DL, tell me about Karen Black!

All I can tell you about Karen Black is that as I walked out of Airport ‘75 as a 13-year-old gayling, I said to my mother, “She deserves an Oscar nomination!!” My mother just looked at me and shook her head.

Later Karen flooring the gays in the Castro Theatre with a quite beautiful/funny/poignant rendition of 'Lazy Afternoon'.

What a gal!

I was mesmerized by her wonky eyes.

Her kooky interview with Charlie Rose is worth watching. She addresses her career going down the shitter sometime in the mid-70’s in this clip:

She tried to steal my gig on Eight is Enough

Karen Black at LAX.

That interview with Charlie Rose is really something to see. Its art in of itself .

Karen Black played Connie White and her sister is Gail Brown.

I only know her from “Trilogy of Terror” and “House of 1000 Corpses” but I knew she was a cult icon. I never knew she actually had a window for the Oscars.

AGAIN, op?

We told you about Karen Black back then, and again back then, and again back then, so we wouldn't have to tell you now.

She was nominated for "Five Easy Pieces" (1970).

Watch 5 minutes of that loopy interview and you're not surprised she ended up a scientologist.

I just rented 'Killing Heat' for 49 cents on Prime Video. Never heard of it. Wikipedia calls it "her low-budget star vehicle".

Treasured memory of seeing her act, twice, in New York which was part a straight-up act and part one-woman show with a narrative and throughline. You could tell she was a little nuts but in a charming and harmless way, with a beautiful open heart. Anyone who was in the room with her as an audience member would find it almost impossible not to love her, such a gentle soul. She sang and sang, and her singing voice has an aging-soprano quality to it that you don't expect when you hear her speaking voice: she sang everything from "Eleanor Rigby" and "Like a Rolling Stone" to Rodgers and Hart's "Ten Cents a Dance" in that show.

It was at the Ars Nova in New York, and it was on comps and the theatre wasn't full both times I went. There's no question, though, that she had clear and true talent and presence, the thing that compels you to watch someone. I know, MARY! but it's true.

Even though the linked review is about a performance in San Francisco, it's the version of her show that's described there that I saw.

Also saw Karen Black do a wonderful job performing in the Vagina Monologues with Janet Hubert from Fresh Prince and Andrea McArdle from Annie. Needless to say with minimal effort she could act them both combined off the island of Manhattan. For a few years that show was a reliable source of seeing famous ladies who might not be hired to anchor a memorized fully produced show in NYC anymore but that people still wanted to see. Later Love Loss and What I Wore served the same function. Pity there's not a show like that running now.

Once you go Black you never go back.

That Charlie Rose interview was a little freaky. She seemed like a sweet but spacey person, lost in her thoughts.

'76

Despite her unconventional looks, she had sex appeal and landed some quality leading lady roles. The '70 was an opportune time for average or quirky looking actresses to get good leading lady parts, e.g. Shelley Duvall, Carol Kane, Ronee Blakley, etc., but only briefly.

Ronee's a traditional beauty, r17.

She's got some aggressive Chicklets.🦷🦷🦷🦷🦷

She also won a Globe for The Great Gatsby.

[quote] All I can tell you about Karen Black is that as I walked out of Airport ‘75 as a 13-year-old gayling, I said to my mother, “She deserves an Oscar nomination!!” My mother just looked at me and shook her head.

You sound adorable.

I live about a mile from her grave. What kind of flowers should I bring her on behalf of Datalounge?

R18, you think so? I always thought of her as boringly average looking, like Marsha Mason or Carrie Snogress.

R22 Where do you live??

Al three are what I call "character actress pretty", r23.

I love me some Karen Black! Love her song in Nashville and also this.

She was quirky, charming and fun.

She is mom to Hunter Carson, the little boy in Paris, Texas.

Clarice stays on the phone… I think Karen probably would’ve hung up.

For R22...

[quote]Carrie Sno[bold]d[/bold]gress

R28 Please put down some flowers, sweetie.

R28- I did not know she died that many years ago.

So, what kind of flower??

Karen Black was one in a million, whose quirkiness is missed today.

We could use another revolving cast production of "The Vagina Monologues." I'll have to find the Playbill in order to recall who performed when I saw it all those years ago.

My mother said "she should have crossed her legs."

She is one of my favorite actresses ever. A true eccentric in every sense of the word, and a fearless kind of performer who was willing to take on the strangest material—plus, she had the chops and the screen presence.

Now ex-Scientologist Juliette Lewis was mentored by Black when she was young, and you can see a lot of similarities between them in their throw-it-all-in approach to playing characters.

