Karen Black's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) Switched! Karen Black E/R Sheila Shei… The Pat Sajak Show Karen Black

Main Movie Roles 2008 - Watercolors 2007 - One Long Night 2005 - Firecracker 2003 - House of 1000 Corpses 1999 - The Underground Comedy Movie 1998 - I Woke Up Early The Day I Died 1995 - Plan 10 from Outer Space 1992 - Auntie Lee's Meat Pies 1992 - The Player 1991 - Rubin and Ed 1991 - Haunting Fear 1990 - Night Angel 1990 - Evil Spirits 1989 - Homer and Eddie 1989 - Out of the Dark 1988 - The Invisible Kid 1986 - Invaders from Mars 1979 - Killer Fish 1978 - Capricorn One 1976 - Family Plot 1976 - Burnt Offerings 1975 - Nashville 1975 - The Day of the Locust 1974 - Rhinoceros 1974 - The Great Gatsby 1974 - Airport 1975 1973 - The Outfit 1973 - Little Laura and Big John 1971 - Born To Win 1970 - Five Easy Pieces 1969 - Easy Rider 1966 - You're a Big Boy Now

BIOGRAPHY:

Karen Black was born Karen Blanche Zeigler in 1939. She entered Northwestern University at 15 and left two years later. She studied under Lee Strasberg in New York and worked in a number of off-Broadway roles. She made her film debut in The Prime Time (1960), but the film flopped. She made a critically acclaimed debut on Broadway in 1965 in "The Playroom". Her first big film role was in You're a Big Boy Now (1966), directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Shortly afterwards, she appeared as Marcia in the TV series "The Second Hundred Years" (1967).

The film that made her a star was Easy Rider (1969), where she worked with Peter Fonda (I), Dennis Hopper and a supporting actor named Jack Nicholson. She appeared with Nicholson again the next year when they starred in Five Easy Pieces (1970), which garnered an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe for Karen. Her roles mainly consisted of waitresses, hookers and women on the edge. Some of her later films were disappointments at the box office, but she did receive another Golden Globe for The Great Gatsby (1974). One role for which she is well remembered is that of the jewel thief in Alfred Hitchcock (I)'s last film, Family Plot (1976). Another is as the woman terrorized in her apartment by a murderous Zuni doll come to life in the well received TV movie Trilogy of Terror (1975) (TV). After a number of forgettable movies, she again won rave reviews for her role in Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982). Since then, her film career has been busy, but the quality of the films has been uneven.


TRIVIA:

• Wrote the songs "Memphis" and "Rolling Stone" which she performed in character as country singer Connie White in the movie _Nashville (1975)_ (qv). As a result she was nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Series.
• Godmother of 'Dylan Purcell (I)' (qv).
• Was married to younger actor 'Robert Burton (III)' (qv), her second husband, at the time they filmed the cult TV-movie _Trilogy of Terror (1975) (TV)_ (qv). Ms. Black initially turned the role down but eventually accepted when Robert was selected for a lead role in one of the three segments. Karen plays a college English teacher and he plays an obsessed student who stalks her. The couple was already divorced (after less than two years) by the time the TV-movie premiered in March of 1975.
• Guitarist Abby Normal featured a song titled "Scream Karen Black" on his solo project album Midnight Creature Feature Picture Show.
• She adopted a daughter, Celine Eckelberry, with her husband Stephen. Celine was born in November of 1987.
• Launched her career as a playwright in May 2007 with the opening of "Missouri Waltz" in Los Angeles; Black starred in the play as well. The piece is conceived as a play with music, rather than a musical.
• Attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, for two years before moving to New York, where she studied with 'Lee Strasberg' (qv) at the Actor's Studio and appeared in a number of Off-Broadway productions.
• Mother of 'Hunter Carson' (qv) and 'Celine Eckelberry' (qv).