Karen Black

Acting · 1.5 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

Airport 1975

19745.8

Capricorn One

19776.8

Nashville

19757.3

Family Plot

19766.8

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

Altman on His Own Terms

20009.0

Burnt Offerings

19766.5

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

19826.0

Teknolust

20024.4

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films

20147.2

Quiet Fire

19915.2

Wild in Blue

20144.2

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief

20157.6

Crazy for Love

20055.6

Dogtown

19974.0

BBStory: An American Film Renaissance

2010

Whitepaddy

20067.5

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

20037.1

Savage Dawn

19854.4

Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering

19964.5

Judgement

19923.9

Paris

20033.0

One Long Night

20073.9

I Woke Up Early the Day I Died

19985.0

Wamego: Ultimatum

2009

In Praise of Older Women

19785.3

It's Alive III: Island of the Alive

19875.4

Born to Win

19715.3

Cisco Pike

19725.6

Zapped Again!

19904.2

Mascara

19994.0

A Gunfight

19715.8

Cut and Run

19855.3

Jack Nicholson: The Joker Is Wild

20042.0

Ooga Booga

20133.1

Red Dirt

20005.7

Mirror Mirror

19905.2

The Roller Blade Seven

19913.2

Martin's Day

19856.4

Airports

2025

Rhinoceros

19745.6

George Sluizer - Filming beyond Bounderies

2026

Men

19974.5

Out of the Dark

19885.6

Light Speed

19982.0

Auntie Lee's Meat Pies

19924.8

Who Is Henry Jaglom?

19976.8

Hostage

19877.5

Mr. Horn

19797.0

Homer and Eddie

19895.6

Final Judgement

19924.0

Trilogy of Terror

19756.2

The Last Word

19795.0

No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos

20095.6

The Last Horror Film

19825.3

The Legendary Life of Ernest Hemingway

19888.0

Caged Fear

19914.1

The Pyx

19735.4

Dark Blood

20126.0

The Double 0 Kid

19925.1

She Loves Me Not

20133.9

Soulkeeper

20015.1

Club Fed

19905.5

Bound and Gagged: A Love Story

19936.0

Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula

20055.8

Children of the Night

19914.4

You're a Big Boy Now

19666.1

Evil Spirits

19913.7

Fallen Arches

20007.0

Haunting Fear

19904.7

Bad Manners

19845.8

Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop

19803.0

Dr. Rage

20053.0

The Invisible Kid

19885.0

The Children

19904.9

Tuesday Never Comes

19923.7

Some Guy Who Kills People

20116.1

Blood Money

19915.6

Plotting 'Family Plot'

20016.9

Flight of the Spruce Goose

19868.0

Twisted Justice

19905.8

Curse of the Forty-Niner

20024.3

Gypsy 83

20016.5

Drive, He Said

19715.6

Suffering Man's Charity

20074.8

The Independent

20005.3

Dead Girls Don't Tango

19924.0

Chanel Solitaire

19815.0

Return of the Roller Blade Seven

19934.7

Nothing Special

20105.0

A Light in the Darkness

20024.3

Hard Contract

19695.1

Crimetime

19964.3

Mythos Hollywood - Das Geheimnis des Erfolgs

19983.0

The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver

19776.4

Repo Chick

20093.6

Miss Right

19824.3

Law and Disorder

19745.0

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

2014

Ralph S. Mouse

19917.0

Dinosaur Valley Girls

19954.3

Easy Rider: Shaking the Cage

19997.1

A Single Woman

20085.5

The Grass Is Singing

19814.7

Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia

20137.7

Karen Black: Actress at Work

199910.0

Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?

19835.9

Harold Buttleman: Daredevil Stuntman

20037.0

Legend of The Roller Blade Seven

19934.6

Where the Ladies Go

198010.0

The Donor

20014.0

Bottomless Pit

2015

The Underground Comedy Movie

19992.6

Portnoy's Complaint

19724.7

On the tracks of a filmmaker

1988

Invisible Dad

19984.1

First Time Long Time

2009

Charades

19984.2

Mommy's Little Monster

20123.5

Little Laura and Big John

19734.3

Stir

19974.6

Angel Blue

19984.5

Dixie Lanes

19884.0

Rubin & Ed

19926.5

The Squeeze

19785.9

Wanderlust

20065.9

Read You Like a Book

20063.6

America Brown

20056.0

Double Duty

20097.0

Because He's My Friend

19788.0

Letters from the Big Man

20117.2

Crime and Passion

19767.0

Firecracker

20056.1

Hollywood Dreams

20073.1

Plan 10 from Outer Space

19956.0

Separate Ways

19814.7

Overexposed

19903.3

The Little Mermaid

19876.8

Conceiving Ada

19994.7

Contamination

20082.0

Maria My Love

20122.0

Watercolors

20085.5

Stuck!

20092.6

Too Bad About Jack

199410.0

Birth of Industry

20048.0

Deadly Dolls: Deepest Cuts

20185.5

Starstruck

19954.3

The Blue Tooth Virgin

20088.0

Irene in Time

20091.2

Bury the Evidence

19988.0

New York Crossing

19964.0

Henry Jaglom Finds 'A Safe Place'

2010

The Prime Time

19604.5

Hawk Warrior of the Wheelzone

2012

Cries of Silence

19967.3

The Trust

199310.0

OowieWanna

20129.8

WAMEGO: Making Movies Anywhere

20048.0

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

1994

Oliver Twisted

20005.0

Meet the Eye

2009

Fatal Encounter

19909.0

Malaika

199810.0

The Wacky Adventures of Dr. Boris and Nurse Shirley

199510.0

Every Minute Is Goodbye

19966.0

Paradise Cove

19996.5

Best of Tromadance Film Festival: Volume 1

2002

The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black: Teather Penumbra

1994

Vacationland

2026