Karen Black
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Female
Birthday
1939-07-01
Day of Death
2013-08-08 (74 years old)
Place of Birth
Park Ridge, Illinois, USA
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.
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Acting
(2018)
Deadly Dolls: Deepest Cuts
as (archive footage)
(2015)
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
as Self (archive footage)
(2015)
Bottomless Pit
as Karen Black
(2014)
Wild in Blue
as Justine
(2013)
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia
as Self (archive footage)
(2013)
Ooga Booga
as Mrs. Allardyce
(2013)
She Loves Me Not
as Karla
(2012)
Dark Blood
as Motel Woman
(2012)
Maria My Love
as Maria
(2012)
OowieWanna
as The Donna
(2012)
Mommy's Little Monster
as Mrs. Melnick
(2012)
Hawk Warrior of the Wheelzone
as Tarot
(2011)
Some Guy Who Kills People
as Ruth Boyd
(2011)
Letters from the Big Man
as Sean's Colleague
(2010)
Nothing Special
as May
(2010)
(2010)
(2009)
Wamego: Ultimatum
as Self
(2009)
Repo Chick
as Aunt De La Chasse
(2009)
(2009)
Double Duty
as Annabelle
(2009)
Irene in Time
as Sheila Shivvers
(2009)
Stuck!
as The Neighbor Lady
(2008)
Watercolors
as Mrs. Martin
(2008)
Contamination
as Mavis
(2008)
A Single Woman
as Storyteller
(2007)
Suffering Man's Charity
as Renee
(2007)
Hollywood Dreams
as Luna
(2007)
One Long Night
as Barbara
(2006)
Wanderlust
as Herself
(2006)
Whitepaddy
as Mrs. Leider
(2006)
Read You Like a Book
as Kate
(2005)
Firecracker
as Sandra / Eleanor
(2005)
Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula
as Agrippina
(2005)
My Suicidal Sweetheart
as Grace's Mom
(2005)
Dr. Rage
as Molly
(2005)
America Brown
as Marianne Brown
(2004)
(2004)
(2003)
House of 1000 Corpses
as Mother Firefly
(2003)
(2003)
Paris
as Chantelle
(2003)
Harold Buttleman: Daredevil Stuntman
as Mrs. Buttleman
(2002)
Curse of the Forty-Niner
as Aunt Nelly
(2002)
Teknolust
as Dirty Dick
(2002)
Best of Tromadance Film Festival: Volume 1
as ("Los Vampirios Moronious" short)
(2002)
A Light in the Darkness
as Mrs. Melnick
(2001)
The Donor
as Mrs. Springle
(2001)
Soulkeeper
as Martha la Magnifica
(2001)
Gypsy 83
as Bambi LeBleau
(2001)
Plotting 'Family Plot'
as Self
(2000)
The Independent
as Karen Black
(2000)
Red Dirt
as Aunt Summer
(2000)
Altman on His Own Terms
as Self
(2000)
Oliver Twisted
as Mrs. Mary Happ
(2000)
Fallen Arches
as Lucy Romano
(1999)
The Underground Comedy Movie
as Mother
(1999)
Conceiving Ada
as Lady Byron / Mother Coer
(1999)
Paradise Cove
as Ma
(1999)
Easy Rider: Shaking the Cage
as Self
(1999)
Mascara
as Aunt Eloise
(1998)
I Woke Up Early the Day I Died
as Whip Lady
(1998)
(1998)
Invisible Dad
as Courtney Whitmer
(1998)
Bury the Evidence
as The Mother
(1998)
Charades
as Jude
(1998)
Malaika
as Jessica Martin
(1998)
Angel Blue
as Social Worker
(1998)
Light Speed
as High Priestess
(1997)
Men
as Alex
(1997)
Stir
as Dr. Gabrielle Kessler
(1997)
Who Is Henry Jaglom?
