Karen Black facts for kids
Karen Blanche Black (born Karen Blanche Ziegler; July 1, 1939 – August 8, 2013) was an American actress, writer, singer, and songwriter. She became very well known in the 1970s for her roles in many different movies, both big studio films and smaller independent ones. She often played unique and interesting characters. Her career lasted over 50 years, and she appeared in almost 200 films! Karen Black won several awards, including two Golden Globe Awards, and was even nominated for an Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Supporting Actress.
Karen grew up near Chicago and studied theater at Northwestern University. She later moved to New York City to become an actress. She started acting on Broadway in 1965 before making her first big movie, You're a Big Boy Now (1966), directed by Francis Ford Coppola. She then moved to California and got a role in the famous road trip movie Easy Rider (1969). This led to a main role in the drama Five Easy Pieces (1970), where she played a waitress. For this role, she was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe.
Black's first big commercial movie was the disaster film Airport 1975 (1974). She then played Myrtle Wilson in The Great Gatsby (1974), which earned her a second Golden Globe Award. In 1975, she starred as a country singer in Robert Altman's musical drama Nashville. She also wrote and sang two songs for the movie's soundtrack, which was nominated for a Grammy Award. Her role as an aspiring actress in The Day of the Locust (1975) earned her another Golden Globe nomination.
Karen Black also took on four different roles in the horror film Trilogy of Terror (1975). She then starred in another supernatural horror movie, Burnt Offerings (1976). In the same year, she played a clever con artist in Alfred Hitchcock's last movie, Family Plot. In 1982, Black starred in a Broadway play called Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, and later in the movie version of it. She continued to act in many independent and horror films throughout the 1980s and 1990s. She also wrote her own screenplays. One of her later well-known roles was as a villainous mother in Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses (2003), which made her a popular figure among horror fans. Karen Black continued to act in films and work as a playwright until she passed away in 2013.
Contents
Life and Career
Early Life (1939–1959)
Karen Blanche Ziegler was born on July 1, 1939, in Park Ridge, Illinois. Her mother, Elsie Mary, was a writer of children's books, and her father, Norman Arthur Ziegler, was an engineer. Her grandfather, Arthur Charles Ziegler, was a classical musician who played the violin for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Karen had two siblings, a sister and a brother. Her elder sister, Gail Brown, also became an actress. Karen's family had German, Czech, and Norwegian roots.
Karen and her siblings grew up in Park Ridge and often visited her uncle's farm in Wisconsin. As a teenager, she dreamed of becoming a stage actress. She looked for jobs in summer theater groups. Karen remembered, "From the age of 13 I'd rush out during vacations to find work in summer stock." She started by cleaning and then became a prop-girl and sang in the chorus. By age 17, she got her first paid acting job. Karen graduated from Maine Township High School East in 1957. After high school, she went to Northwestern University to study theater arts. She studied there for two years before leaving.
Starting in Theater and Film (1960–1970)
In 1960, Karen Black moved to New York City to follow her acting dreams. She lived in Manhattan and took different jobs like being a secretary or working at a hotel. She started acting with a theater group called the Rockefeller Players. She also briefly joined the Actors Studio. In the same year, she married Charles Black, but their marriage was short. However, she kept his last name, Black, for her acting career.
Karen Black's first movie role was a small part in The Prime Time (1960). She later said it was "the worst film ever made." After this, she went back to working in theater. She was an understudy (someone who learns a role to fill in if needed) in a Broadway play called Take Her, She's Mine in 1961. She made her official Broadway debut in 1965 in a play called The Playroom. This play received good reviews, and she was nominated for an award for Best Actress.
In 1966, she returned to movies with a main role in the comedy You're a Big Boy Now, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. She played the love interest of a young student. The movie got her good reviews, and she decided to move to Los Angeles. From 1967, she appeared in many TV shows, including The F.B.I., The Big Valley, and Adam-12.
Her movie career really took off in 1969 when she starred with Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda in the famous counterculture film Easy Rider. The next year, Black played Rayette, the waitress girlfriend of Jack Nicholson, in Five Easy Pieces (1970). For this role, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won her first Golden Globe Award. She also won a New York Film Critics Circle Award for her performance.
Big Roles and Horror Films (1971–1979)
Black had a supporting role in Born to Win (1971) with George Segal and Robert De Niro. She also appeared in Jack Nicholson's first movie as a director, Drive, He Said, and the Western A Gunfight with Kirk Douglas and Johnny Cash. She then had roles in Cisco Pike (1972) and Portnoy's Complaint (1972). She played a main role in the Canadian horror film The Pyx (1973) and later appeared in The Outfit (1973) with Robert Duvall. In 1973, Black played Laura in the crime film Little Laura and Big John.
Black's first big commercial movie was the disaster film Airport 1975 (1974). In this movie, she played Nancy Pryor, a flight attendant who has to fly the plane after a crash. She then played Myrtle Wilson in the 1974 movie version of The Great Gatsby. This role earned her a second Golden Globe Award. In 1975, she played multiple characters in Dan Curtis's TV horror film Trilogy of Terror.
Black received her third Golden Globe nomination for her role as an aspiring actress in 1930s Hollywood in John Schlesinger's drama The Day of the Locust (1975).
