Actress, 77, starred in ‘a big, fat box office hit’ in the ’90s, was a sitcom mom and
She’s done it all: Hollywood action blockbusters, international slapstick comedy, sitcom mom shtick, a voice role on the longest-running animated series of all time, and even some legitimate theater on the New York stage.
The 77-year-old actress cut a slim silhouette in her shades, crewneck sweater and checkered trousers while shopping at IKEA in Los Angeles.
The star completed the look by slipping into a pair of olive green loafers during the rare sighting.
Throughout her more than 50-year career, she’s juggled scene-stealing roles in major motion pictures including indie cult hits and the biggest TV series franchises of the 2010s and 2020s.
Her co-stars have included a who’s who of Hollywood heavyweights: Russell Crowe, Robin Williams, Jamie Foxx, Meg Ryan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tommy Lee Jones, Halle Berry, Daryl Hannah, Dennis Quaid, Emma Thompson, Gary Oldman, LL Cool J, Patrick Swayze, Parker Posey and the recently deceased Stacy Keach.
Can you guess who this highly respected mystery actress is?
Can you name this still youthful veteran of more than five decades in showbiz?
The TV, film and stage actress was seen grabbing some wrapping paper and candles on Wednesday, November 11, while shopping at IKEA in Los Angeles
The mystery star is actress Pamela Reed!
Reed garnered early praise for ‘grittily glamorous roles’ that won her arthouse acclaim, before scoring a plum part in what she jokingly admitted was her first ‘big, fat box office hit’ opposite action hero Schwarzenegger in 1990’s Kindergarten Cop.
‘I shoot a gun, I save Arnold’s life, kids cheer me. It’s not a gold statue, but it’s not a bad feeling,’ Reed told Entertainment Weekly, before deadpanning: ‘I’ve found my calling. This is it. No more Ms. Cult Star. I’m going to be the new queen of the action movies.’
She was just joking, of course, explaining to the outlet that the one thing she would never do is accept a role that encourages sexual violence or ‘perpetrates the idea of women as followers or appendages.’
Reed also shared her own explanation of why, at 40, she still hadn’t yet cracked ‘the group of five, the women who get offered all the best movie roles.
‘I think it’s partly the perception of me in Hollywood as a New York stage actress,’ she said. ‘You know, a snob. I want to wear a sign that says, “I was born in Tacoma! I lived in Maryland! I just keep an apartment in New York.”‘
Alas, her mainstream success was a long time coming.
After earning her B.F.A. at the University of Washington, Reed first gained recognition more than a decade before, with her Broadway debut at the Billy Rose Theatre (now known as the Nederlander Theatre) in The November People, which closed after one performance on January 14, 1978.
The mystery star is actress Pamela Reed
The 77-year-old cut a slim silhouette in her shades, crewneck sweater, checkered trousers and olive green loafers in a rare sighting while running errands in Los Angeles
Reed’s biggest hit and breakthrough role was Ivan Reitman’s action-comedy Kindergarten Cop (1990), starring opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger as Detective Phoebe O’Hara, a part that was originally written for a male actor
Reed and Schwarzenegger’s Kindergarten Cop grossed $91.5 million domestically and $202 million in the worldwide box office on a $26 million budget
Pamela Reed played Tina O’Brien, the snarky ex-wife of overwhelmed car salesman Joey O’Brien (played by the late Robin Williams), in the 1990 comedy Cadillac Man
She bounced back by earning Drama Desk Award nods for her off-Broadway work in a pair of stage classics: Sam Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class and Marsha Norman’s Getting Out in 1978 and 1979, respectively.
After those early career highlights came a disappointing one-month run in one of the bigger Broadway flops of Neil Simon’s career, 1981’s aptly named Fools.
Simon is notably the playwright of The Odd Couple.
As it is apt to do for buzz-worthy new talents, Hollywood soon came calling.
Early scene stealers came in Jonathan Demme’s Oscar-winning Melvin and Howard, and career-jumpstarting turn as the feisty Belle Starr in Walter Hill’s The Long Riders (both 1980).
Other standout film roles include The Right Stuff (1983), in which she played Trudy Cooper, the wife of astronaut Gordon “Gordo” Cooper (played by Dennis Quaid).
She also portrayed the wisecracking ex-wife of Robin Williams’ frantic used car salesman in Cadillac Man (1990).
Reed appeared opposite Robin Williams for the first time in the midlife crisis comedy The Best of Times (1986), co-starring Kurt Russell as her former high school jock husband
Reed played the exasperated wife of David Langley (Peter MacNicol), the art curator who hosts Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) during his chaotic stay in Los Angeles in the British-American comedy smash Bean (1997), which earned $256.6 million at the global box office
Reed shows off what her friend the late actress Margaret Whitton dubbed ‘those fabulous peepers’ in 1992’s Passed Away, a comedy co-starring Bob Hoskins and Frances McDormand
On TV, Reed has recurred as everything from Marlene Griggs-Knope, the hard-driving politico mom of Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knope, on NBC’s Parks and Recreation (2009-2012), to a voice role as neighbor Ruth Powers on The Simpsons (1992-2021).
She also had a main cast role in the CBS post-apocalyptic drama Jericho, a cult hit which ran for three troubled seasons from 2006 to 2008.
Reeds guest star credits include turns on Grey’s Anatomy (2010), CSI (2011-2012), Criminal Minds (2014), NCIS: Los Angeles (2015-2023) and many more.
Off-screen, Reed found love with director Sandy Smolan. The couple married in 1988 and adopted two children, Reed and Lily.
Reed played Marlene Griggs-Knope, the hard-driving politico mom of Amy Poehler’s earnest Leslie Knope, on NBC’s Parks and Recreation (2009-2012)
Old Hollywood icon Burt Lancaster co-starred with Reed in the 1985 TV movie Scandal Sheet
Smolan is well-regarded in the television industry, having helmed dozens of series, including L.A. Law (1989), Doogie Howser, M.D. (1989-1991), Dawson’s Creek (1999-2000), and Diagnosis Murder (2000), One Tree Hill (2004), The O.C. (2004) and Brothers & Sisters (2007).
He also directed his wife in the acclaimed independent film Rachel River (1987), a comedy-drama about a young journalist (Reed) returning to her Minnesota home town, which scored him a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
Meanwhile, regional audiences have seen Reed in recent years in Other Desert Cities (2013) and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (2014) at Seattle’s ACT Theatre.
She also played Nora Helmer in A Doll’s House: Part II (2014), Caroline in Luna Gale (2016), and Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (2019) at Seattle Rep.
Reed also portrayed Dierdre in the first national tour of the Tony Award-winning best play The Humans, which originated at Seattle Rep in 2018.
More recently, Reed appeared as the wife of Oscar winner Tommy Lee Jones in the inspired-by-true-events legal drama The Burial (2023)
And after all her years of experience, she celebrated 50 years of acting in 2025, having earned her Equity union card in 1975.
But it’s her signature role in Kindergarten Cop that fans still remember best.
‘There is no project that I am approached [about more] on the street, in the store, in the restaurant or wherever I am, by people so often,’ she told Today in 2025. ‘And the way they approach is just with utter joy. “Oh! Oh, I saw it last night. Oh! That was so fun! It’s maybe the 50th time we’ve seen it. We love that.”
‘You know, just the kind of exuberance and camaraderie that people feel, and then they choose to share it.’