Pam Grier
Grier in 2012, photo by Prphotos.com
Birth Name: Pamela Suzette Grier
Place of Birth: Winston-Salem, North Carolina, U.S.
Date of Birth: May 26, 1949
Ethnicity: African-American, likely small amounts of Filipino and Puerto Rican
Pam Grier is an American actress. Her roles include the films Coffy, Black Mama White Mama, Foxy Brown, Jackie Brown, Jawbreaker, John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars, and Bones.
She is the daughter of Gwendolyn Sylvia (Samuels) and Clarence Ransom Grier, Jr. Her parents are/were both black.
Pam has said:
People see me as a strong black figure, and I’m proud of that… But I’m a mix of several races: Hispanic, Chinese, Filipino. My dad was black, and my mom was Cheyenne Indian.
Pam’s paternal grandfather was Clarence Ransom Grier (the son of Dock Anderson/Alexander Grier and Martha Jane Grier). Clarence was born in North Carolina. Dock was the son of Thomas Grier and Susan E. Neel/Neely. Martha was the daughter of Maurice Arthur Grier and Mollie.
Pam’s paternal grandmother was named Myrtle Hutchinson (the daughter of Julia Hutchinson). Myrtle was born in South Carolina. Julia was the daughter of Jasper Hutchinson and Malasee/Mallisa/Lissie Callahan.
Pam’s maternal grandfather was named Ray Benjamin/Ben Davis (also known as Raymond J. Pariwle). Ray was born in the Philippines, and evidently had Filipino, Puerto Rican, and African ancestry. Pam has stated that her maternal grandfather was a Filipino named Raymundo Parrilla. Ray was raised by a black couple in the U.S., Benjamin/Ben F. Davis, from Kansas, and Lucie/Lucy M. Blondette, who was from Martinique, an island in the Caribbean, which is a single territorial collectivity of France.
Pam’s maternal grandmother was Marguerite Turner (the daughter of Emmet/Emmett Turner and Mahala/Mahalia “Halie” Scoggins). Marguerite was born in Arkansas. Mahala was the daughter of Marshall A. Scoggins and Silvia Ann “Seline” Walton.
Sources: Partial family history of Pam Grier – https://www.theroot.com
Genealogy of Pam Grier – https://www.geni.com
Pam’s father on the 1940 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Marriage record of Pam’s paternal grandparents, Clarence Ransom Grier and Myrtle Hutchinson – https://familysearch.org
Death record of Pam’s paternal grandfather, Clarence Ransom Grier – https://familysearch.org
Pam’s paternal great-grandparents, Dock Anderson/Alexander Grier and Martha Jane Grier, on the 1900 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Dock Anderson/Alexander Grier and Martha Jane Grier on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Pam’s maternal grandfather, Ray Benjamin Davis/Raymond J. Pariwle, on the 1920 U.S. Census – https://www.familysearch.org
Obituary of Pam’s maternal grandmother, Marguerite (Turner) Davis – https://www.legacy.com
Pam’s maternal grandfather was Marguerite Turner (Emmet/Emmett Turner and Mahala/Mahalia ”Halie” Scoggins). Marguerite was born in Arkansas. Mahala was the daughter of Marshall A. Scoggins and Silvia “Seline” Ann Walton.
>Pam’s paternal grandmother was named Myrtle Hutchinson (the daughter of Jasper Hutchinson and Julia).
Looks like this isn’t entirely correct. Her mother was Julia Hutchinson, and Julia’s father was Jasper Hutchinson (her mother was Malasee/Mallisa Callahan). Both her and her sister have Jasper as their father on their marriage records, but on her sister’s death record the father’s name is Ruben Clinkscale. Someone attached this white man with the same name (and only person with that name in Due West, SC) to all three sisters’ pages on familysearch and ancestry:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/72085437/reuben-william-clinkscales
https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/DenverPost/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=2630271
Pam’s maternal grandfather was Raymond B. “Ray” Davis.
Pam’s maternal grandfather was Marguerite Turner.
