Karen Black.

Karen Blanche Ziegler

Karen Black — Actor

Born 1 Jul 1939 Park Ridge, United States

Died 8 Aug 2013 Los Angeles, United States

Citizenship United States

Would Be 86 yr If Living

11 min read

Reading time

2,164

Words

Jun 22, 2026

Published

199

Film credits

1

Award

TL;DR

Karen Black earned an Academy Award nomination for Five Easy Pieces 1970 and won a Golden Globe for The Great Gatsby 1974. She also starred in Easy Rider 1969 and wrote songs for Nashville 1975. Her career included high-profile collaborations with Francis Ford Coppola, Dennis Hopper, and Alfred Hitchcock in Family Plot 1976. Despite later uneven film choices, she remained a versatile actress and later debuted as a playwright in 2007.

Identity & family.

KIN · 6

Names, aliases, and relatives of Karen Black — birth name, kin, and personal ties.

Birth Name Karen Blanche Ziegler

Nicknames The Hardest Working Woman in Hollywood

Aliases Caran Black, Karen Ziegler

SPOUSES: Stephen Eckelberry L.M. Kit Carson Robert Burton Charles Black
CHILDREN: Hunter Carson
SIBLINGS: Gail Brown

At a glance.

STATS

Karen Black by the numbers — life, work, and family.

74 Years lived

199 Film credits

1 Award

4 Marriages

1 Child

Who was Karen Black?

BIOGRAPHY

Karen Black — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.

Early life

Karen Black began studying ballet at age six, continuing into her teens. Her mother Elsie was a prize-winning children’s author; her paternal grandfather Arthur Ziegler was a classical violinist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. After attending Maine East High School, she enrolled at Northwestern University but left after two years to pursue acting. She moved to New York and trained under Lee Strasberg at the Actor’s Studio. Her Broadway debut in 1965 in The Playroom earned critical acclaim.

Career

Her first major film role was in Francis Ford Coppola’s You’re a Big Boy Now 1966. Her breakthrough came in 1969 with Easy Rider, where she acted alongside Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, and a young Jack Nicholson. The following year, she starred with Nicholson in Five Easy Pieces 1970, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and a Golden Globe Award. She won a second Golden Globe for The Great Gatsby 1974. In 1975, she wrote and performed two songs, Memphis and Rolling Stone, for Robert Altman’s Nashville, earning a Grammy nomination. She also starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s final film Family Plot 1976 and in the cult TV movie Trilogy of Terror 1975. Later notable work included Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean 1982 and a career as a playwright with Missouri Waltz in 2007.

Personal life

Karen Black married four times: first to Charles Black in 1955, a union that ended in divorce in 1958. In 1973, she married actor Robert Burton, with whom she co-starred in Trilogy of Terror; they divorced shortly after. Her third marriage was to screenwriter L.M. Kit Carson from 1975 to 1983, with whom she had her son Hunter Carson. In 1987, she married film editor Stephen Eckelberry, who remained with her until her death. Black also had a daughter, Diane, born in 1959, who was adopted and reconnected with Black via Facebook in 2012. She was a longtime member of the Church of Scientology.

Legacy

Three of Karen Black’s films — Easy Rider 1969, Five Easy Pieces 1970, and Nashville 1975 — have been inducted into the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry for their cultural significance and her intense, edgy performances. The cult band The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black perpetuates her name in alternative music. At her memorial service in 2013, friends including Elliott Gould and Juliette Lewis delivered eulogies. She is remembered for her intense portrayals of waitresses, hookers, and women on the edge, and for her contributions as a songwriter and playwright.

Filmography.

FILMS · 199

Browse the complete filmography of Karen Black — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.

TV

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

1962
TV

Murder, She Wrote

1984
TV

Law & Order: Criminal Intent

2001
TV

Saturday Night Live

1975
TV

Miami Vice

1984
TV

Mannix

1967
TV

The Mike Douglas Show

1961
TV

Adam-12

1968
TV

Party of Five

1994
TV

The F.B.I.

1965
TV

Profiler

1996
TV

Run for Your Life

1965
TV

The Invaders

1967
TV

The Name of the Game

1968

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Awards & honors.

AWARDS · 1

Every award, honor, and recognition received by Karen Black — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.

Sitges Film Festival Best Actress award

Notable quotes.

QUOTES · 5

A wall of memorable lines from Karen Black — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.

My God, There Aren’t Any More Movie Stars, Which Is Terrific with Me, It’s Very Healthy. a Lot of Love Now Occurs in the Business, People Helping Each Other to Do Good Work, Getting High on Each Other’s Success. Isn’t That Great?
Every Time You Do a Part You Try to Find Out What It Would Really Be Like to Be That Person, No Matter Who She Is.
People Who Can Only Respect Someone Who Scares Them, They Won’t Respect Me. One Has to Originate a Regard for Certain Things in Order to Respect Me.
Many of the Films I Did, I Just Did as a Working Person for Money with Which to Live. You Know Which Ones They Were. They Were Pretty Much All Mistakes.
It’s Such a Mark Against You If You’re so Inhumane That You Wait Till Someone Dies and Then You Make up Stories About Them. I Think It’s Truly Despicable. I Can Think of Few Things Worse, Really.

