Karen Black
Biography
Karen Blanche Black (née Ziegler; July 1, 1939 – August 8, 2013) was an American actress, screenwriter, singer, and songwriter. She rose to prominence for her work in various studio and independent films in the 1970s, frequently portraying eccentric and offbeat characters, and established herself as a figure of New Hollywood. Her career spanned over 50 years and includes nearly 200 credits in both independent and mainstream films. Black received numerous accolades throughout her career, including two Golden Globe Awards, as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
A native of suburban Chicago, Black studied theater at Northwestern University before dropping out and relocating to New York City. She performed on Broadway in 1965 before making her major film debut in Francis Ford Coppola's You're a Big Boy Now (1966). Black relocated to California and was cast as an acid-tripping prostitute in Dennis Hopper's road film Easy Rider (1969). That led to a lead in the drama Five Easy Pieces (1970), in which she played a hopeless beautician, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. Black made her first major commercial picture with the disaster film Airport 1975 (1974), and her subsequent appearance as Myrtle Wilson in The Great Gatsby (1974) won her a second Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.
Black starred as a glamorous country singer in Robert Altman's ensemble musical drama Nashville (1975), also writing and performing two songs for the soundtrack, which won a Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack. Her portrayal of an aspiring actress in John Schlesinger's drama The Day of the Locust (also 1975) earned her a third Golden Globe nomination, this time for Best Actress. She subsequently took on four roles in Dan Curtis' anthology horror film Trilogy of Terror (1975), followed by Curtis's supernatural horror feature, Burnt Offerings (1976). The same year, she starred as a con artist in Alfred Hitchcock's final film, Family Plot.
In 1982, Black starred as a trans woman in the Robert Altman-directed Broadway debut of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, a role she also reprised in Altman's subsequent film adaptation. She next starred in the comedy Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? (1983), followed by Tobe Hooper's remake of Invaders from Mars (1986). For much of the late 1980s and 1990s, Black starred in a variety of arthouse, independent, and horror films, as well as writing her own screenplays. She had a leading role as a villainous mother in Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses (2003), which cemented her status as a cult horror icon. She continued to star in low-profile films throughout the early 2000s, as well as working as a playwright before her death from ampullary cancer in 2013.
Personal info
Gender
Female
Birthday
1939-07-01
Place of birth
Park Ridge, Illinois, USA
Images
Cast
Nashville
1975
7.23
Men
1997
4.04
Malaika
1998
0.00
House of 1000 Corpses
2003
6.19
The Player
1992
7.20
I Woke Up Early the Day I Died
1998
4.95
Little Laura and Big John
1973
3.60
The Great Gatsby
1974
6.30
The Day of the Locust
1975
6.40
Born to Win
1971
5.24
Out of the Dark
1988
5.42
Dinosaur Valley Girls
1995
3.80
Family Plot
1976
6.77
The Invisible Kid
1988
4.80
Cut and Run
1985
5.30
Invaders from Mars
1986
5.56
Gypsy 83
2001
6.29
Five Easy Pieces
1970
7.10
The Outfit
1973
6.80
Airport 1975
1974
5.72
One Long Night
2007
3.90
Burnt Offerings
1976
6.51
Evil Spirits
1991
3.25
Plan 10 from Outer Space
1995
5.90
Killer Fish
1979
4.60
Rubin & Ed
1992
6.40
Auntie Lee's Meat Pies
1992
4.70
Haunting Fear
1990
4.30
Night Angel
1990
4.11
You're a Big Boy Now
1966
6.10
Children of the Night
1991
4.19
Invisible Dad
1998
3.40
Soulkeeper
2001
4.90
Trilogy of Terror
1975
6.20
New York Crossing
1996
1.00
Firecracker
2005
5.80
Homer and Eddie
1989
5.54
Hard Contract
1969
4.70
Stuck!
