Judy Pace was born on June 15, 1942, in Los Angeles, California. Her father was an airplane mechanic and her mother was a dress maker. Her parents raised her and older sisters in the back of their retail shop, Kitty’s Place, said to be the largest local black-owned ladies shop in the area at the time.
After graduating from high school in 1960, Pace majored in Sociology at Los Angeles City College, but suffered a health setback that caused her to rethink her future plans. In 1963, Pace auditioned for the Ebony Fashion Fair, and at the age of 20, she became the youngest model to ever walk the runway for the show. The exposure launched her career. Pace was the first dark-skinned African American woman seen on film with her co-role in 13 Frightened Girls (1963). She starred in Bewitched (1964), Batman (1966), The Flying Nun (1967), Three in the Attic (1968), Mod Squad (1968), and The Young Lawyers (1969). Pace was also the first African American bachelorette on The Dating Game (1965).
Dubbed “The Black Barbie” or “The Black babydoll” and called the “new black woman – strong and confident,” her career expanded with the Black Power/ Black is Beautiful push of African American social activists in the late 1960s.
In 1971, Pace established the Kwanza Foundation, the only philanthropic nonprofit black organization honoring the women of film in front and behind the camera. It included African American actresses Esther Rolle, Marla Gibbs, Debbie Allen, and Pam Grier, who organized and held fundraisers for scholarships for minority students. Pace starred opposite Billy Dee Williams in the Emmy award winning film Brian’s Song in 1972. The film was the first to be cited in the U.S. Congressional record. – Blackpast.org
“The hardest thing to do,” she said in an interview, “is to find any sort of movie role if you’re a black actress. People don’t realize that. They talk about Sidney Poitier and Jim Brown – but where are the actresses?
“Let’s face it. If it weren’t for TV, all the young black actresses in Hollywood would be unemployed.
Miss Pace said she established a five-year-plan for breaking into the movies. “I figured if I didn’t make it by then, I’d quit wasting my time,” she said. “I spent two years studying, taking acting classes and workshops, things like that. Then I began to do some modeling and to get an occasional TV role. And then the ‘Three in the Attic’ role came along in the fifth year, two weeks before the deadline . . . Not that I wouldn’t have stretched the deadline, of course.” – RogerEbert.com
