her daughters, attorney Shawn Pace Mitchell and actress Julia Pace Mitchell, confirmed that Pace “died peacefully in her sleep” on March 11. The L.A. native and Dorsey High grad broke barriers early in her career, becoming the first Black woman placed under contract at Columbia Studios and the youngest model to join the Ebony Fashion Fair in 1961. She earned her first major breakthrough in 1968 with a groundbreaking role as Vickie Fletcher on the hit ABC soap-opera drama Peyton Place, becoming the first Black villainess on network television. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Pace became a familiar presence on television and film at a time when few Black women were afforded prominent roles in popular series including I Spy, Batman, Bewitched, Days of Our Lives and The Mod Squad.
In the 1970s she starred in several Blaxploitation-era films, including Cotton Comes to Harlem and The Slams, and portrayed the wife of football legend Gale Sayers opposite Billy Dee Williams and James Caan in the acclaimed television film Brian’s Song. Offscreen, Pace was equally committed to expanding opportunities for others. She co-founded the Kwanza Foundation with actress Nichelle Nichols to support Black women working in film and provide scholarships for minority students pursuing careers in the arts, extending her legacy far beyond the screen.