Marguerite was quite possibly daughter of Emmet Turner and Mahala/Mahalia Scoggins.
Ray Benjamin Davis was born in the Philippines, but his draft record says he’s black. Family trees have his parents as Benjamin Davis and Lucie, both African-American from Kansas and Texas. I found Benjamin and Lucie on a 1910 census, but Ray wasn’t listed in the household, even though he should have been 1 y. o. at the time.
I found him!
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MNBK-31K
But here, even though he’s listed as Ben and Lucie’s son, his parents birthplaces are Philippines and Puerto Rico, and he’s listed as mulatto. Maybe Ben and Lucie adopted him, which would explain why he wasn’t there with them on the previous census.
Never though she actually told the truth about her heritage. But even the surname she said her grandfather had seems correct. Pariwle isn’t far from Parrilla and is probably misspelled.
I’m guessing that the Puerto Rican part is of African descent.
Possible, but it could also be that they just put down their own race on their adopted son. Similar things has happened.
Isn’t a bizarre thing that Lucie M. Davis was born in France to French-born parents but was listed as “mulatto”? A Duplass-like case?
I was gonna comment on that too. Yes, very strange. With “Duplass-like case”, do you mean that she might’ve been French and white, but lied about her race when marrying a black man? And forgot to lie about her birth place?
The only other possibility would be that she was indeed African-American from Texas. But then I really don’t see why she put down France as her birth place. There’s no reason for her to do that. So who knows…
Or maybe she was actually a French mulatto, with French and African ancestry.
On the 1910 Census, Lucie Davis gave her birthplace as Guadeloupe which is a French territory in the Caribbean. This is probably why she said France on the 1920 Census.
https://www.theroot.com/my-sis-is-famous-and-i-need-genealogy-help-1790876845
Well that was interesting .Although if i was her, i would leave that dna stuff alone, because it brought me nothing but a headache
She doesn’t look black at all, and she didn’t look black in the 70s either. Americans are just so uniformed and asinine about race that anyone with a tan can be black these days. She’s a mixed race woman. It’s evident in her phenotype and the pictures of her parents. Don’t know why it’s so hard to accept that mixed race people exist.
@Multiethnicchick Youre being silly LOL. pam Grier definitely LOOKS BLACK and she should as her dad is BLACK
Actually I just saw a picture of her parents, And they look like my BLACK relatives. Both of them look black to me.
@multi
Quote( she didn’t look black in the 70s either)
come on now, stop it. All the black magazines she was on the cover of in the 70’s, every movie, and t.v show, she played a black woman. if she didn’t feel she was a black person, she could have said no , but she didn’t. Even in the bio above, Pam has stated(People see me as a strong black figure, and I’m proud of that). She didn’t say I hate being seen as that.She could have said I’m mixed , don’t call me a black person, but she didn’t do that.Now stating I’m a mix of this and that, Well what black person on this side of the hemisphere isn’t a mix of this and that, so she’s no different than the rest.
She actually said “I’m a mix of several races” too.
“Black” as you told me is an “umbrella term” for people of color. Hence Pam Grier was labelled as such despite alwais showing solid non-African influence in her phenotype since the 1970s: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51MAXLEjp5L.jpg
Laura Gemser, an Indonesian sexy star in Pam Grier mould, was marketed as “Black Emanuelle”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Emanuelle
In this broader view, most people in the world are black then (excluding Europeans, East Asians and some MENA)
@andrew
Quote(Pam Grier was labelled as such despite alwais showing solid non-African influence in her phenotype since the 1970s)
You have been shown a number of times over the yrs, Pure blood Africans with caucasoid features.Yet You’re still hooked on black people having one look. Pam phenotype is nothing usual for African Americans. I have many cousins like that, and I’ve told you this before(I mean the dark skin ones). Although Pam is very funny, because while she states she’s mixed now , she doesn’t mind calling (Wendell Scott) a black man, even though he looks white
https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/38d343ddf44957c5d773ded70c649ff7aabdcdd5/c=80-82-977-589/local/-/media/2018/01/16/USATODAY/USATODAY/636517376690717496-Wendell-Scott-A.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&width=1200
Quote(She actually said “I’m a mix of several races” too.)
