Karen Black

Acting

Born Jul 01, 1939

From Park Ridge, Illinois, USA

Died Aug 08, 2013

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.

Karen Black

Known For

Easy Rider

The Player

House of 1000 Corpses

The Great Gatsby

Capricorn One

Airport 1975

Family Plot

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films

Burnt Offerings

Nashville

Filmography — Acting

Easy Rider

The Player

House of 1000 Corpses

The Great Gatsby

Capricorn One

Airport 1975

Family Plot

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films

Burnt Offerings

Nashville

Five Easy Pieces

You're a Big Boy Now

Night Angel

The Outfit

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief

Invaders from Mars

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood

In Praise of Older Women

The Day of the Locust

Judgement

Cisco Pike

Savage Dawn

Killer Fish

Mirror Mirror

Stir

Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering

Dark Blood

Teknolust

Airports

Firecracker

Mr. Horn

I Woke Up Early the Day I Died

Mythos Hollywood - Das Geheimnis des Erfolgs

The Double 0 Kid

Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean

Homer and Eddie

Red Dirt

Crazy for Love

Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?

Altman on His Own Terms

Out of the Dark

Drive, He Said

New York Crossing

Trilogy of Terror

The Independent

Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop

Cut and Run

Charades

The Children

Gypsy 83

Law and Disorder

A Gunfight

Bad Manners

No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos

Quiet Fire

Auntie Lee's Meat Pies

BBStory: An American Film Renaissance

Repo Chick

Curse of the Forty-Niner

The Last Horror Film

Born to Win

Separate Ways

Rubin & Ed

Crimetime

Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula

The Invisible Kid

Jack Nicholson: The Joker Is Wild