Karen Blanche Black (née Ziegler; July 1, 1939 – August 8, 2013) was an American actress, screenwriter, singer, and songwriter. She studied acting in New York City and performed on Broadway before making her major film debut in Francis Ford Coppola's You're a Big Boy Now (1966). She appeared in Easy Rider (1969), Five Easy Pieces (1970), and The Great Gatsby (1974), winning Golden Globe awards for Best Supporting Actress for the latter two films. Her role in Five Easy Pieces also earned her an Academy Award nomination. In 1975, she appeared in Dan Curtis's horror films Trilogy of Terror and Burnt Offerings, Robert Altman's Nashville, and The Day of the Locust, which brought her a third Golden Globe nomination.
Her other films include Airport 1975 (1974), Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot (1976), Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982), and Tobe Hooper's Invaders from Mars (1986). In the 1990s, Black acted in arthouse and horror films and wrote screenplays before starring in Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses (2003), establishing her as a cult horror icon. She continued working in low-profile films and as a playwright until her diagnosis with ampullary cancer in 2010. She died of the disease in Los Angeles in August 2013. Black's career spanned over fifty years with nearly two hundred film credits.
United States
