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Karen Black (born July 1, 1939) is an Oscar-nominated American actress, screenwriter, singer and songwriter.
Biography
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.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). She also appeared in the made for television three-part horror film, Trilogy of Terror.
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 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.
Personal life
Black has had two husbands, screenwriter L.M. 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.External links
1939 births | Actor-singers | American female singers | American film actors | American musical theatre actors | American screenwriters | American singer-songwriters | American television actors | B-movie actors | Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nominees | Law & Order: Criminal Intent actors | Living people | People from Illinois | Scientologists
"Karen Black"