Pace broke down many barriers to Black women working in Hollywood with memorable turns on series like “Bewitched” and films like “Cotton Comes to Harlem.”

Judy Pace, groundbreaking star of *Brian’s Song *and Peyton Place, dies at 83

Pace broke down many barriers to Black women working in Hollywood with memorable turns on series like "Bewitched" and films like "Cotton Comes to Harlem."

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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March 15, 2026 8:40 p.m. ET

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Judy Pace in 'Cotton Comes to Harlem' (1970). Credit:

Judy Pace, the model and actress whose memorable turns in series like *Peyton Place *and TV films like *Brian's Song* broke down barriers for Black women in Hollywood, has died. She was 83.

Pace's daughters, the attorney Shawn Pace Mitchell and the actress Julia Pace Mitchell, confirmed their mother's death in a statement shared with * *on Sunday. Pace died peacefully in her sleep on Wednesday while visiting family in Marina del Rey, Calif., her daughters shared.

"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.

'Brian's Song' stars Judy Pace, Billy Dee Williams, Shelley Fabares, and James Caan.

ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

Pace was born on June 15, 1942, in Los Angeles. After attending Los Angeles City College as a sociology major, Pace landed her first role in a major Hollywood production. At only 21, she appeared as the daughter of a diplomat from Liberia in the film *13 Frightened Girls*, from master of shock William Castle.

Small, often single-episode roles on popular series like *Bewitched*, the Adam West-starring '60s *Batman*, and *Days of Our Lives *followed. But Pace achieved a major breakthrough being cast on the primetime soap adaptation of *Peyton Place*, the scandalous 1956 novel by Grace Metalious that was memorably adapted to the big screen the year after.

Pace played the sharp-tongued and manipulative Vickie, who arrives in the series' titular small town in its fifth and final season in a cloud of scandal. She shared several scenes with another trailblazer in Black Hollywood - Ruby Dee, who played Alma Miles.

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Pace immediately went on to star on the ABC legal drama *The Young Lawyers* in a groundbreaking role as a Boston attorney. She won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series for the role in 1970.

The first half of the 1970s saw a prolific run from Pace, who jumped from series like *Shaft*, *Sanford and Son*, and *Good Times*, to films like the Blaxploitation classic *Cotton Comes to Harlem *and the radical TV film *Brian's Song*. That film told the real story of Brian Piccolo (James Caan in the film) and Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams), the first interracial roommates in the history of the NFL. Pace played Sayers' wife, Linda, in the revered ABC movie of the week.

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By 1975 Pace, who also worked as a model, had more or less retired from acting, going on to raise her two children with actor Don Mitchell, who she divorced in 1984, marrying baseball player Curt Flood two years later.

In a 1968 interview with Roger Ebert, Pace remarked, "The hardest thing to do 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?"

Pace is survived by her daughters, 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.

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