Karen Black
Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Gender
Female
Birthday
1939-07-01
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.
Also Known For
Nashville
Jun 11, 1975
Men
Oct 23, 1997
Malaika
Jan 01, 1998
House of 1000 Corpses
Apr 11, 2003
The Player
May 08, 1992
I Woke Up Early the Day I Died
Sep 13, 1998
Little Laura and Big John
May 03, 1973
The Great Gatsby
Mar 27, 1974
The Day of the Locust
May 07, 1975
Born to Win
Dec 01, 1971
Out of the Dark
Jun 02, 1988
Dinosaur Valley Girls
Jan 01, 1995
Family Plot
Apr 09, 1976
The Invisible Kid
Mar 30, 1988
Cut and Run
Aug 08, 1985
Invaders from Mars
Jun 06, 1986
Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering
Oct 08, 1996
Gypsy 83
Oct 18, 2001
Five Easy Pieces
Sep 12, 1970
The Outfit
Oct 19, 1973
Airport 1975
Oct 18, 1974
One Long Night
Mar 25, 2007
Burnt Offerings
Oct 18, 1976
Evil Spirits
Oct 03, 1991
Plan 10 from Outer Space
Feb 23, 1995
Killer Fish
Dec 07, 1979
Rubin & Ed
May 15, 1992
Auntie Lee's Meat Pies
Oct 21, 1992
Haunting Fear
Aug 01, 1990
Night Angel
Jun 02, 1990
You're a Big Boy Now
Dec 09, 1966
Children of the Night
Sep 06, 1991
Invisible Dad
Mar 24, 1998
Soulkeeper
Oct 13, 2001
Trilogy of Terror
Mar 04, 1975
New York Crossing
Dec 12, 1996
Firecracker
Oct 11, 2005
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood
Mar 09, 2003
Homer and Eddie
Aug 17, 1989
Hard Contract
Apr 30, 1969
Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
Nov 12, 1982
It's Alive III: Island of the Alive
May 27, 1987
Stuck!
Nov 15, 2009
Bury the Evidence
Dec 12, 1998
Some Guy Who Kills People
Apr 14, 2011
A Gunfight
Aug 25, 1971
Suffering Man's Charity
Mar 09, 2007
Mirror Mirror
Oct 19, 1990
Wanderlust
Jul 12, 2006
Separate Ways
May 01, 1981
Cisco Pike
Nov 02, 1971
The Pyx
Sep 08, 1973
Drive, He Said
Jun 13, 1971
Savage Dawn
Dec 21, 1985
Conceiving Ada
Feb 19, 1999
Red Dirt
Mar 17, 2000
Eternal Evil
Jan 04, 1985
The Roller Blade Seven
Sep 06, 1991
Maria My Love
Apr 17, 2012
Mommy's Little Monster
Jan 01, 2012
America Brown
Oct 28, 2005
Mascara
May 07, 1999
Crimetime
Aug 01, 1996
No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos
Jan 11, 2009
Irene in Time
Jun 19, 2009
Dogtown
Apr 06, 1997
Portnoy's Complaint
Jun 19, 1972
Bound and Gagged: A Love Story
Oct 22, 1993
The Grass Is Singing
Aug 30, 1981
In Praise of Older Women
Sep 22, 1978
Crime and Passion
Feb 06, 1976
Law and Disorder
Oct 09, 1974
Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?
Sep 10, 1983
Easy Rider
Jun 26, 1969
Light Speed
Jan 01, 1998
Martin's Day
Feb 22, 1985
Mythos Hollywood - Das Geheimnis des Erfolgs
Jan 01, 1998
Ooga Booga
Mar 12, 2013
Charades
Dec 17, 1998
Overexposed
Jan 01, 1990
Blood Money
Apr 12, 1991
Quiet Fire
Oct 31, 1991
Club Fed
Aug 09, 1990
The Squeeze
Oct 25, 1978
Nothing Special
Jan 01, 2010
She Loves Me Not
Jun 09, 2013
Judgement
Aug 05, 1992
Hostage
Oct 01, 1987
Rhinoceros
Jan 21, 1974
The Prime Time
Apr 01, 1960
The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black: Teather Penumbra
Oct 10, 1994
Dr. Rage
Jan 01, 2005
Caged Fear
May 17, 1991
Miss Right
Jan 01, 1982
Return of the Roller Blade Seven
Apr 15, 1993
The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver
Feb 28, 1977
Where the Ladies Go
Mar 14, 1980
Bad Manners
Nov 11, 1984
Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula
Jun 15, 2005
The Legendary Life of Ernest Hemingway
Jan 01, 1988
Hollywood Dreams
May 25, 2007
Zapped Again!