as Self
(1997)
Menage a Trois
as Miss Gati
(1996)
Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering
as June Rhodes
(1996)
Crimetime
as Millicent
(1996)
Dogtown
as Rose Van Horn
(1996)
New York Crossing
as Mrs. Tender
(1996)
Cries of Silence
as Rose Walsh
(1995)
Dinosaur Valley Girls
as Ro-Kell
(1995)
Plan 10 from Outer Space
as Nehor
(1995)
Starstruck
as Bertha
(1995)
(1994)
(1994)
(1994)
(1993)
Bound and Gagged: A Love Story
as Carla
(1993)
Return of the Roller Blade Seven
as Tarot
(1993)
Legend of The Roller Blade Seven
as Tarot
(1993)
The Trust
as Maria Vandermeer
(1992)
The Player
as Karen Black
(1992)
The Double 0 Kid
as Mrs. Elliot
(1992)
Auntie Lee's Meat Pies
as Auntie Lee
(1992)
Rubin & Ed
as Rula
(1992)
Final Judgement
as Mrs. Sorrel
(1992)
Tuesday Never Comes
as Michelle
(1992)
Dead Girls Don't Tango
as Insp. Wilson
(1992)
Judgement
as Tiffany Powers
(1991)
Children of the Night
as Karen Thompson
(1991)
The Roller Blade Seven
as Tarot
(1991)
Ralph S. Mouse
as Miss Kuchenbacker
(1991)
Blood Money
as Barrett
(1991)
Caged Fear
as Blanche
(1991)
Quiet Fire
as Kim Martino
(1990)
Night Angel
as Rita
(1990)
Mirror Mirror
as Susan Gordon
(1990)
Twisted Justice
as Mrs. Granger
(1990)
Zapped Again!
as Homeroom Teacher
(1990)
Club Fed
as Sally Rich
(1990)
The Children
as Sybil Lullmer
(1990)
Haunting Fear
as Dr. Julia Harcourt
(1990)
Evil Spirits
as Ella Purdy
(1990)
Overexposed
as Mrs. Trowbridge
(1990)
Fatal Encounter
as Joan Caldwell
(1989)
Homer and Eddie
as Belle
(1988)
Out of the Dark
as Ruth Wilson
(1988)
The Invisible Kid
as Mom
(1988)
The Legendary Life of Ernest Hemingway
as Martha Gelhorn
(1988)
Dixie Lanes
as Zelma Putnam
(1988)
On the tracks of a filmmaker
as Karen Black
(1987)
It's Alive III: Island of the Alive
as Ellen Jarvis
(1987)
The Little Mermaid
as Sea Witch
(1987)
Hostage
as Laura Lawrence
(1986)
Invaders from Mars
as Linda Magnusson
(1986)
Flight of the Spruce Goose
as Gloria
(1985)
Cut and Run
as Karin
(1985)
Savage Dawn
as Rachel
(1985)
Eternal Evil
as Janus
(1985)
Martin's Day
as Karen
(1984)
Bad Manners
as Gladys Fitzpatrick
(1983)
(1982)
The Last Horror Film
as Karen Black (uncredited)
(1982)
(1982)
Miss Right
as Amy
(1981)
Separate Ways
as Valentine Colby
(1981)
Chanel Solitaire
as Emilienne d'Alençon
(1981)
The Grass Is Singing
as Mary Turner
(1980)
Power
as Rose Vanda-Buchanan
(1980)
Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop
as Investigator Evelyn Carter
(1980)
Where the Ladies Go
as Helen
(1979)
Killer Fish
as Kate
(1979)
Mr. Horn
as Ernestina Crawford
(1979)
The Last Word
as Paula Herbert
(1978)
In Praise of Older Women
as Maya
(1978)
The Squeeze
as Clarisse Saunders
(1978)
Because He's My Friend
as Anne
(1977)
Capricorn One
as Judy Drinkwater
(1977)
The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver
as Miriam Oliver / Sandy
(1976)
Family Plot
as Fran
(1976)
Burnt Offerings
as Marian Rolf
(1976)
Crime and Passion
as Susan Winters
(1975)
Nashville
as Connie White
(1975)
The Day of the Locust
as Faye Greener
(1975)
Trilogy of Terror
as Julie / Millicent Larimore / Therese Larimore / Amelia
(1974)
The Great Gatsby
as Myrtle Wilson
(1974)
Rhinoceros
as Daisy
(1974)
Airport 1975
as Nancy Pryor
(1974)
Law and Disorder
as Gloria
(1973)
The Outfit
as Bett Harrow
(1973)
The Pyx
as Elizabeth Lucy
(1973)
Little Laura and Big John
as Laura
(1972)
Portnoy's Complaint
as Mary Jane Reid a.k.a. Monkey
(1971)
Born to Win
as Parm
(1971)
Cisco Pike
as Sue
(1971)
Drive, He Said
as Olive
(1971)
A Gunfight
as Jenny Simms
(1970)
Five Easy Pieces
as Rayette Dipesto
(1969)
Easy Rider
as Karen
(1969)
Hard Contract
as Ellen
(1966)
You're a Big Boy Now
as Amy Partlett
(1960)
The Prime Time
as Betty
Crew
(2005)
Firecracker
Editorial Consultant
(2000)
The Invention of Dr. Morel
Screenplay
(1998)
Charades
Writer, Producer
(1997)
Men
Writer
(1995)
(1975)
Nashville
Music