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In Remembrance: Tamara Dobson
Born May 14, 1947 in Baltimore, Dobson studied fashion illustration at the Maryland Institute College of Art before turning to modeling in the Baltimore area. She attracted the attention of the New York City fashion world and was soon modeling for a variety of magazines including Vogue, Redbook, Ebony and Essence. She also appeared in television commercials for Chanel, Fabrege and Revlon.
Although her film career was brief, it made an impact. After an uncredited bit part in 1972’s Come Back, Charleston Blue, Dobson made her proper film debut in Fuzz (1972) as the girl friend of the villainous Yul Brenner.
But it was her next role, that of the titular, karate-kicking, fashion conscious, sexy government agent Cleopatra Jones, that would make Dobson a 70s film icon. It also put her in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the tallest leading lady ever in film at six feet, two inches tall. Cleopatra Jones made such an impression that it was quickly parodied in the sketch film The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977). Her Cleopatra Jones character was also the basis for the sexy spy played by Beyonce Knowles in the third Austin Powers spy spoof Goldmember (2002). Although she would only star in one other blaxploitation film, the sequel Cleopatra Jones And The Casino Of Gold (1975), Dobson would stand next to only Foxy Brown’s Pam Grier as one of the genre’s most famous female stars.
Dobson only made two more film appearances – in the 1976 --- Norman…Is That You? and 1983’s Chained Heat – and couple of television appearances before returning to the fashion world. |
Tamara Dobson, the statuesque model-turned-actress who starred in
the title role of the 1973 blaxploitation hit Cleopatra Jones,
has passed away on October 9, 2006 in Baltimore, MD. She was 59.