Also, Karen attributed her career downswing to The Day of the Locust, which I actually think is one of her best performances. She may mention it in that Charlie Rose interview (haven’t watched it yet) but I know she said she felt that film ruined her career. I don’t remember exactly what the rationale was.

That moment in “Nashville” when she hits that flat note is hilarious.

R36, she says that her reputation was ruined with Day of the Locus, though she says she does not know what was said of her. She was already pushing 40 by the time of Locust and that was the 1970s, so I would suspect her career petered out in large part because she aged out.

I love her restrained, but powerful performance in "Come Back To The Five And Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean". Everyone is excellent in that film, though. And the property is a favorite anyway.

R1, who else was on your Oscar card in 1975?

I always get her confused with Karen Valentine, I was young then.

She could’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of an Oscar win, instead of Hayes’s career award for a nothing, idiotic role.

Like many she had a good run and then In the 60s she was in Coppola's You're a Big Boy Now (1966) and Easy Rider (1969) . . .she was busy in the 70s Nashville, The Day of the Locust, Family Plot, The Great Gatsby, Portnoy's Complaint, Cisco Pike, Airport 75, Burnt Offerings . . .

R42 Glenda Jackson won 2 Oscars in the 70s and her career petered out by the early 80s

I remember being so pissed when she didn’t win against that demon doll in Trilogy.

R43 Jackson was still getting Tony nominations in the 80s before joining leaving acting for the British Parliament. Her career didn’t peter out, she left voluntarily. When she came back to acting, she won the Tony and another Emmy. She’s always had a successful, acclaimed career when she chose to act.

Scientologist.

Pauline Kael said, admiringly, that she could be the greatest porn star ever. She's hilarious in a forgotten Ernest Borgnine comedy "Law and Disorder" where she really plays up the sex bomb role.

I loved her on Family Plot.

I thought that both she and Bruce Dern were miscast on The Great Gatsby. So was Redford, actually.

Family Plot was so much fun. I watch it over and over again and it never gets old.

“All flight crew is dead or injured-please help us!”

Get it right, R49:

Salt Lake... Salt Lake! This is Columbia 409! It's Nancy Pryor... stewardess. Something hit us! All the flight crew is dead or badly injured! There's no one left to fly the plane! Help us! Oh my God, help us!

She seems sincere and sensitive in that Charlie Rose clip. This may also be a weird reference and I don’t quite know how to explain why, but she speaks in a way that reminds me of the way Lana Del Rey does in interviews—the tone, cadence, and a general sense that they are very much in their heads and thinking about everything they’re asked/saying.

Little Karen's eyes looks Ok; what the fuck

happened?

Lana Del Ray does look like Karen Black.

R54 you’re right actually—I just noticed it in her voice, but there are some similar features. Both very feminine in disposition too.

Raquel wanted the Faye Greener role if I remember correctly. Karen is great in the role. She said based part of her characterization on the name Faye (fey). Not a pleasant movie.

Loved her in Burnt Offerings. With Oliver Reed, Bette Davis, Burgess Meredith and that annoying BRAT Lee Montgomery. Her character was definitely the star in that movie.

If anything, wasn’t it Airport ‘75 that killed her career? It was kind of a joke.

She was of a piece with everyone else in Day of the Locust, which had a great poster. It’s not a masterpiece, with its languid quality. It’s like waking up from a nap in the middle of the day after having a disturbing dream. It’s mostly long, slowly paced set pieces, if I recall.

I could never understand her success. She’s cross eyed.

Watch Trilogy of Terror on YouTube . She is superb. Her last interview before she died was filmed with her consent of course. I think the interviewer was her long time dear friend and manager.

I feel like Charlie Rode was a condescending prick to her in that interview

I don't know much about this performer but everything I have seen her in, she gave a solid, convincing performance. I did read about the Scientology background.

One of my favorite performances was her brief, one-or-two-line cameo in Tales of the City. She was playing herself at a fat farm. Odd as it sounds, it's hard to play yourself when someone else has written the dialogue. She came across as genuinely funny and nice -very down to earth. Plus it was endearing that she chose to participate in what was, at the time, a very controversial project.

Talkin n posting to yourself

I watched the Coco Peru interview OP posted in full last night and what a delight that was. I'm glad that was captured on film. The sad part is she had cancer during the interview and knew she was declining. I think it was diagnosed terminal shortly after that interview. She really was whipsmart, thoughtful, and funny—seemed much more laidback in her later years, especially when compared to the Charlie Rose interview.

