9.8
9.8
OowieWanna
2012
as The Donna
Karen Black
Also known as: Karen Blanche Black
Acting
Born:July 1, 1939
Died:August 8, 2013(aged 74)
Birthplace:Park Ridge, Illinois, USA
Nationality:United States
Education:Maine East High School, Northwestern University
N/A
CommunityBiography
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.
Filmography (169 movies)
7.8
7.8
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia
2013
as Self (archive footage)
7.6
7.6
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
2015
as Self (archive footage)
7.5
7.5
Cries of Silence
1996
as Rose Walsh
7.3
7.3
Nashville
1975
as Connie White
7.2
7.2
Letters from the Big Man
2011
as Sean's Colleague
7.1
7.1
Five Easy Pieces
1970
as Rayette Dipesto
7.1
7.1
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood
2003
as Self
7.0
7.0
Hostage
1987
as Laura Lawrence
7.0
7.0
Easy Rider: Shaking the Cage
1999
as Self
7.0
7.0
Double Duty
2009
as Annabelle
6.8
6.8
Capricorn One
1977
as Judy Drinkwater
6.8
6.8
Family Plot
1976
as Fran
6.8
6.8
The Outfit
1973
as Bett Harrow
6.6
6.6
Who Is Henry Jaglom?
1997
as Self
6.5
6.5
Burnt Offerings
1976
as Marian Rolf
6.4
6.4
The Day of the Locust
1975
as Faye Greener
6.4
6.4
Rubin & Ed
1992
as Rula
6.4
6.4
Gypsy 83
2001
as Bambi LeBleau
6.3
6.3
The Great Gatsby
1974
as Myrtle Wilson
6.3
6.3
The Little Mermaid
1987
as Sea Witch
6.2
6.2
Trilogy of Terror
1975
as Julie / Millicent Larimore / Therese Larimore / Amelia
6.2
6.2
Martin's Day
1985
as Karen
6.2
6.2
Plotting 'Family Plot'
2001
as Self
6.2
6.2
House of 1000 Corpses
2003
as Mother Firefly
6.1
6.1
You're a Big Boy Now
1966
as Amy Partlett
6.0
6.0
Some Guy Who Kills People
2011
as Ruth Boyd
6.0
6.0
Crime and Passion
1976
as Susan Winters
6.0
6.0
Ralph S. Mouse
1991
as Miss Kuchenbacker
6.0
6.0
Mr. Horn
1979
as Ernestina Crawford
6.0
6.0
Paradise Cove
1999
as Ma
5.9
5.9
No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos
2009
as Self
5.9
5.9
Plan 10 from Outer Space
1995
as Nehor
5.9
5.9
Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
1982
as Joanne
5.8
5.8
Dark Blood
2012
as Motel Woman
5.8
5.8
Firecracker
2005
as Sandra / Eleanor
5.8
5.8
The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver
1977
as Miriam Oliver / Sandy
5.8
5.8
Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula
2005
as Agrippina
5.7
5.7
A Gunfight
1971
as Jenny Simms
5.7
5.7
Airport 1975
1974
as Nancy Pryor
5.7
5.7
Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?