In the same year, she starred as a country singer in Robert Altman's film Nashville. She also wrote and sang two songs for the movie's soundtrack, which was nominated for a Grammy Award. On July 4, 1975, Black married actor and writer L. M. Kit Carson. They had a son, Hunter Carson, on December 26 of that year.
In 1976, Black played a jewel thief in Alfred Hitchcock's last film, Family Plot. She also worked again with director Dan Curtis in the supernatural horror film Burnt Offerings. In this movie, she played the wife of a family living in a haunted house. The film was called an "outstanding terror movie" with "solid actors" by The New York Times. She also had a main role in the independent crime comedy Crime and Passion (1976).
In 1977, she played two roles in the TV thriller The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver. She also had a small role in Capricorn One (1978).
Independent Films and Horror Roles (1986–2002)
In 1986, Karen Black starred with her son, Hunter, in Tobe Hooper's science fiction horror film Invaders from Mars. The next year, she married her fourth husband, Stephen Eckelberry, on September 27, 1987. They adopted a daughter named Celine. She had a supporting role in the horror sequel It's Alive III: Island of the Alive (1987) and the comedy The Invisible Kid (1988). She also starred with Jim Belushi and Whoopi Goldberg in Homer and Eddie (1989). In 1990, Black had a supporting role in The Children and the science fiction comedy Zapped Again!.
In the 1990s, Black often appeared in horror films. These included Mirror, Mirror (1990), where she played a troubled mother, and Children of the Night (1991), where she played an ancient vampire. She also had roles in the British comedy Rubin and Ed (1991) and the martial arts film The Roller Blade Seven (1991). She made a cameo appearance in Robert Altman's The Player (1992). Black appeared in the sequels to The Roller Blade Seven in 1992 and 1993. She also appeared in the comedy The Double 0 Kid (1993). In 1993, Black had a supporting role in the drama Dark Blood with River Phoenix. In 1995, she starred in Plan 10 from Outer Space, a science fiction comedy.
In 1996, Black played a worried mother in Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering with Naomi Watts. She also had supporting roles in other independent films that year, like Every Minute is Goodbye and Dinosaur Valley Girls. The next year, she co-starred with Tilda Swinton in the science fiction film Conceiving Ada (1997). She also had supporting roles in Men and Dogtown.
She continued to star in many independent films in 1998, including the comedy I Woke Up Early the Day I Died and the drama Charades. In 2000, Black began filming Rob Zombie's first movie as a director, House of 1000 Corpses. In this film, she played Mother Firefly, the leader of a family of scary characters. When the movie came out in 2003, it helped make Black a popular figure among horror fans.
Later Career and Playwriting (2003–2013)
In March 2005, Karen Black won the Best Actress Award at the Fantasporto International Film Festival in Portugal. This was for her work in the film Firecracker (2005), where she played two different roles. She and actor John Hurt also received awards for their long careers.
Black started a new career as a playwright in May 2007 with her play Missouri Waltz opening in Los Angeles. Black also starred in her own play. She also performed live narrations for Guy Maddin's experimental film Brand Upon the Brain! in 2007, touring the show around the United States.
In April 2009, Black worked with director Steve Balderson again for Stuck!, a film that paid tribute to old "women-in-prison" movies. She starred in John Landis' 2010 thriller Some Guy Who Kills People and a short film called Meet the Eye (2009). Later that year, Black appeared on Cass McCombs' song "Dreams-Come-True-Girl".
In October 2015, the music group Death Grips released a video showing footage of Black reciting lines from a film script. This footage was filmed in early 2013.
Acting Style
Karen Black is seen by film historians as an important figure in a time called "New Hollywood" in the 1970s. This was a period when many new and creative filmmakers emerged. She was very busy throughout her career, sometimes appearing in as many as seven films in one year. She preferred working in independent films, saying, "That's my world—independent features." She found it fun and comfortable, allowing for individual creativity.
Black believed that acting was like writing. She said, "Everything that occurs in this zone is imagination-based." She thought of acting as creating a life in your mind and then reacting to it as if it were real. Black considered herself a "character actress," meaning she enjoyed playing unique and different characters rather than always playing the main hero or heroine.
Throughout her career, Black was known for her distinctive eyes. She was often chosen to play unique or everyday women. In the 1990s, Black became very popular with fans of horror films. She explained that her role in Trilogy of Terror with the demon doll was very real to people, and they loved it. She also noted that her last name, Black, might have unconsciously linked her to horror movies.
Beliefs
From the mid-1970s, Karen Black became a Scientologist and practiced it for the rest of her life. She was also a strong supporter of gay rights. She said in 2007, "Who you are is very sacred, and should be honored—no matter what gender you were born." Black also supported animal rights and was against the fur industry. She even posed in a Halloween-themed advertisement against fur for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
Death
After her last films were released in 2010, Karen Black was diagnosed with a type of cancer called ampullary cancer. She stopped making public appearances. She had surgery that year and two more operations.
On August 8, 2013, Karen Black passed away at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, from ampullary cancer. She was 74 years old. Black is buried at Eternal Hills Memorial Park in Oceanside, California.
Images for kids
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Karen Black in 1968
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See also
In Spanish: Karen Black para niños
