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.
Movies (168)
Airports
2025
Deadly Dolls: Deepest Cuts
2018
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
2015
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films
2014
Wild in Blue
2014
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia
2013
She Loves Me Not
2013
Ooga Booga
2013
Dark Blood
2012
OowieWanna
2012
Hawk Warrior of the Wheelzone
2012
Letters from the Big Man
2011
Some Guy Who Kills People
2011
BBStory: An American Film Renaissance
2010
Henry Jaglom Finds 'A Safe Place'
2010
Nothing Special
2010
Double Duty
2009
Stuck!
2009
Repo Chick
2009
Irene in Time
2009
Wamego: Ultimatum
2009
No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos
2009
First Time Long Time
2009
A Single Woman
2008
The Blue Tooth Virgin
2008
Watercolors
2008
Contamination
2008
Hollywood Dreams
2007
One Long Night
2007
Suffering Man's Charity
2007
Read You Like a Book
2006
Wanderlust
2006
Whitepaddy
2006
America Brown
2005
Firecracker
2005
Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula
2005
Crazy for Love
2005
Dr. Rage
2005
Jack Nicholson: The Joker Is Wild
2004
Birth of Industry
2004
WAMEGO: Making Movies Anywhere
2004
Paris
2003
Harold Buttleman: Daredevil Stuntman
2003
House of 1000 Corpses
2003
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood
2003
Curse of the Forty-Niner
2002
A Light in the Darkness
2002
Best of Tromadance Film Festival: Volume 1
2002
Teknolust
2002
Gypsy 83
2001
Soulkeeper
2001
The Donor
2001
Plotting 'Family Plot'
2001
The Independent
2000
Red Dirt
2000
Fallen Arches
2000
Oliver Twisted
2000
Altman on His Own Terms
2000
Easy Rider: Shaking the Cage
1999
The Underground Comedy Movie
1999
Mascara
1999
Conceiving Ada
1999
Paradise Cove
1999
Charades
1998
Bury the Evidence
1998
Angel Blue
1998
I Woke Up Early the Day I Died
1998
Invisible Dad
1998
Malaika
1998
Mythos Hollywood - Das Geheimnis des Erfolgs
1998
Men
1997
Who Is Henry Jaglom?
1997
Stir
1997
Dogtown
1997
New York Crossing
1996
Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering
1996
Crimetime
1996
Cries of Silence
1996
The Wacky Adventures of Dr. Boris and Nurse Shirley
1995
Plan 10 from Outer Space
1995
Dinosaur Valley Girls
1995
Starstruck
1995
The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black: Teather Penumbra
1994
Fertile La Toyah Video Magazine #2: The Kinky Issue!
1994
Bound and Gagged: A Love Story
1993
Legend of The Roller Blade Seven
1993
The Trust
1993
Return of the Roller Blade Seven
1993
Auntie Lee's Meat Pies
1992
The Double 0 Kid
1992
Judgement
1992
Final Judgement
1992
Tuesday Never Comes
1992
Rubin & Ed
1992
The Player
1992
Dead Girls Don't Tango
1992
Quiet Fire
1991
Evil Spirits
1991
Children of the Night
1991
The Roller Blade Seven
1991
Caged Fear
1991
Blood Money
1991
Ralph S. Mouse
1991
Mirror Mirror
1990
Club Fed
1990
Haunting Fear
1990
Night Angel
1990
The Children
1990
Zapped Again!
1990
Twisted Justice
1990
Overexposed
1990
Fatal Encounter
1990
Homer and Eddie
1989
Out of the Dark
1988
Dixie Lanes
1988
The Invisible Kid
1988
The Legendary Life of Ernest Hemingway
1988
On the tracks of a filmmaker
1988
Hostage
1987
It's Alive III: Island of the Alive
1987
The Little Mermaid
1987
Invaders from Mars
1986
Flight of the Spruce Goose
1986
Savage Dawn
1985
Cut and Run
1985
Martin's Day
1985
Eternal Evil
1985
Bad Manners
1984
Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?
1983
Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
1982
The Last Horror Film
1982
Miss Right
1982
Chanel Solitaire
1981
The Grass Is Singing
1981
Separate Ways
1981
Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop
1980
Where the Ladies Go
1980
Killer Fish
1979
The Last Word
1979
Mr. Horn
1979
The Squeeze
1978
In Praise of Older Women
1978
Because He's My Friend
1978
Capricorn One
1977
The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver
1977
Burnt Offerings
1976
Family Plot
1976
Crime and Passion
1976
Nashville
1975
The Day of the Locust
1975
Trilogy of Terror
1975
Airport 1975
1974
Law and Disorder
1974
The Great Gatsby
1974
Rhinoceros
1974
The Outfit
1973
The Pyx
1973
Little Laura and Big John
1973
Portnoy's Complaint
1972
Born to Win
1971
Cisco Pike
1971
A Gunfight
1971
Drive, He Said
1971
Five Easy Pieces
1970
Easy Rider
1969
Hard Contract
1969
You're a Big Boy Now
1966
The Prime Time
1960
TV Shows (35)
Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!
2007
Russians in the City of Angels
2003
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
2001
The Hunger
1997
Profiler
1996
E! True Hollywood Story
1996
Party of Five
1994
Tales of the City
1993
Moon Over Miami
1993
Worlds Beyond
1986
Murder, She Wrote
1984
Miami Vice
1984
E/R
1984
The Hitchhiker
1983
Faerie Tale Theatre
1982
Faerie Tale Theatre
1982
Power
1980
Mr. Horn
1979
Saturday Night Live
1975
People's Choice Awards
1975
Police Story
1973
Ghost Story
1972
Adam-12
1968
The Name of the Game
1968
Mannix
1967
The Carol Burnett Show
1967
Judd, for the Defense
1967
The Second Hundred Years
1967
The Invaders
1967
The F.B.I.
1965
The Big Valley
1965
Run for Your Life
1965
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962
The Mike Douglas Show
1961
