Cast

Karen Black

Acting

Cast

Karen Black

Known for

Acting

Born

1939-07-01

From

Park Ridge, Illinois, USA

Died

2013-08-08

Also known as カレン・ブラック, Karen Blanche Ziegler, Карен Блэк

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.

Karen Black

Karen Black

Biography

House of 1000 Corpses

Easy Rider

The Player

The Great Gatsby

Teknolust

Nashville

Crazy for Love

Eternal Evil

Airport 1975

Capricorn One

Five Easy Pieces

Invaders from Mars

Family Plot

Quiet Fire

Whitepaddy

Mascara

Wamego: Ultimatum

Plotting 'Family Plot'

Night Angel

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films

Evil Spirits

Killer Fish

The Roller Blade Seven

Martin's Day

One Long Night

Hostage

Who Is Henry Jaglom?

Burnt Offerings

Paris

Wild in Blue

Light Speed

Judgement

Dogtown

Bound and Gagged: A Love Story

Children of the Night

Mommy's Little Monster

Ooga Booga

Men

She Loves Me Not

The Double 0 Kid

Mirror Mirror

The Day of the Locust

Suffering Man's Charity

Airports

Birth of Industry

The Last Horror Film

The Outfit

The Independent

Trilogy of Terror

In Praise of Older Women

Law and Disorder

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief

Auntie Lee's Meat Pies

Curse of the Forty-Niner

I Woke Up Early the Day I Died

Savage Dawn

Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering

Soulkeeper

Cut and Run

Hard Contract

A Gunfight

Cisco Pike

Easy Rider: Shaking the Cage

Out of the Dark

Jack Nicholson: The Joker Is Wild

First Time Long Time

Born to Win

Dead Girls Don't Tango

Zapped Again!

George Sluizer - Filming beyond Bounderies

Read You Like a Book

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

Some Guy Who Kills People

Ralph S. Mouse

Drive, He Said

The Last Word

Repo Chick