Cult film and TV actress Karen Black—best known for a multitude of roles in the ’60s and ’70s such as Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, and Nashville—died yesterday at the age of 74 of ampullary cancer. From WOW:
In her 50-year career, she also appeared in 1974′s The Great Gatsby, Portnoy’s Complaint, Airport 1975, Capricorn One, 1975′s The Day of the Locust, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1976 Family Plot, and quite a number of schlocky horror shows. “Scary movies I’ve done,” she told the Chicago Tribune in 2008. “They are not dominant in any way, shape, or form. I can tell you what happened, but it was sort of like a mistake. It’s like I went on a bad path and couldn’t find my way back.” One of those “mistake” movies was 1976′s Burnt Offerings with Bette Davis. Not too shabby. And, seriously, who doesn’t thrill to her multiple characters in the legendary 1975 ABC movie of the week, Trilogy of Terror? Goosebumps, even now.
Trilogy of Terror was the first horror movie I ever saw—and while it’s super funny and campy now, it scared the CRAP into my underoos when I was a tyke. Check out this classic scene from the “Amelia” section of Terror where Karen Black gets chased around her apartment by a possessed voodoo doll. It’s a classic and it’s SO. GOOD!!!
And if you loved that, why not go ahead and watch part one and part two. Karen Black: always to be missed, never forgotten.
Karen Black didn’t totally give up on horror. I was lucky enough to chat with her on the set of Rob Zombie’s “House of 1000 Corpses” (technically it was in a trailer at a movie ranch where they were shooting) back at the turn of the millennium. Karen seemed like a genuinely nice person. She will be missed.
Five Easy Pieces….
Oh man. Tempus Fugit.
Nice mini story Todd.