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.
177 movies · 35 shows
Airports
2025·0.0
Deadly Dolls: Deepest Cuts
2018·5.5
Bottomless Pit
2015·0.0
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
2015·7.6
Return to the 5 & Dime: An Interview with Ed Graczyk
2014·0.0
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films
2014·7.2
Wild in Blue
2014·4.2
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia
2013·7.7
She Loves Me Not
2013·3.9
Ooga Booga
2013·3.1
Dark Blood
2012·6.0
Maria My Love
2012·2.0
OowieWanna
2012·9.8
Mommy's Little Monster
2012·3.5
Hawk Warrior of the Wheelzone
2012·0.0
Letters from the Big Man
2011·7.2
Some Guy Who Kills People
2011·6.1
BBStory: An American Film Renaissance
2010·0.0
Henry Jaglom Finds 'A Safe Place'
2010·0.0
Nothing Special
2010·5.0
Double Duty
2009·7.0
Stuck!
2009·2.6
Repo Chick
2009·3.6
Irene in Time
2009·1.2
Meet the Eye
2009·0.0
Wamego: Ultimatum
2009·0.0
No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos
2009·5.6
First Time Long Time
2009·0.0
A Single Woman
2008·5.5
The Blue Tooth Virgin
2008·8.0
Watercolors
2008·5.5
Contamination
2008·2.0
Hollywood Dreams
2007·3.1
One Long Night
2007·3.9
Suffering Man's Charity
2007·4.8
Read You Like a Book
2006·3.6
Wanderlust
2006·5.9
Whitepaddy
2006·7.5
America Brown
2005·6.0
Firecracker
2005·6.1
Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula
2005·5.8
Crazy for Love
2005·5.6
Dr. Rage
2005·3.0
Jack Nicholson: The Joker Is Wild
2004·2.0
Birth of Industry
2004·8.0
WAMEGO: Making Movies Anywhere
2004·8.0
Paris
2003·3.0
Harold Buttleman: Daredevil Stuntman
2003·7.0
House of 1000 Corpses
2003·6.2
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood
2003·7.1
Curse of the Forty-Niner
2002·4.3
A Light in the Darkness
2002·4.3
Best of Tromadance Film Festival: Volume 1
2002·0.0
Teknolust
2002·4.4
Gypsy 83
2001·6.5
Soulkeeper
2001·5.1
The Donor
2001·4.0
Plotting 'Family Plot'
2001·6.9
The Independent
2000·5.3
Red Dirt
2000·5.7
Fallen Arches
2000·7.0
Oliver Twisted
2000·5.0
Altman on His Own Terms
2000·9.0
Easy Rider: Shaking the Cage
1999·7.1
The Underground Comedy Movie
1999·2.6
Mascara
1999·4.0
Conceiving Ada
1999·4.7
Paradise Cove
1999·6.5
Karen Black: Actress at Work
1999·10.0
Charades
1998·4.2
Bury the Evidence
1998·8.0
Angel Blue
1998·4.5
I Woke Up Early the Day I Died
1998·5.0
Invisible Dad
1998·4.1
Malaika
1998·10.0
Light Speed
1998·2.0
Mythos Hollywood - Das Geheimnis des Erfolgs
1998·3.0
Men
1997·4.5
Who Is Henry Jaglom?
1997·6.8
Stir
1997·4.6
Dogtown
1997·4.0
New York Crossing
1996·4.0
Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering
1996·4.5
Crimetime
1996·4.3
Cries of Silence
1996·7.3
Every Minute Is Goodbye
1996·6.0
The Wacky Adventures of Dr. Boris and Nurse Shirley
1995·10.0
Plan 10 from Outer Space
1995·6.0
Dinosaur Valley Girls
1995·4.3
Starstruck
1995·4.3
The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black: Teather Penumbra
1994·0.0
Too Bad About Jack
1994·10.0
Fertile La Toyah Video Magazine #2: The Kinky Issue!
1994·0.0
Bound and Gagged: A Love Story
1993·6.0
Legend of The Roller Blade Seven
1993·4.6
The Trust
1993·10.0
Return of the Roller Blade Seven
1993·4.7
Auntie Lee's Meat Pies
1992·4.8
The Double 0 Kid
1992·5.1
Judgement
1992·3.9
Final Judgement
1992·4.0
Tuesday Never Comes
1992·3.7
Rubin & Ed
1992·6.5
The Player
1992·7.2
Dead Girls Don't Tango
1992·4.0
Quiet Fire
1991·5.2
Evil Spirits
1991·3.7
Children of the Night
1991·4.4
The Roller Blade Seven
1991·3.2
Caged Fear
1991·4.1
Blood Money
1991·5.6
Ralph S. Mouse
1991·7.0
Mirror Mirror
1990·5.2
Club Fed
1990·5.5
Haunting Fear
1990·4.7
Night Angel
1990·4.4
The Children
1990·4.9
Zapped Again!
1990·4.2
Twisted Justice
1990·5.8
Overexposed
1990·3.3
Fatal Encounter
1990·9.0
Homer and Eddie
1989·5.6
Out of the Dark
1988·5.6
Dixie Lanes
1988·4.0
The Invisible Kid
1988·5.0
The Legendary Life of Ernest Hemingway
1988·8.0
On the tracks of a filmmaker
1988·0.0
Hostage
1987·7.5
It's Alive III: Island of the Alive
1987·5.4
The Little Mermaid
1987·6.8
Invaders from Mars
1986·5.6
Flight of the Spruce Goose
1986·8.0
Savage Dawn
1985·4.4
Cut and Run
1985·5.3
Martin's Day
1985·6.4
Eternal Evil
1985·4.4
Bad Manners
1984·5.8
Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?
1983·5.9
Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
1982·6.0
The Last Horror Film
1982·5.3
Miss Right
1982·4.3
Chanel Solitaire
1981·5.0
The Grass Is Singing
1981·4.7
Separate Ways
1981·4.7
Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop
1980·3.0
Where the Ladies Go
1980·10.0
Killer Fish
1979·4.7
The Last Word
1979·5.0
Mr. Horn
1979·7.0
The Squeeze
1978·5.9
In Praise of Older Women
1978·5.3
Because He's My Friend
1978·8.0
Capricorn One
1977·6.8
The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver
1977·6.4
Burnt Offerings
1976·6.5
Family Plot
1976·6.8
Crime and Passion
1976·7.0
Nashville
1975·7.2
The Day of the Locust
1975·6.4
Trilogy of Terror
1975·6.2
Airport 1975
1974·5.8
Law and Disorder
1974·5.0
The Great Gatsby
1974·6.3
Rhinoceros
1974·5.6
The Outfit
1973·6.8
The Pyx
1973·5.4
Little Laura and Big John
1973·4.3
Portnoy's Complaint
1972·4.7
Cisco Pike
1972·5.6
Born to Win
1971·5.3
A Gunfight
1971·5.8
Drive, He Said
1971·5.6
Five Easy Pieces
1970·7.1
Easy Rider
1969·7.0
Hard Contract
1969·5.1
You're a Big Boy Now
1966·6.1
The Prime Time
1960·4.5