As I wrote, who isn’t. Have you seen AA’s dna test? We’re just a mess of stuff. Good grief man, I have 7 different Euro bloodlines and 3 native in me. So her stating what she did doesn’t mean a whole lot
as for Laura Gemser did she ever play a black woman or say she was one, that would be a No . That was white people marketing her as that. She was never on any Ebony or Jet magazines, or t.v show, being seen as a strong black figure, but Pam grier did
Quote(In this broader view, most people in the world are black then (excluding Europeans, East Asians and some MENA)
I wouldn’t be so quick to exclude all East Asians. After all the (Sentinelese, onge people and others do live there), and I don’t think even you would doubt they’re black people
Pure blood Africans with caucasoid features myth again?? I remember you that West Africans (forebears of AA) look like this guy: https://ethnicelebs.com/travis-scott
Pam Grier is not typical AA, in fact it turns out she is part Filipino and PR. She was chosen because her ambiguous look was more saleable to mainstream audience, and they even put an Afro wig or perm on her because she barely looked black otherwise.
I wouldn’t focus much on “7 different Euro bloodlines”, because DNA tests are still messy so far under this point of view (I doubt Vanessa Williams and John Legend, for example, have ancestors from Finland and Romania, respectively).
@ Andrew
Quote(Pure blood Africans with caucasoid features myth again)
The only myth around here, is that you’re capable of learning something new. However believe what you will.
Quote(Pam Grier is not typical AA, in fact it turns out she is part Filipino and PR.)
I been around African Americans my entire live, and I have yet to see what’s typical. So I seriously doubt a person of your background would know what the typical bloodline is for 45 million self Identify African Americans. Now as far as her being mixed with Filipino, unless she wrote that on the front of her shirt, no one would ever put her with being part Fili.However saying that, there are a number of AA’s/filipinos mix here. Also The whitest white, to the blackest black to Asian can be a PR. So once again unless she wrote that on the front of her shirt, no one would ever assume she was PR, nor has anyone ever thought she was Puerto Rican.
Quote(She was chosen because her ambiguous look was more saleable to mainstream audience.)
That’s crap Pam does not have and ambiguous look. She has NEVER tried to play anything other than what she is, which is a African American woman .Why do you think she was quoted as saying (People see me as a strong black figure). It’s because WE African Americans know what we can look like. Here’s another quote from (I had to bump heads with a lot of men in the industry. They were not comfortable with showing a progressive black female in an action role). She didn’t say a strong (ambiguous looking ), or a strong (Mixed )female, she said BLACK. Which means , that how she saw herself, even though she’s mixed with such and such.She was choosen , because she was and attractive woman with a big 36D personality in the blaxploitation era.
Quote(and they even put an Afro wig or perm on her because she barely looked black otherwise.)
Are you on the good stuff,This was Pam real hair:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c6/7e/56/c67e562344ebb3c3ea31eac2cfde395c.jpg
and this is with a perm:
https://notednames.com/ImgProfile/@ava_Pam%20Grier.jpg
There’s nothing about her, that screams I not a black woman, which is why she’s always been called one.
@Andrew
Quote(I wouldn’t focus much on “7 different Euro bloodlines”, because DNA tests are still messy so far under this point of view )
This might be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me. You really think it could be true.
They did not put an afro wig on Pam, that is her natural hair. Afro wigs are super obvious (especially from the 70s). If you google photos of Grier’s parents they’re both African American.
Well, her family is evidently not only African-American.
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KW34-ZZ2
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FGFT-W5P
I believe Myrtle Hutchinson was her grandmother. Her grandfather married Alice in the late 40’s and her father was born in 1923:
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F8DY-TKJ
Have you found Grier’s Hispanic, Chinese, Filipino, and Cheyenne Native American ancestry yet?
Couldn’t find her mother at all. I’ll try again later. I did find a Guine Samuels, but she was way too old to be her mother.