Pioneering Actress Judy Pace Dies at 83

Pace was known for playing complex, multidimensional Black characters on TV and in film.

Mar. 16, 2026 at 9:18pm

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Judy Pace, a pioneering television and film actress in the 1960s and '70s who helped show that Black women could play more than just one-dimensional characters, died on Wednesday in Marina del Rey, Calif. She was 83. Pace was best known for her role as the ambitious, selfish and sharp-tongued Vickie Fletcher on the prime-time soap opera 'Peyton Place' in 1968 and '69, which may have been the first time a Black woman was an antagonist on a major television series.

Why it matters

Pace's career represented a shift in how Black actresses were portrayed on screen, moving beyond the limited roles of nurses, teachers, and 'goody-two-shoes' that had historically been offered. Her complex, layered characters helped pave the way for more nuanced and diverse representations of Black women in television and film.

The details

Pace made her film debut in 1963 in '13 Frightened Girls' and became the first Black woman under contract at Columbia Pictures. In 1965, she was the first Black bachelorette to be featured on 'The Dating Game.' In the 1970s, she was seen often in blaxploitation films, playing roles like a sophisticated jewelry thief and a model who shares a scene with a Black servant. Pace also earned an NAACP Image Award for her role on the TV show 'The Young Lawyers.'

  • Pace played Vickie Fletcher on 'Peyton Place' in 1968 and 1969.
  • Pace married actor Don Mitchell in 1972, and they divorced in 1984.
  • Pace later married baseball player Curt Flood in 1986 after reconnecting with him following her divorce.

The players

Judy Pace

A pioneering television and film actress in the 1960s and '70s who helped show that Black women could play more than just one-dimensional characters.

Vickie Fletcher

The ambitious, selfish and sharp-tongued character that Pace played on the prime-time soap opera 'Peyton Place' in 1968 and 1969, which may have been the first time a Black woman was an antagonist on a major television series.

Don Mitchell

Pace's first husband, whom she married in 1972 and divorced in 1984.

Curt Flood

A baseball player whom Pace dated in the 1960s and later married in 1986 after her divorce from Don Mitchell. Flood's legal challenge to baseball's reserve clause helped pave the way for free agency in professional sports.

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What they’re saying

“I think 'Peyton Place' is more honest in dealing with the sorts of problems people are really into. You go to the movies and if you see a Black girl, she's a goody-two-shoes. All the Black women in the movies seem to be nurses, schoolteachers, social workers. Black women lead real lives, baby; they're not all doctors' wives.”

— Judy Pace, Actress

“If you grew up in the '70s, like I did, you remember what a trailblazer she was.”

— Ed Gordon, TV journalist

The takeaway

Judy Pace's pioneering roles as complex, multidimensional Black characters on television and in film helped pave the way for more nuanced and diverse representations of Black women in the entertainment industry, moving beyond the limited stereotypes that had historically been offered.