Apr 14, 1990
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
Jan 25, 2015
Wamego: Ultimatum
Feb 17, 2009
Contamination
May 01, 2008
Wild in Blue
May 05, 2014
Twisted Justice
Mar 20, 1990
The Underground Comedy Movie
May 14, 1999
Hawk Warrior of the Wheelzone
Jan 01, 2012
Curse of the Forty-Niner
Oct 01, 2002
Fallen Arches
Jan 15, 2000
Dixie Lanes
May 03, 1988
Power
Jan 14, 1980
Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop
Apr 28, 1980
Letters from the Big Man
Nov 11, 2011
Bottomless Pit
Oct 21, 2015
Angel Blue
Nov 15, 1998
OowieWanna
Feb 18, 2012
On the tracks of a filmmaker
Jan 01, 1988
BBStory: An American Film Renaissance
Nov 23, 2010
Paris
Jun 06, 2003
Cries of Silence
May 01, 1996
Capricorn One
Dec 10, 1977
The Double 0 Kid
Sep 07, 1992
Chanel Solitaire
Oct 16, 1981
The Last Word
Oct 10, 1979
The Children
May 18, 1990
Plotting 'Family Plot'
Mar 06, 2001
Mr. Horn
Feb 01, 1979
The Independent
Nov 10, 2000
Final Judgement
Jun 01, 1992
Stir
Jul 01, 1997
Starstruck
Jan 01, 1995
Flight of the Spruce Goose
Jan 17, 1986
Easy Rider: Shaking the Cage
Oct 07, 1999
Repo Chick
Sep 09, 2009
Double Duty
Dec 08, 2009
Legend of The Roller Blade Seven
Jun 25, 1993
Teknolust
Jan 10, 2002
Best of Tromadance Film Festival: Volume 1
Feb 19, 2002
Paradise Cove
Jan 01, 1999
The Little Mermaid
Apr 06, 1987
Too Bad About Jack
Jan 01, 1994
Oliver Twisted
Jan 01, 2000
Tuesday Never Comes
May 17, 1992
A Single Woman
Sep 21, 2008
A Light in the Darkness
Apr 03, 2002
Dead Girls Don't Tango
Mar 06, 1992
Fatal Encounter
Jan 01, 1990
Deadly Dolls: Deepest Cuts
Oct 01, 2018
Harold Buttleman: Daredevil Stuntman
May 08, 2003
Henry Jaglom Finds 'A Safe Place'
Nov 23, 2010
The Donor
Apr 13, 2001
Read You Like a Book
Oct 01, 2006
Because He's My Friend
Jun 11, 1978
The Wacky Adventures of Dr. Boris and Nurse Shirley
Mar 01, 1995
The Trust
Apr 23, 1993
Fertile La Toyah Video Magazine #2: The Kinky Issue!
Jan 01, 1994
The Last Horror Film
Aug 12, 1982
Watercolors
Jun 07, 2008
WAMEGO: Making Movies Anywhere
Jun 18, 2004
Ralph S. Mouse
Feb 16, 1991
Whitepaddy
Jan 01, 2006
Who Is Henry Jaglom?
Jul 08, 1997
Dark Blood
Sep 27, 2012
Altman on His Own Terms
Jan 01, 2000
Jack Nicholson: The Joker Is Wild
Aug 29, 2004
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia
Aug 04, 2013
My Suicidal Sweetheart
Mar 01, 2005
Every Minute Is Goodbye
Karen Black: Actress at Work
Jan 01, 1999
Airports
Sep 17, 2025
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films
Oct 06, 2014
The Blue Tooth Virgin
Jun 18, 2008
Meet the Eye
Jun 16, 2009
Murder, She Wrote
Sep 30, 1984
The F.B.I.
Sep 19, 1965
Miami Vice
Sep 16, 1984
E! True Hollywood Story
Aug 21, 1996
Mannix
Sep 16, 1967
Adam-12
Sep 21, 1968
Moon Over Miami
Sep 15, 1993
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Sep 30, 2001
Run for Your Life
Sep 13, 1965
Police Story
Mar 20, 1973
E/R
Sep 16, 1984
The Hitchhiker
Nov 23, 1983
The Big Valley
Sep 15, 1965
Judd for the Defense
Sep 08, 1967
The Hunger
Jul 20, 1997
Ghost Story
Sep 15, 1972
Saturday Night Live
Oct 11, 1975
Faerie Tale Theatre
Sep 11, 1982
Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!
Feb 11, 2007
The Mike Douglas Show
Dec 11, 1961
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Oct 01, 1962
The Name of the Game
Sep 20, 1968
Faerie Tale Theatre
Sep 11, 1982
The Carol Burnett Show
Sep 11, 1967
The Invaders
Jan 10, 1967
Tales of the City
Sep 28, 1993
Science Fiction Film Awards
Russians in the City of Angels
Jan 20, 2003
The Second Hundred Years
Sep 06, 1967
Profiler
Sep 21, 1996
