Celebrity Biographies
Karen Black
Alfred Hitchcock’s last muse, Karen Black, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 74. Karen Black had been diagnosed with cancer in November 2010. “It is with great sadness to report that my wife and best friend, Karen Black, has passed away just a few minutes. Thank you for all the prayers and love, they meant so much so much for her as for me,” said the actress’s widower, filmmaker Stephen Eckelberry.
Born on July 1, 1939 in Park Ridge, Illinois, Karen Blanche Ziegler (who would adopt the stage name Karen Black ) had a sister, Gail Brown, who would also become an actress. She studied acting at the legendary Lee Strasberg School . In 1966 she made her Broadway debut with “The Playroom.”
She made her film debut as a painter, in The Prime Time , although she had a much stronger presence in Francis Ford Coppola ‘s You’re a Great Boy , where she played the librarian who worked with the protagonist. She also took part in Easy Rider , where she met Jack Nicholson , who was her co-star in My Life Is My Life , the film that was her absolute consecration, since she obtained an Oscar nomination for the best secondary.
In the 70s he performed his best work, in The Great Gatsby , where he was Myrtle Wilson, Tom Buchanan’s lover. She was also the protagonist of The Plot , the last film by Alfred Hitchcock , where she played the lover of a swindler. Under the orders of Robert Altman, she filmed the Nashville Choir , with John Schlesinger she starred in As a Plague of Locusts , with Peter Hyams she filmed Capricorn One , and she was also part of the wide cast of Airport 75 .
However, Karen Black was practically forgotten in the 80s, when she starred in films of little interest, with some exceptions, such as Go Back to the Dirty Store, Jimmy Dean , again under Altman’s orders. Converted into a muse of terror with the Trilogy of Terror series , she ended up relegated to by-products, such as The Boys of the Corn IV , or The House of 1000 Corpses , by Rob Zombie .
Divorced from Charles Black, she was together with actor Robert Burton , actor, producer and screenwriter LM Kit Carson , with whom she had a son, and the aforementioned director Stephen Eckelberry ( Criminals ), with whom she adopted a girl.