Pamela Suzette Grier , PhD (born May 26, 1949) is an American actress. She achieved fame for her starring roles in a string of 1970s action , blaxploitation , and women in prison films for American International Pictures and New World Pictures , most notably Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974). Her other major films during this period included The Big Doll House (1971), Women in Cages (1971), The Big Bird Cage (1972), Black Mama, White Mama (1973), Scream Blacula Scream (1973), The Arena (1974), Sheba, Baby (1975), Bucktown (1975), and Friday Foster (1975). Described by Quentin Tarantino as cinema's first female action star, [1] she starred as the titular character in Tarantino's crime film Jackie Brown (1997), for which she received Golden Globe Award , Sc...