1983
as Zee
5.7
5.7
America Brown
2005
as Marianne Brown
5.7
5.7
Drive, He Said
1971
as Olive
5.6
5.6
Bad Manners
1984
as Gladys Fitzpatrick
5.6
5.6
Cisco Pike
1971
as Sue
5.6
5.6
Red Dirt
2000
as Aunt Summer
5.6
5.6
Invaders from Mars
1986
as Linda Magnusson
5.6
5.6
Watercolors
2008
as Mrs. Martin
5.5
5.5
Homer and Eddie
1989
as Belle
5.5
5.5
A Single Woman
2008
as Storyteller
5.5
5.5
Out of the Dark
1988
as Ruth Wilson
5.4
5.4
Deadly Dolls: Deepest Cuts
2018
as (archive footage)
5.4
5.4
The Independent
2000
as Karen Black
5.4
5.4
It's Alive III: Island of the Alive
1987
as Ellen Jarvis
5.3
5.3
Bound and Gagged: A Love Story
1993
as Carla
5.3
5.3
Cut and Run
1985
as Karin
5.3
5.3
Rhinoceros
1974
as Daisy
5.2
5.2
Born to Win
1971
as Parm
5.2
5.2
The Squeeze
1978
as Clarisse Saunders
5.2
5.2
Club Fed
1990
as Sally Rich
5.2
5.2
The Last Horror Film
1982
as Karen Black (uncredited)
5.2
5.2
Blood Money
1991
as Barrett
5.1
5.1
Mirror Mirror
1990
as Susan Gordon
5.0
5.0
Whitepaddy
2006
as Mrs. Leider
5.0
5.0
Nothing Special
2010
as May
5.0
5.0
Harold Buttleman: Daredevil Stuntman
2003
as Mrs. Buttleman
5.0
5.0
Wanderlust
2006
as Herself
5.0
5.0
The Pyx
1973
as Elizabeth Lucy
5.0
5.0
I Woke Up Early the Day I Died
1998
as Whip Lady
4.9
4.9
In Praise of Older Women
1978
as Maya
4.9
4.9
Soulkeeper
2001
as Martha la Magnifica
4.8
4.8
The Invisible Kid
1988
as Mom
4.8
4.8
The Double 0 Kid
1992
as Mrs. Elliot
4.7
4.7
Auntie Lee's Meat Pies
1992
as Auntie Lee
4.7
4.7
Quiet Fire
1991
as Kim Martino
4.7
4.7
Hard Contract
1969
as Ellen
4.6
4.6
Killer Fish
1979
as Kate
4.6
4.6
Suffering Man's Charity
2007
as Renee
4.5
4.5
Law and Disorder
1974
as Gloria
4.4
4.4
Twisted Justice
1990
as Mrs. Granger
4.4
4.4
Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering
1996
as June Rhodes
4.4
4.4
Return of the Roller Blade Seven
1993
as Tarot
4.4
4.4
Chanel Solitaire
1981
as Emilienne d'Alençon
4.3
4.3
Portnoy's Complaint
1972
as Mary Jane Reid a.k.a. Monkey
4.3
4.3
Conceiving Ada
1999
as Lady Byron / Mother Coer
4.3
4.3
Haunting Fear
1990
as Dr. Julia Harcourt
4.3
4.3
Eternal Evil
1985
as Janus
4.3
4.3
Teknolust
2002
as Dirty Dick
4.3
4.3
Wild in Blue
2014
as Justine
4.2
4.2
Children of the Night
1991
as Karen Thompson
4.1
4.1
Savage Dawn
1985
as Rachel
4.1
4.1
Separate Ways
1981
as Valentine Colby
4.1
4.1
Night Angel
1990
as Rita
4.1
4.1
Curse of the Forty-Niner
2002
as Aunt Nelly
4.0
4.0
Men
1997
Writer
4.0
4.0
The Last Word
1979
as Paula Herbert
4.0
4.0
Zapped Again!
