Iconic Actress Marlene Clark, Beloved Star of ‘Sanford and Son’ and ‘Ganja & Hess,’ Passes Away at 85

An American actress, animator, and fashion model Marlene Clark is no more among us. Clark dies at the age of 85 on May 18 and the said news was announced by her friend.

Marlene Clark’s friend Tamara Lynch announced the news but no cause of death was revealed. Clark was well known for her role as Ganja Meda in the 1973 horror film Ganja & Hess and Janet Lawson.

Lynch told PEOPLE Marlene Clark was “an extraordinary woman, If you knew Marlene, you knew that the one thing that she had was grit. She was a very small-statured woman, really thin.”

“She almost looked like a Black Polynesian, she was just so exotic. Then she had this deep, cavernous voice. When she spoke, it was such a command of attention.” she added.

Lynch also told Clark maintained her work ethic “She was tenacious in her love of art, film, and expression,“.

“Walked in the room, she just raised the bar. She’s one of the people who get lost in the cracks,” she said.

“She’s part of the people who kicked down these doors, and there was no predecessor to what she was doing. Everything was blind. So everything she’s doing is the first. So she’s being in these films with these Black filmmakers and these Black actors and these Black writers and creating this movement.” she concluded.