Karen Black profile
Actor profile

Karen Black

1st July 1939 Park Ridge, Illinois, USA Acting

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.

167 Movies 36 TV Shows 216 Credits
Filmography

Movies & TV Shows

Stuck! poster
Stuck! 15th November 2009 as The Neighbor Lady
Paris poster
Paris 6th June 2003 as Chantelle
Gypsy 83 poster
Gypsy 83 18th October 2001 as Bambi LeBleau
Malaika poster
Malaika 1st January 1998 as Jessica Martin
Men poster
Men 23rd October 1997 as Alex
Stir poster
Stir 1st July 1997 as Dr. Gabrielle Kessler
Dogtown poster
Dogtown 6th April 1997 as Rose Van Horn
Hostage poster
Hostage 1st October 1987 as Laura Lawrence
Mr. Horn poster
Mr. Horn 1st February 1979 as Ernestina Crawford
Trilogy of Terror poster
Trilogy of Terror 4th March 1975 as Julie / Millicent Larimore / Therese Larimore / Amelia
The Pyx poster
The Pyx 8th September 1973 as Elizabeth Lucy
E/R poster
E/R 16th September 1984
Power poster
Power 14th January 1980 as Rose Vanda-Buchanan
Mr. Horn poster
Mr. Horn 1st February 1979 as Ernestina Crawford
Adam-12 poster
Adam-12 21st September 1968 as Susan Decker