Judy Pace

Career

She made her film debut as one of the title characters in William Castle's 13 Frightened Girls (1963). Pace got her first major break in Hollywood as the first black villainess on TV with her role as Vickie Fletcher in the hit ABC-TV soap-opera/drama series Peyton Place (1968). She became a familiar face in the 1970s on both the big and small screen, appearing in popular blaxploitation movies and popular television shows. Television shows on which she appeared include Batman, Tarzan, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, The Flying Nun, I Spy, The Mod Squad, That's My Mama, Kung Fu, Sanford and Son, What's Happening!! and Good Times. For one season, she starred in the drama The Young Lawyers broadcast on ABC. Pace also had a key supporting role as Gale Sayers's wife, Linda, in the critically acclaimed 1971 ABC-TV movie Brian's Song.

Personal life

Pace was born in Los Angeles in 1942 to an airplane mechanic and a dress maker.

In 1972, Pace married Don Mitchell, who co-starred for 7 years on the hit NBC-TV series Ironside. They had two daughters together before their divorce in 1986. Their daughter, Julia Pace Mitchell, is an actress most famous for her role in the daytime serial The Young and the Restless.

Pace had been courted by late baseball great Curt Flood in 1966 when he saw her as a bachelorette contestant on the game show The Dating Game. They dated until 1970 after Flood lost his court case and left the country. After Pace's 1984 divorce from Mitchell, she and Flood met again, leading to their 1986 marriage. They remained together until Flood's death in 1997.

Pace's sister, activist Jean Pace Brown, was married to musician and actor Oscar Brown, Jr.