Did you know?

FACTS · 43

Little-known facts about Karen Black — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.

In November 2010, Black was diagnosed with ampullary cancer and underwent surgery to remove a third of her pancreas. She was declared cancer-free in 2011 but relapsed and had two more operations in 2012.
Black wrote the songs Memphis and Rolling Stone for her character Connie White in the film Nashville 1975, earning a Grammy nomination for Album of Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Series.
Posthumously, it was revealed that Black had a daughter, Diane Koehnemann Bay, born March 4, 1959, when Black was a 19-year-old divorcée studying at Northwestern. Diane was adopted at birth and reconnected with Black via Facebook in August 2012. Diane’s memoir Finding Karen Black was published in 2022.
Black was married to actor Robert Burton when they filmed the cult TV movie Trilogy of Terror 1975. She initially turned down the role but accepted after Burton was cast; they divorced shortly after the film aired.
Black launched her playwriting career in May 2007 with Missouri Waltz in Los Angeles, a play with music in which she also starred.
Three of Black’s films — Easy Rider 1969, Five Easy Pieces 1970, and Nashville 1975 — are in the National Film Registry.
Black came five votes shy of a Best Actress Oscar nomination for The Day of the Locust 1975.
Elliott Gould, Lee Purcell, Rick Overton, Tanna Frederick, Karyn Rachtman, Lainie Kazan, Paul Sorvino, Julia Garcia Combs, Juliette Lewis, Russell Brown, Alan Cumming, her sister Gail Brown, and widower Stephen Eckelberry delivered eulogies at her memorial service.
Black adopted a daughter, Celine Eckelberry, with husband Stephen Eckelberry.
Black made her Broadway debut in 1965’s The Playroom, which ran less than a month but earned her a Drama Circle Critics Award nomination for Best Actress.
Black was godmother to Dylan M. McKnight; his mother Lee Purcell is godmother to Black’s children Hunter Carson and Celine Eckelberry.
Black attended Northwestern University for two years before moving to New York to study with Lee Strasberg at the Actor’s Studio.
The second daughter of Norman and Elsie Ziegler, her mother was a writer of prize-winning children’s novels; her paternal grandfather was a classical musician and first violinist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Black considered Kris Kristofferson the most attractive male star she worked with, especially liking his voice.
She is the highest-ranked actress on the Oracle of Bacon website 21st overall, which measures degrees of separation to Kevin Bacon.
Studied ballet from age 6 to mid-teens.
She is of German, Bohemian Czech, and Norwegian descent.
Turned down the female lead in Support Your Local Gunfighter 1971 which went to Suzanne Pleshette.
For The Great Gatsby 1974, she is one of only four actresses to win a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress without an Oscar nomination for the same performance.
Her role in Easy Rider 1969 was originally offered to Lana Wood.
Attended Maine Township High School East in Des Plaines, IL, for the 9th grade — the same high school as Hillary Clinton and Harrison Ford.
A cult glam-punk band named after her, The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, is fronted by performance artist Kembra Pfahler.
Mother of Hunter Carson with L.M. Kit Carson.
Interred at Eternal Hills Memorial Park in Oceanside, Calif.
Guitarist Abby Normal featured a song titled Scream Karen Black on his album Midnight Creature Feature Picture Show.
Father wanted her to be a teacher.
Turned down the role of Nina Franklin in The Stunt Man 1980, which went to Barbara Hershey.
Dated Henry Jaglom, Peter Kastner, Omar Sharif, and Paul Williams.
Appeared in three films directed by Ivan Passer: Born to Win 1971, Law and Disorder 1974, and Crime and Passion 1975.
Claimed that the seven months working on The Day of the Locust 1975 were some of the worst times of her life, and that behind-the-scenes gossip damaged her career.
Turned down Valerie Perrine’s role in W.C. Fields and Me 1976.
Attended Lafayette Jefferson High School in Lafayette, Indiana.
Sister of Gail Brown.
She and her husband Stephen Eckelberry are active in the Church of Scientology.
Brother Peter Ziegler married the daughter of Maryland Governor Theodore R. McKeldin; nephew Bryan McKeldin Ziegler 1979-2022 was a prosecutor and ran for city council.
Parents had a vacation home in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and were among the first Americans to build there.
Her maternal grandmother’s never-married siblings Mary and John Shimon operated a wealthy milk farm outside Reifs Mills, Wisconsin.
Engaged to Michael Raeburn.
Aunt of Erick Ziegler.
Engaged to music manager Peter Rachtman.
Daughter-in-law of Renee Duke and Tener Eckelberry.
Sister-in-law of Avis Hope and Marc Eckelberry.
Ex-sister-in-law of Annie Carradine.