1990
as Homeroom Teacher
3.9
3.9
She Loves Me Not
2013
as Karla
3.9
3.9
One Long Night
2007
as Barbara
3.9
3.9
Angel Blue
1998
as Social Worker
3.8
3.8
Crimetime
1996
as Millicent
3.8
3.8
The Prime Time
1960
as Betty
3.8
3.8
The Grass Is Singing
1981
as Mary Turner
3.8
3.8
Dinosaur Valley Girls
1995
as Ro-Kell
3.8
3.8
The Children
1990
as Sybil Lullmer
3.8
3.8
Dogtown
1997
as Rose Van Horn
3.7
3.7
Legend of The Roller Blade Seven
1993
as Tarot
3.6
3.6
Read You Like a Book
2006
as Kate
3.6
3.6
Repo Chick
2009
as Aunt De La Chasse
3.6
3.6
Little Laura and Big John
1973
as Laura
3.5
3.5
Stir
1997
as Dr. Gabrielle Kessler
3.5
3.5
Mommy's Little Monster
2012
as Mrs. Melnick
3.4
3.4
Invisible Dad
1998
as Courtney Whitmer
3.4
3.4
Caged Fear
1991
as Blanche
3.3
3.3
Ooga Booga
2013
as Mrs. Allardyce
3.3
3.3
Final Judgement
1992
as Mrs. Sorrel
3.3
3.3
Charades
1998
Producer
3.3
3.3
Evil Spirits
1991
as Ella Purdy
3.0
3.0
Oliver Twisted
2000
as Mrs. Mary Happ
3.0
3.0
Dixie Lanes
1988
as Zelma Putnam
3.0
3.0
Judgement
1992
as Tiffany Powers
3.0
3.0
Mascara
1999
as Aunt Eloise
2.8
2.8
The Roller Blade Seven
1991
as Tarot
2.6
2.6
Stuck!
2009
as The Neighbor Lady
2.5
2.5
The Donor
2001
as Mrs. Springle
2.4
2.4
The Underground Comedy Movie
1999
as Mother
2.4
2.4
Overexposed
1990
as Mrs. Trowbridge
2.4
2.4
Hollywood Dreams
2007
as Luna
2.3
2.3
Miss Right
1982
as Amy
2.2
2.2
Dr. Rage
2005
as Molly
2.0
2.0
Starstruck
1995
as Bertha
2.0
2.0
Maria My Love
2012
as Maria
2.0
2.0
Power
1980
as Rose Vanda-Buchanan
2.0
2.0
Light Speed
1998
as High Priestess
2.0
2.0
A Light in the Darkness
2002
as Mrs. Melnick
2.0
2.0
Contamination
2008
as Mavis
2.0
2.0
Tuesday Never Comes
1992
as Michelle
2.0
2.0
Jack Nicholson: The Joker Is Wild
2004
as Self
1.7
1.7
Paris
2003
as Chantelle
1.2
1.2
Irene in Time
2009
as Sheila Shivvers
1.0
1.0
New York Crossing
1996
as Mrs. Tender
1.0
1.0
Dead Girls Don't Tango
1992
as Insp. Wilson
1.0
1.0
Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop
1980
as Investigator Evelyn Carter
Airports
2025
Fatal Encounter
1990
as Joan Caldwell
Malaika
1998
as Jessica Martin
Fallen Arches
2000
as Lucy Romano
Because He's My Friend
1978
as Anne
The Wacky Adventures of Dr. Boris and Nurse Shirley
1995
as Evelyn
The Trust
1993
as Maria Vandermeer
Fertile La Toyah Video Magazine #2: The Kinky Issue!
1994
The Legendary Life of Ernest Hemingway
1988
as Martha Gelhorn
Bottomless Pit
2015
as Karen Black
Bury the Evidence
1998
as The Mother
The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black: Teather Penumbra
1994
Wamego: Ultimatum
2009
as Self
Where the Ladies Go
1980
as Helen
Hawk Warrior of the Wheelzone
2012
as Tarot
On the tracks of a filmmaker
1988
as Karen Black
Altman on His Own Terms
2000
as Self
Every Minute Is Goodbye
TBA
Karen Black: Actress at Work
1999
as Self
BBStory: An American Film Renaissance
2010
as Self
WAMEGO: Making Movies Anywhere
2004
as Self
Flight of the Spruce Goose
1986
as Gloria
Best of Tromadance Film Festival: Volume 1
2002
as ("Los Vampirios Moronious" short)
Too Bad About Jack
1994
Henry Jaglom Finds 'A Safe Place'
2010
as Self
The Invention of Dr. Morel
2000
Screenplay
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to review!