I read in one bio of Cher that she and Karen did NOT get along when they did Jimmy Dean on stage and in the film. Can't remember what the problem was. I do remember Cher being pissed when it was rumored that Sandy Dennis for might get Oscar nominated for Lead Actress because Cher said she had more lines to learn.

R66 I don't think that cast got along well in general it seems. Karen mentions in the Coco Peru interview that Sandy constantly upstaged everyone.

Karen on the Pat Sajak Show. That outfit is somethin'.

I cannot recommend this enough. Very fun documentary that really shows what it's like to make low-budget movies. You even get some whacky behind-the-scenes footage of Karen shooting Anne Hehe's short film "Stripping for Jesus" near the end.

[Quote] ConcernedEuropeen

🤣🤣🤣

Her portrayal of stewardess Nancy Pryor in Airport 1975 helped me get through a difficult breakup in 2016 or so. Nancy was put in a seemingly impossible situation through no fault of her own. She wanted to give up, but she knew she had to struggle through it. Karen put more heart into that ridiculous scenario than any other actress would have deigned to.

She was good enough for Hitchcock (Family Plot, 1976). I liked her in Invaders From Mars (1986).

When she hosted SNL, she was carrying her young son during the monologue and he pivoted down and tried to suck her through her blouse.

R71 -see R1

For a while in the 70s she was very busy following her Oscar nomination for Five Easy Pieces (1970)-The Great Gatsby, Family Plot, The Day of the Locusts, Nashville, Born to Win, Airplane 1975, Burnt Offerings, Portnoy's Complaint, In Praise of Older Women, Capricorn One, The Outfit, The Pyx, Little Laura and Big John, Cisco Pike, Drive, He Said.

Karen Black in Law and Disorder. I mean, this is some great shit.

She would have liked to have gone to Memphis, but she didn't know the way!

While in Jr. High school I read a powerful book called "Black Like Me". At some point in my life, maybe 30 or 40 years ago, I saw something called "Karen Black Like Me". Don't remember if it was a film or a drag show at The Castro Theater because I was always stoned, but it was hilarious, as was pretty much everything when I used to smoke weed. After take-off, both of my husbands have looked at me with crossed eyes, pretending to hold onto a shaky steering wheel and said "honey, I can't fly the plane!". While flying alone to Palm Springs (the gay shuttle), the guy sitting next to me did the same thing. He didn't call me "honey" but it was implied.

The montage at the end of the conversation with Coco in part 9 is gorgeous. Kudos to whoever produced it.

Go to 3:40

"A closeted mama's boy is terrorized by an oversized dildo with a heat-seeking mind of its own."

I can’t fly this plane alone!

She seems like someone who just took any script that came along.

She was a working actress paying the rent. Her generation didn't make $20 million a movie or a million a week on TV.

R83 Yeah, I know. But she wasn't making the pay of a receptionist or a nurse, either. She probably made very decent money. Some actors do just believe in taking anything and keeping on working. Tony Curtis (very successful) said he did that.

Cross eyed and overrated.

She talks about Come Back Jimmy Dean in part 8 of the Coco. I don't quite believe her tale of Sandy Dennis. She should have spoken about Cher since the rumor was they hated each other. Also she is rather pretentious saying how HARD it was to play that part.

I didn't think she was pretentious at all but she did have a great sense of humor.

Karen NEVER struck me as remotely pretentious in the slightest—just genuinely eccentric, but warm and loving. If anything, she was rabidly anti-pretentious. She was pretty outspoken about despising dismissive acting training and the act of talking down to people in general. She basically dropped out of Northwestern because she found the program leader Alvina Krause to be a raging, narcissistic cunt:

[quote]I would say that the college training was very lousy, and I don't think that people learn by being invalidated... Acting teachers, not all of them but many, seem to think that beating up their students and invalidating them will make them better, which I think is completely wrong. And at that age, you don't realize that this sick person is really projecting all their neurosis onto you, you think that you're the one who's damaged... Alvina Krause would not validate and would not allow. I think she had favorites, and you could never figure out why you weren't a favorite, and it never made any sense. The thing you have to remember is that if a person is making you feel bad about yourself, that person is going to be in his or her own world. They are lost in their own universe.

That quote alone proves to me that Karen was not a pretentious person and not someone who tolerated people who put on airs. I truly feel she was a team player and a sensitive person.

Karen on working with Hitchcock. There's several other videos too.

She hit the nail on the head about college acting training--I had the same kind of experience.

You sound pretentious R90