Karen Black

Acting

Karen Black

Born 1939-07-01 · Park Ridge, Illinois, USA

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.

Acting credits

The Player poster
7.2

A Hollywood studio executive is being sent death threats by a writer whose script he rejected - but which one?

The Player

1992

Easy Rider poster
7.0

Wyatt and Billy, two Harley-riding hippies, complete a drug deal in Southern California and decide to travel cross-country in search of spiritual truth.

Easy Rider

1969

House of 1000 Corpses poster
6.2

Two teenage couples traveling across the backwoods of Texas searching for urban legends of serial killers end up as prisoners of a bizarre and sadistic backwater family of serial killers.

House of 1000 Corpses

2003

Airport 1975 poster
5.8

When an in-flight collision incapacitates the pilots of an airplane bound for Los Angeles, stewardess Nancy Pryor is forced to take over the controls. From the ground, her boyfriend Alan Murdock, a retired test pilot, tries to talk her through piloting and landing the 747 aircraft. Worse yet, the anxious passengers — among which are a noisy nun and a cranky man — are aggravating the already tense atmosphere.

Airport 1975

1974

The Great Gatsby poster
6.3

Nick Carraway, a young Midwesterner now living on Long Island, finds himself fascinated by the mysterious past and lavish lifestyle of his neighbor, the nouveau riche Jay Gatsby. He is drawn into Gatsby's circle, becoming a witness to obsession and tragedy.

The Great Gatsby

1974

Capricorn One poster
6.8

In order to protect the reputation of the American space program, a team of NASA administrators turn the first Mars mission into a phony Mars landing. Under threat of harm to their families the astronauts play their part in the deception on a staged set in a deserted military base. But once the real ship returns to Earth and burns up on re-entry, the astronauts become liabilities. Now, with the help of a crusading reporter, they must battle a sinister conspiracy that will stop at nothing to keep the truth hidden.

Capricorn One

1977

Nashville poster
7.3

The intersecting stories of twenty-four characters—from country star to wannabe to reporter to waitress—connect to the music business in Nashville, Tennessee.

Nashville

1975

Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering poster
4.5

A bright young medical student must solve the frightening mystery that plagues the children of a small Midwestern town.

Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering

1996

Five Easy Pieces poster
7.1

Robert Dupea spends his days doing various odd jobs, drinking and womanizing until an encounter with his sister makes him revisit his past.

Five Easy Pieces

1970

The Outfit poster
6.7

A two-bit criminal takes on the Mafia to avenge his brother's death. Earl Macklin is a small time criminal who is released from prison after an unsuccessful bank robbery only to discover that a pair of gunmen killed his brother.

The Outfit

1973

Eternal Evil poster
4.4

A dissatisfied Montreal director of TV commercials is taught to astrally project himself by a mysterious woman. But soon he finds that he does it against his will when he sleeps, and while he does it, he commits savage acts against those in his life.

Eternal Evil

1985

Bad Manners poster
5.9

Four teens on the run from an orphanage spring a fellow orphan recently adopted by a rich family, then trash the whole house.

Bad Manners

1984

Family Plot poster
6.8

Spiritualist Blanche Tyler and her cab-driving boyfriend encounter a pair of serial kidnappers while trailing a missing heir in California.

Family Plot

1976

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films poster
7.2

A documentary about the rise and fall of the Cannon Film Group, the legendary independent film company helmed by Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus.

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films

2014

Burnt Offerings poster
6.5

A family moves into a large old mansion in the countryside which seems to have a mysterious and sinister power over its new residents.

Burnt Offerings

1976

Night Angel poster
4.4

A legendary she-demon, in the updated guise of a beautiful model, infiltrates the offices of a successful fashion magazine with the aim of corrupting the world via mass media.

Night Angel

1990

Killer Fish poster
4.7

Jewel thieves attempt to recover treasure from piranha infested waters. Mistrust and betrayals happen amongst the gang in the quest for gold.

Killer Fish

1979

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief poster
7.6

The film profiles eight former members of the Church of Scientology, shining a light on how they attract true believers and the things they do in the name of religion.

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief

2015

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood poster
7.1

The chronicle of the mind-blowing journey that was Hollywood during the seventies; the true and gripping story of the last golden age of American cinema, an exalted celebration of creativity and experimentation; but also of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll: a turbulent and dark tale of ambition, envy, betrayal, hatred and self-destruction.

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

2003

Cut and Run poster
5.3

A reporter and her cameraman connect a surviving Jonestown leader and a TV exec's missing son to a drug war where jungle installations are being massacred by an army of natives and a skilled white assassin.

Cut and Run

1985

The Legendary Life of Ernest Hemingway poster
8.0

Larger-than-life American author Ernest Hemingway is the subject of this biopic that chronicles the famous writer's life from childhood to his suicide at age 61. Haunted by various inner demons -- including his father's suicide -- Hemingway serves in World War I, marries four times, and finds creative support from Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein and other expatriates living in 1920s Paris.

The Legendary Life of Ernest Hemingway

1988

Trilogy of Terror poster
6.2

A horror anthology containing three stories: a female college professor is aggressively pursued by one of her students; a prudish brunette determines that her free-spirited blonde sister is evil; and a woman's night turns upside down after she purchases an ancient Zuni fetish doll.

Trilogy of Terror

1975

Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula poster
5.8

This is a short film based on the 1979 film of the same name. The film is stylized with the actors wearing modernized robes and Roman jewelry and females playing male characters and vice-versa.

Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula

2005

Invaders from Mars poster
5.6

A boy tries to stop aliens that have taken over his town and are brainwashing its inhabitants.

Invaders from Mars

1986

Behind the camera

Men poster
4.5

A single young woman moves to Los Angeles, gets a job as a chef and has casual affairs.

Men

1997

The Invention of Dr. Morel poster
8.0

About Dr. Morel who invents a machine to duplicate the woman he loved, Faustina, in virtual reality. A tale dealing with the impossibility of ever knowing for certain which parts of ourselves and our relationship with others exist only in our imagination.

The Invention of Dr. Morel

2000

Charades poster
4.2

Barry is a down-and-out-guy who takes a job at the shipping department of Technoworks, a high-tech Yuppie company. He gets invited to the house of his boss Quinn, for a weekend afternoon barbecue with some of his boss's friends. The party gets weird, Barry plays a demented version of charades while standing on the picnic table, and the next door neighbor starts screaming racial slurs over the fence. When Jude, the widow of the ex-owner of Technoworks arrives, the plot thickens. Clues to past crimes are revealed, and the real reason for the party is discovered. But not before Barry beats the hell out of a tow-truck driver, screws the boss's wife and wreaks havok with the neighbor. And as the title suggests, before the day is over, we will discover who is the Felon, or perhaps the people at party are all, one way or another, Felons.

Charades

1998

Charades poster
4.2

Barry is a down-and-out-guy who takes a job at the shipping department of Technoworks, a high-tech Yuppie company. He gets invited to the house of his boss Quinn, for a weekend afternoon barbecue with some of his boss's friends. The party gets weird, Barry plays a demented version of charades while standing on the picnic table, and the next door neighbor starts screaming racial slurs over the fence. When Jude, the widow of the ex-owner of Technoworks arrives, the plot thickens. Clues to past crimes are revealed, and the real reason for the party is discovered. But not before Barry beats the hell out of a tow-truck driver, screws the boss's wife and wreaks havok with the neighbor. And as the title suggests, before the day is over, we will discover who is the Felon, or perhaps the people at party are all, one way or another, Felons.

Charades

1998