Karen Black
Acting
- Born:
- 1939-07-01
- Died:
- 2013-08-08
- Place of birth:
- Park Ridge, Illinois, USA
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.
Known For
Filmography
Airports
Deadly Dolls: Deepest Cuts
Bottomless Pit
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
Return to the 5 & Dime: An Interview with Ed Graczyk
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films
Wild in Blue
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia
She Loves Me Not
Ooga Booga
Dark Blood
Maria My Love
OowieWanna
Mommy's Little Monster
Hawk Warrior of the Wheelzone
Letters from the Big Man
Some Guy Who Kills People
BBStory: An American Film Renaissance
Henry Jaglom Finds 'A Safe Place'
Nothing Special
Double Duty
Stuck!
Repo Chick
Irene in Time
Meet the Eye
Wamego: Ultimatum
No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos
First Time Long Time
A Single Woman
The Blue Tooth Virgin
Watercolors
Contamination
Hollywood Dreams
One Long Night
Suffering Man's Charity
Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!
Read You Like a Book
Wanderlust
Whitepaddy
America Brown
Firecracker
Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula
Crazy for Love
Dr. Rage
Jack Nicholson: The Joker Is Wild
Birth of Industry
WAMEGO: Making Movies Anywhere
Paris
Harold Buttleman: Daredevil Stuntman
House of 1000 Corpses
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood
Russians in the City of Angels
Curse of the Forty-Niner
A Light in the Darkness
Best of Tromadance Film Festival: Volume 1
Teknolust
Gypsy 83
Soulkeeper
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
The Donor
Plotting 'Family Plot'
The Independent
Red Dirt
Fallen Arches
Oliver Twisted
Altman on His Own Terms
Easy Rider: Shaking the Cage
The Underground Comedy Movie
Mascara
Conceiving Ada
Paradise Cove
Karen Black: Actress at Work
Charades
Bury the Evidence
Angel Blue
I Woke Up Early the Day I Died
Rude Awakening
Invisible Dad
Malaika
Light Speed
Mythos Hollywood - Das Geheimnis des Erfolgs
Men
The Hunger
Who Is Henry Jaglom?
Stir
Dogtown
New York Crossing
Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering
Profiler
E! True Hollywood Story
Crimetime
Cries of Silence
Every Minute Is Goodbye
The Wacky Adventures of Dr. Boris and Nurse Shirley
Plan 10 from Outer Space
Dinosaur Valley Girls
Starstruck
The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black: Teather Penumbra
Party of Five
Too Bad About Jack
Fertile La Toyah Video Magazine #2: The Kinky Issue!
Bound and Gagged: A Love Story
Tales of the City
Moon Over Miami
Legend of The Roller Blade Seven
The Trust
Return of the Roller Blade Seven
Auntie Lee's Meat Pies
The Double 0 Kid
Judgement
Final Judgement
Tuesday Never Comes
Rubin & Ed
The Player
Dead Girls Don't Tango
Quiet Fire
Evil Spirits
Children of the Night
The Roller Blade Seven
Caged Fear
Blood Money
Ralph S. Mouse
Mirror Mirror
Club Fed
Haunting Fear
Night Angel
The Children
Zapped Again!
Twisted Justice
Overexposed
Fatal Encounter
Homer and Eddie
Out of the Dark
Dixie Lanes
The Invisible Kid
The Legendary Life of Ernest Hemingway
On the tracks of a filmmaker
Hostage
It's Alive III: Island of the Alive
The Little Mermaid
Worlds Beyond
Invaders from Mars
Flight of the Spruce Goose
Savage Dawn
Cut and Run
Martin's Day
Eternal Evil
Bad Manners
Murder, She Wrote
Miami Vice
E/R
The Hitchhiker
Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?
Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
Faerie Tale Theatre
The Last Horror Film
American Playhouse
Miss Right
Chanel Solitaire
The Grass Is Singing
Separate Ways
Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop
Where the Ladies Go
Power
Killer Fish
The Last Word
Mr. Horn
The Squeeze
In Praise of Older Women
Because He's My Friend
Capricorn One
The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver
Burnt Offerings
Family Plot
Crime and Passion
Saturday Night Live
Nashville
The Day of the Locust
Trilogy of Terror
People's Choice Awards
Airport 1975
Law and Disorder
The Great Gatsby
Rhinoceros
The Outfit
The Pyx
Little Laura and Big John
Police Story
Ghost Story
Portnoy's Complaint
Cisco Pike
Born to Win
A Gunfight
Drive, He Said
Five Easy Pieces
Easy Rider
Hard Contract
Adam-12
The Name of the Game
Mannix
The Carol Burnett Show
Judd, for the Defense
The Second Hundred Years
The Invaders
You're a Big Boy Now
The F.B.I.
The Big Valley
Run for Your Life
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Mike Douglas Show
The Prime Time
George Sluizer - Filming beyond Bounderies
Vacationland
Science Fiction Film Awards