Karen Black

Acting · 1.9 popularity

Age

Movies

179

Born: July 1, 1939 – August 8, 2013
From: 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.

Works

179 films

Easy Rider

19697.0

The Great Gatsby

19746.3

The Player

19927.2

House of 1000 Corpses

20036.2

Nashville

19757.3

Family Plot

19766.8

Airport 1975

19745.8

Capricorn One

19776.8

The Outfit

19736.8

Five Easy Pieces

19707.1

Eternal Evil

19854.4

Invaders from Mars

19865.6

Night Angel

19904.4

Killer Fish

19794.7

The Day of the Locust

19756.4

Burnt Offerings

19766.5

Altman on His Own Terms

20009.0

Teknolust

20024.4

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

19826.0

Crazy for Love

20055.6

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief

20157.6

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films

20147.2

Savage Dawn

19854.4

Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering

19964.5

Quiet Fire

19915.2

In Praise of Older Women

19785.3

Wild in Blue

20144.2

Wamego: Ultimatum

2009

Born to Win

19715.3

Judgement

19923.9

Whitepaddy

20067.5

BBStory: An American Film Renaissance

2010

One Long Night

20073.9

Ooga Booga

20133.1

It's Alive III: Island of the Alive

19875.4

A Gunfight

19715.8

Cut and Run

19855.3

I Woke Up Early the Day I Died

19985.0

Haunting Fear

19904.7

The Roller Blade Seven

19913.2

Jack Nicholson: The Joker Is Wild

20042.0

Paris

20033.0

Martin's Day

19856.4

Mascara

19994.0

Red Dirt

20005.7

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

20037.1

Dogtown

19974.0

Zapped Again!

19904.2

She Loves Me Not

20133.9

The Legendary Life of Ernest Hemingway

19888.0

Cisco Pike

19725.6

Plotting 'Family Plot'

20016.9

Final Judgement

19924.0

Hostage

19877.5

Rhinoceros

19745.6

Men

19974.5

Homer and Eddie

19895.6

Caged Fear

19914.1

Bad Manners

19845.7

George Sluizer - Filming beyond Bounderies

2026

Who Is Henry Jaglom?

19976.8

The Pyx

19735.4

Mirror Mirror

19905.2

Dark Blood

20126.0

Trilogy of Terror

19756.2

Mr. Horn

19797.0

Fallen Arches

20007.0

Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula

20055.8

Soulkeeper

20015.1

Out of the Dark

19885.6

Mythos Hollywood - Das Geheimnis des Erfolgs

19983.0

The Double 0 Kid

19925.1

The Last Horror Film

19825.3

Hard Contract

19695.1

Auntie Lee's Meat Pies

19924.8

No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos

20095.6

Bound and Gagged: A Love Story

19936.0

Karen Black: Actress at Work

199910.0

Curse of the Forty-Niner

20024.3

Evil Spirits

19913.7

The Children

19904.9

Some Guy Who Kills People

20116.1

Maria My Love

20122.0

Airports

2025

You're a Big Boy Now

19666.1

The Last Word

19795.0

Dead Girls Don't Tango

19924.0

Crimetime

19964.3

Light Speed

19982.0

Blood Money

19915.6

Children of the Night

19914.4

Tuesday Never Comes

19923.7

Mommy's Little Monster

20123.5

Repo Chick

20093.6

Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop

19803.0

The Invisible Kid

19885.0

Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?

19835.9

Chanel Solitaire

19815.0

The Independent

20005.3

Drive, He Said

19715.6

Harold Buttleman: Daredevil Stuntman

20037.0

Law and Disorder

19745.0

Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia

20137.7

First Time Long Time

2009

Easy Rider: Shaking the Cage

19997.1

A Single Woman

20085.5

Flight of the Spruce Goose

19868.0

Twisted Justice

19905.8

Suffering Man's Charity

20074.8

The Little Mermaid

19876.8

The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver

19776.4

Little Laura and Big John

19734.3

Legend of The Roller Blade Seven

19934.6

Gypsy 83

20016.5

Ralph S. Mouse

19917.0

Separate Ways

19814.7

On the tracks of a filmmaker

1988

The Donor

20014.0

Club Fed

19905.5

Read You Like a Book

20063.6

Stir

19974.6

Return to the 5 & Dime: An Interview with Ed Graczyk

2014

Crime and Passion

19767.0

Letters from the Big Man

20117.2

Miss Right

19824.3

Birth of Industry

20048.0

The Squeeze

19785.9

Nothing Special

20105.0

Double Duty

20097.0

Starstruck

19954.3

Return of the Roller Blade Seven

19934.7

Dr. Rage

20053.0

Wanderlust

20065.9

A Light in the Darkness

20024.3

Hollywood Dreams

20073.1

The Blue Tooth Virgin

20088.0

Overexposed

19903.3

Invisible Dad

19984.1

Bottomless Pit

2015

The Grass Is Singing

19814.7

The Underground Comedy Movie

19992.6

Rubin & Ed

19926.5

Firecracker

20056.1

Portnoy's Complaint

19724.7

Contamination

20082.0

Deadly Dolls: Deepest Cuts

20185.5

Charades

19984.2

Cries of Silence

19967.3

Watercolors

20085.5

Angel Blue

19984.5

Too Bad About Jack

199410.0

Dinosaur Valley Girls

19954.3

America Brown

20056.0

Fertile La Toyah Video Magazine #2: The Kinky Issue!

1994

Conceiving Ada

19994.7

Dixie Lanes

19884.0

New York Crossing

19964.0

Where the Ladies Go

198010.0

Because He's My Friend

19788.0

Meet the Eye

2009

Plan 10 from Outer Space

19956.0

Henry Jaglom Finds 'A Safe Place'

2010

Hawk Warrior of the Wheelzone

2012

OowieWanna

20129.8

Irene in Time

20091.2

Stuck!

20092.6

Bury the Evidence

19988.0

The Trust

199310.0

The Prime Time

19604.5

WAMEGO: Making Movies Anywhere

20048.0

Malaika

199810.0

Every Minute Is Goodbye

19966.0

Fatal Encounter

19909.0

The Wacky Adventures of Dr. Boris and Nurse Shirley

199510.0

Best of Tromadance Film Festival: Volume 1

2002

Oliver Twisted

20005.0

Paradise Cove

19996.5

The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black: Teather Penumbra

1994

Vacationland

2026