Karen Black
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.
214 acting credits
Acting · 214
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
2001
Saturday Night Live
1975
Murder, She Wrote
1984
Mannix
1967
The Mike Douglas Show
1961
Miami Vice
1984
Adam-12
1968
The Carol Burnett Show
1967
Party of Five
1994
The F.B.I.
1965
The Big Valley
1965
Run for Your Life
1965
Profiler
1996
The Name of the Game
1968
The Invaders
1967
People's Choice Awards
1975
The Hitchhiker
1983
Faerie Tale Theatre
1982
Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!
2007
Judd, for the Defense
1967
Police Story
1973
The Hunger
1997
Ghost Story
1972
Tales of the City
1993
The Second Hundred Years
1967
E/R
1984
The Player
1992
Easy Rider
1969
House of 1000 Corpses
2003
Russians in the City of Angels
2003
Worlds Beyond
1986
Moon Over Miami
1993
Rude Awakening
1998
The Great Gatsby
1974
Airport 1975
1974
E! True Hollywood Story
1996
Capricorn One
1977
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films
2014
Nashville
1975
Burnt Offerings
1976
Family Plot
1976
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood
2003
Five Easy Pieces
1970
Mythos Hollywood - Das Geheimnis des Erfolgs
1998
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
2015
The Outfit
1973
I Woke Up Early the Day I Died
1998
Out of the Dark
1988
Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
1982
Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering
1996
Invaders from Mars
1986
Night Angel
1990
Power
1980
The Day of the Locust
1975
Cisco Pike
1972
Jack Nicholson: The Joker Is Wild
2004
The Independent
2000
Fertile La Toyah Video Magazine #2: The Kinky Issue!
1994
Red Dirt
2000
Trilogy of Terror
1975
A Gunfight
1971
Soulkeeper
2001
The Legendary Life of Ernest Hemingway
1988
Killer Fish
1979
It's Alive III: Island of the Alive
1987
Cut and Run
1985
No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos
2009
Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula
2005
Science Fiction Film Awards
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Homer and Eddie
1989
Mr. Horn
1979
The Last Horror Film
1982
Mirror Mirror
1990
Born to Win
1971
Dark Blood
2012
Altman on His Own Terms
2000
The Double 0 Kid
1992
In Praise of Older Women
1978
Savage Dawn
1985
Judgement
1992
Repo Chick
2009
The Last Word
1979
Wild in Blue
2014
Bad Manners
1984
Ooga Booga
2013
Twisted Justice
1990
The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver
1977
The Little Mermaid
1987
Harold Buttleman: Daredevil Stuntman
2003
Stir
1997
Mr. Horn
1979
Drive, He Said
1971
The Children
1990
Quiet Fire
1991
Chanel Solitaire
1981
Crazy for Love
2005
Double Duty
2009
Crimetime
1996
Men
1997
Miss Right
1982
Caged Fear
1991
Haunting Fear
1990
She Loves Me Not
2013
Read You Like a Book
2006
Separate Ways
1981
Final Judgement
1992
Zapped Again!
1990
Invisible Dad
1998
The Pyx
1973
Rubin & Ed
1992
Letters from the Big Man
2011
Wanderlust
2006
Martin's Day
1985
The Donor
2001
Who Is Henry Jaglom?
1997
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia
2013
Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?
1983
Auntie Lee's Meat Pies
1992
Children of the Night
1991
One Long Night
2007
Suffering Man's Charity
2007
Teknolust
2002
Hollywood Dreams
2007
The Wacky Adventures of Dr. Boris and Nurse Shirley
1995
Conceiving Ada
1999
BBStory: An American Film Renaissance
2010
You're a Big Boy Now
1966
Where the Ladies Go
1980
Stuck!
2009
Portnoy's Complaint
1972
Gypsy 83
2001
Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop
1980
The Squeeze
1978
Curse of the Forty-Niner
2002
Hard Contract
1969
Rhinoceros
1974
A Single Woman
2008
Whitepaddy
2006
The Underground Comedy Movie
1999
Firecracker
2005
Some Guy Who Kills People
2011
Dogtown
1997
Overexposed
1990
Watercolors
2008
Plan 10 from Outer Space
1995
The Invisible Kid
1988
Paris
2003
The Roller Blade Seven
1991
Law and Disorder
1974
Club Fed
1990
Eternal Evil
1985
On the tracks of a filmmaker
1988
Dinosaur Valley Girls
1995
Easy Rider: Shaking the Cage
1999
Legend of The Roller Blade Seven
1993
Hostage
1987
Return of the Roller Blade Seven
1993
Evil Spirits
1991
Blood Money
1991
Cries of Silence
1996
Airports
2025
America Brown
2005
Starstruck
1995
Crime and Passion
1976
Mascara
1999
The Grass Is Singing
1981
The Prime Time
1960
Fatal Encounter
1990
Little Laura and Big John
1973
Malaika
1998
Dixie Lanes
1988
Charades
1998
Contamination
2008
Flight of the Spruce Goose
1986
New York Crossing
1996
Ralph S. Mouse
1991
A Light in the Darkness
2002
Bury the Evidence
1998
Mommy's Little Monster
2012
Nothing Special
2010
Fallen Arches
2000
OowieWanna
2012
Angel Blue
1998
Every Minute Is Goodbye
1996
Best of Tromadance Film Festival: Volume 1
2002
Light Speed
1998
The Blue Tooth Virgin
2008
Bound and Gagged: A Love Story
1993
Irene in Time
2009
Dr. Rage
2005
Plotting 'Family Plot'
2001
George Sluizer - Filming beyond Bounderies
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Hawk Warrior of the Wheelzone
2012
Maria My Love
2012
Because He's My Friend
1978
Paradise Cove
1999
Wamego: Ultimatum
2009
Deadly Dolls: Deepest Cuts
2018
The Trust
1993
Too Bad About Jack
1994
Karen Black: Actress at Work
1999
Return to the 5 & Dime: An Interview with Ed Graczyk
2014
Oliver Twisted
2000
Dead Girls Don't Tango
1992
The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black: Teather Penumbra
1994
Tuesday Never Comes
1992
First Time Long Time
2009
Birth of Industry
2004
Bottomless Pit
2015
Henry Jaglom Finds 'A Safe Place'
2010
WAMEGO: Making Movies Anywhere
2004
Meet the Eye
2009
Vacationland
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