Karen Black

From Alfred Hitchcock Wiki

• born: 01/Jul/1939 (Park Ridge, Illinois, USA)

[edit] Biography

Karen Black is an Oscar-nominated American actress, screenwriter, singer and songwriter.

[edit] Early life

Black was born Karen Blanche Ziegler in Park Ridge, Illinois, the daughter of Norman Ziegler and Elsie Reif, a writer of several prize-winning children's novels; her paternal grandfather was Arthur Ziegler, a classical musician. She attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, for two years, before moving to New York, where she appeared in a number of Off-Broadway productions.

[edit] Career

Black made her Broadway debut in 1965's "The Playroom", which received good reviews and for which she was nominated for a Drama Circle Critic Award for Best Actress. Her film debut was in "The Prime Time" (1960) and her first big role was as Amy Partlett in "You're a Big Boy Now" (1966), which was directed by Francis Ford Coppola. She subsequently appeared on the TV series "The Hundred Years" (1967) as Marcia Garroway.

Black became a well-known actress after her role as Karen in "Easy Rider" (1969). She has over 100 film performances to her credit, including her role as Fran in Hitchcock's "Family Plot" (1976) and her turn as Rayette Dipesto in "Five Easy Pieces" (1970), for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for "Five Easy Pieces", and she won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture for her role as Myrtle Wilson in "The Great Gatsby" (1974). She was also nominated for Best Motion Picture Actress - Drama for her role as Faye Greener in "The Day of the Locust" (1975).

Black was nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Series for the film "Nashville" (1975). During the late 1970s, she starred in the Dan Curtis horror film about a haunted house, "Burnt Offerings", which also featured Bette Davis in one of her final roles.

Black has made a number of guest starring appearances on popular shows, including "The Big Valley", "Mannix", "Adam-12", "Saturday Night Live", "Murder, She Wrote", "Family Guy", and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent".

In March 2005, Black received the Best Actress Award at the Fantasporto International Film Festival in Porto, Portugal, for her work in the film "Firecracker" (2004), in which she plays two roles, Sandra and Eleanor. She and actor John Hurt were both presented with Career Achievement Awards as well.

[edit] Personal life

Black has had two husbands, screenwriter Kit Carson (divorced) and film editor Stephen Eckelberry (married 1987 - present). She and Carson have one son, Hunter Carson (born December 25, 1975), who had an acting career in the mid 1980s; and she and Eckelberry adopted one daughter at three months of age, Celine Eckelberry (born in November 1987). She and Eckelberry are active in the Church of Scientology, along with his mother, Renee Duke.

(Wikipedia)

[edit] Filmography

With Hitchcock...

• Family Plot (1976) - cast: Fran

Other works of note...

• Five Easy Pieces (1970) - cast: Rayette Dipesto
• Nashville (1975) - cast: Connie White
• Capricorn One (1978) - cast: Judy Drinkwater
• Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982) - cast: Joanne
• The Player (1992) - as herself

[edit] Documentaries

She has appeared in the following Hitchcockian documentaries...

• Plotting Family Plot (2001)

[edit] Links

• Internet Movie Database
• Karen Black Online
• The Terror Trap - Karen Black

[edit] Film Frames

Selection of film frames of Karen Black (click image to view larger version or refresh thumbnails)...

[edit] Image Gallery

Images from the Hitchcock Gallery (click to view larger versions or search for all relevant images)...