You wanted to know.

FAQ · 30

Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Karen Black.

When was Karen Black born?

Karen Black was born on July 1, 1939. She was born in Park Ridge, Illinois, USA.
Where was Karen Black born?

Karen Black was born in Park Ridge, Illinois, USA. She was born on July 1, 1939.
When did Karen Black die?

Karen Black died on August 8, 2013. She was 74 years old at the time of her death.
How old was Karen Black when she died?

Karen Black was 74 years old when she died on August 8, 2013. She had been battling ampullary cancer.
Where did Karen Black die?

Karen Black died in Los Angeles, California, USA. She passed away on August 8, 2013.
How did Karen Black die?

Karen Black died of ampullary cancer. She was first diagnosed in November 2010 and had a third of her pancreas removed. She was declared cancer-free in 2011 but later relapsed.
What was Karen Black's real name?

Karen Black’s birth name was Karen Blanche Ziegler. She later used the stage name Karen Black.
What did Karen Black do for a living?

Karen Black was an actress, writer, and composer. She was known for her film roles in the 1960s and 1970s.
What nationality was Karen Black?

Karen Black was American. She was born in Park Ridge, Illinois, USA.
What language did Karen Black speak?

Karen Black spoke English as her native language.
Who was Karen Black married to?

Karen Black was married four times. Her spouses were Charles Black, Robert Burton, L.M. Kit Carson, and Stephen Eckelberry.
Did Karen Black have children?

Yes, Karen Black had three children: Hunter Carson, Celine Eckelberry, and Diane Koehnemann Bay. Hunter is her biological son with L.M. Kit Carson.
Did Karen Black have siblings?

Yes, Karen Black had a sister named Gail Brown, who is also an actress. She also had a brother named Peter Norman Ziegler.
Where did Karen Black go to school?

Karen Black attended Maine East High School and Northwestern University. She studied acting under Lee Strasberg in New York.
What awards did Karen Black win?

Karen Black won the Sitges Film Festival Best Actress award. She also won two Golden Globe Awards and was nominated for an Academy Award.
What was Karen Black best known for?

Karen Black is best known for her roles in films such as Five Easy Pieces, The Great Gatsby, Easy Rider, and Nashville.
How tall was Karen Black?

Karen Black was 5 feet 7 inches 1.70 meters tall. Her height was often noted in her acting career.
What is the meaning behind Karen Black's nickname 'The Hardest Working Woman in Hollywood'?

Karen Black earned the nickname The Hardest Working Woman in Hollywood due to her prolific acting career. She appeared in numerous films and television shows and also wrote music and plays.
Why did Karen Black use the alias Caran Black?

Caran Black was an alias used by Karen Black for some of her early work. She also used her birth name, Karen Ziegler, at times.
How many awards did Karen Black win?

Karen Black won 13 major awards, including three Golden Globes and one Sitges Film Festival award. She also received 24 nominations.
How many award nominations did Karen Black receive?

Karen Black received 24 nominations throughout her career, including an Academy Award nomination for Five Easy Pieces.
Who were Karen Black's parents?

Karen Black’s parents were Norman Arthur Ziegler and Elsie Ziegler. Her mother was a prize-winning children’s author.
What was Karen Black's role in Easy Rider?

In Easy Rider 1969, Karen Black played a character named Karen. She acted alongside Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, and Jack Nicholson.
Did Karen Black write songs?

Yes, Karen Black wrote the songs Memphis and Rolling Stone for her character in Nashville 1975. She was nominated for a Grammy for the film’s score.
How many times was Karen Black married?

Karen Black was married four times. Her marriages were to Charles Black, Robert Burton, L.M. Kit Carson, and Stephen Eckelberry.
Did Karen Black have any religious affiliations?

Yes, Karen Black and her husband Stephen Eckelberry were active members of the Church of Scientology.
What was Karen Black's first film role?

Karen Black’s first major film role was in You’re a Big Boy Now 1966, directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
Did Karen Black win an Oscar?

No, Karen Black was nominated for an Academy Award for Five Easy Pieces 1970 but did not win. She came close for The Day of the Locust but missed by five votes.
Who did Karen Black collaborate with in Alfred Hitchcock's last film?

Karen Black starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s final film Family Plot 1976. She played a jewel thief in the movie.
What is Karen Black's legacy in film?

Three of Karen Black’s films are in the National Film Registry: Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, and Nashville. She is remembered for her intense character roles and her work as a songwriter and playwright.

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Audited & updated by

Olivia has 6 years of experience writing biographical profiles and still approaches every subject like it's the first one. She covers everyone from debut musicians to Hall of Fame athletes to novelists most people have never heard of. She finds something worth reading in all of them. Her drafts tend to come in already clean, which her editor appreciates. She says good writing is just good thinking written down. Hard to argue with that.

Published on June 22, 2026

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