Celebrity Biographies
James Karen
He was one of those regular movie actors that the viewer immediately recognizes even if he can’t say his name. In the case of James Karen, when he appeared the public remembered that he had sold a house built on a cemetery to the protagonists of “Poltergeist”. The actor died on October 23, 2018 at the age of 94, after a cardiorespiratory arrest, at his residence in Los Angeles.
Born on November 28, 1923, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Jacob Karnofsky (his real name) was the son of a family of Jewish emigrants from Russia. When he was young, a congressman convinced him that he had qualities as an actor so that he would join the production of a play that he premiered in New York. In Skyscraper City he was particularly successful when he replaced Karl Malden in the original Broadway production of “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
Since then he has lavished himself in the cinema and on television, as viewers of the 70s remember him as the boss of Tom Bradford ( Dick Van Patten ) in the popular series Eight is Enough , and for the tragic ending of the legendary series The House of the prairie There, he played an unscrupulous businessman who comes to the town of Walnut Grove, where the Ingalls lived. Taking advantage of a legal loophole, he has taken ownership of all the land where the houses are built, for which he urges all the neighbors to abandon them. They decide to leave, but after blowing up the houses.
That chapter made him the most hated guy in America, as he remembered in interviews that taxi drivers did not want to stop to pick him up. “For some reason, I never caused hate with other characters I played,” recalled James Karen . “But Nathan Lassiter’s evil blew their minds off. I guess they realized they would never see Walnut Grove again, and that created a great sense of loss.”
In cinema, he stood out in Opening Night , by John Cassavetes , All the President’s Men , by Alan J. Pakula , FIST, Symbol of Strength , by Norman Jewison , Mulholland Drive , by David Lynch , and Oliver Stone ‘s films Wall Street , Nixon and Any Given Sunday . Although he drew attention above all with the aforementioned Poltergeist , by Tobe Hooper , as a real estate developer who, to save money, had moved the tombstones from a cemetery, but not the corpses…
He was married to Susan Reed, who succeeded as a folk singer, although she has occasionally appeared as an actress. As a result of the marriage, an only son was born, whose godfather was none other than Buster Keaton , a great friend of Reed’s.