2009
2.60
Bury the Evidence
1998
0.00
Some Guy Who Kills People
2011
6.02
A Gunfight
1971
5.71
Suffering Man's Charity
2007
4.56
Mirror Mirror
1990
5.10
Wanderlust
2006
5.00
Separate Ways
1981
4.11
Cisco Pike
1971
5.60
The Pyx
1973
4.98
Drive, He Said
1971
5.70
Savage Dawn
1985
4.20
Red Dirt
2000
5.60
Conceiving Ada
1999
4.30
Eternal Evil
1985
4.26
The Roller Blade Seven
1991
2.80
Maria My Love
2012
2.00
Mommy's Little Monster
2012
3.50
America Brown
2005
5.70
Mascara
1999
3.00
Crimetime
1996
3.92
Irene in Time
2009
1.17
Dogtown
1997
3.40
Portnoy's Complaint
1972
4.33
Bound and Gagged: A Love Story
1993
5.30
The Grass Is Singing
1981
3.80
In Praise of Older Women
1978
4.93
Crime and Passion
1976
6.00
Law and Disorder
1974
4.50
Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?
1983
5.70
Easy Rider
1969
7.10
Light Speed
1998
2.00
Martin's Day
1985
6.20
Ooga Booga
2013
3.25
Charades
1998
3.25
Overexposed
1990
2.40
Blood Money
1991
5.20
Quiet Fire
1991
4.70
Club Fed
1990
4.80
The Squeeze
1978
5.20
Nothing Special
2010
5.00
She Loves Me Not
2013
3.90
Judgement
1992
3.00
Hostage
1987
7.00
Rhinoceros
1974
5.30
The Prime Time
1960
3.80
Dr. Rage
2005
2.29
Caged Fear
1991
3.38
Miss Right
1982
2.30
Return of the Roller Blade Seven
1993
4.38
Where the Ladies Go
1980
0.00
Bad Manners
1984
5.63
Hollywood Dreams
2007
2.40
Zapped Again!
1990
4.00
Wamego: Ultimatum
2009
0.00
Contamination
2008
2.00
Wild in Blue
2014
4.20
Twisted Justice
1990
5.10
The Underground Comedy Movie
1999
2.40
Hawk Warrior of the Wheelzone
2012
0.00
Curse of the Forty-Niner
2002
4.10
Fallen Arches
2000
0.00
Dixie Lanes
1988
3.00
Power
1980
2.00
Letters from the Big Man
2011
7.20
Bottomless Pit
2015
0.00
Angel Blue
1998
3.88
OowieWanna
2012
9.80
On the tracks of a filmmaker
1988
0.00
Paris
2003
1.67
Cries of Silence
1996
7.50
Capricorn One
1977
6.78
The Double 0 Kid
1992
4.80
Chanel Solitaire
1981
4.38
The Last Word
1979
4.00
Plotting 'Family Plot'
2001
6.20
The Children
1990
3.80
Mr. Horn
1979
6.00
The Independent
2000
5.41
Final Judgement
1992
3.29
Stir
1997
3.50
Starstruck
1995
2.00
Flight of the Spruce Goose
1986
0.00
Easy Rider: Shaking the Cage
1999
7.00
Repo Chick
2009
3.60
Double Duty
2009
7.00
Legend of The Roller Blade Seven
1993
3.75
Teknolust
2002
4.26
Paradise Cove
1999
6.00
The Little Mermaid
1987
6.30
Too Bad About Jack
1994
0.00
Oliver Twisted
2000
3.00
Tuesday Never Comes
1992
2.00
A Single Woman
2008
5.50
A Light in the Darkness
2002
2.00
Dead Girls Don't Tango
1992
1.00
Fatal Encounter
1990
0.00
Deadly Dolls: Deepest Cuts
2018
5.43
The Donor
2001
2.50
Read You Like a Book
2006
3.64
Because He's My Friend
1978
0.00
The Trust
1993
0.00
Watercolors
2008
5.60
The Last Horror Film
1982
5.20
WAMEGO: Making Movies Anywhere
2004
0.00
Ralph S. Mouse
1991
7.00
Whitepaddy
2006
5.00
Who Is Henry Jaglom?
1997
6.60
Dark Blood
2012
5.83
Altman on His Own Terms
2000
0.00
Crazy for Love
2005
5.30
Karen Black: Actress at Work
1999
0.00
Airports
2025
0.00
The Blue Tooth Virgin
2008
8.00
Meet the Eye
2009
0.00