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 Coppolas Youre a Big Boy Now 1966 Black relocated to California and was cast as an acidtripping prostitute in Dennis Hoppers 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 Altmans 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 Schlesingers 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 Curtiss supernatural horror feature Burnt Offerings 1976 The same year she starred as a con artist in Alfred Hitchcocks final film Family Plot In 1982 Black starred as a trans woman in the Robert Altmandirected Broadway debut of Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean a role she also reprised in Altmans subsequent film adaptation She next starred in the comedy Can She Bake a Cherry Pie 1983 followed by Tobe Hoopers 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 Zombies House of 1000 Corpses 2003 which cemented her status as a cult horror icon She continued to star in lowprofile films throughout the early 2000s as well as working as a playwright before her death from ampullary cancer in 2013 Description above from the Wikipedia article Karen Black licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia
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