BALTIMORE Oct. 5 (AP) — Tamara Dobson, the Amazonian model turned actress who portrayed a strong female role as Cleopatra Jones in two so-called blaxploitation films, died here on Monday. She was 59.
Warner Brothers
Tamara Dobson
The cause was complications of pneumonia and multiple sclerosis, her publicist said. She had lived at the Keswick Multi-Care Center for the last two years.
Ms. Dobson was born in Baltimore and graduated from Western High School. She began her modeling career in fashion shows at the Maryland Institute College of Art and then moved to New York. She appeared in many magazines, including Vogue and Essence, and television commercials for Fabergé, Chanel and Revlon.
At 6 feet 2 inches tall and with a traffic-stopping hourglass figure, Ms. Dobson was striking as the kung-fu fighting agent Cleopatra Jones in 1973. She reprised the role in 1975 in “Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold.”
Ms. Dobson also appeared in “Come Back, Charleston Blue,” “Norman...Is That You?” “Murder at the World Series” and “Chained Heat.” She had TV roles in the early 1980’s in “Jason of Star Command” and “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.”
Ms. Dobson lived most of her adult life in New York, her family said. She learned she had multiple sclerosis six years ago.
In her performing years, she was known for her costumes as well as for a huge Afro hairstyle.
“She was not afraid to start a trend,” her brother, Peter Dobson of Houston, said. “She designed a lot of the clothing that so many women emulated. With the knowledge from her degree and her natural creativity, she helped develop elegant fashions, especially for tall women.”
