Thursday, August 8, 2013

Remembering Actress Karen Black, 1939 - 2013



Karen Black has died at 74.

Her star shown most brightly in the movies of the late 60s and into the 1970s. She was sultry, seductive, funny, animated, sexy. And she was fortunate to be in Hollywood at a time when the big studios were giving way to more independent, rebellious, innovative endeavors -- films that rode the tide of the upheaval of the 1960s. Who can forget her portrayal of Jack Nicholson's pregnant girlfriend in Five Easy Pieces?

Her husband, Stephen Eckelberry, confirmed the death of cancer earlier today. She was justifiably famous for her performances in Five Easy Pieces Ditto, Easy Rider and Nashville. had cancer.

Diagnosed with ampullary cancer in November 2010, she was forced to turn to crowd-funding when her disease recurred in June 2012. Black's husband, Stephen Eckelberry, turned to the website GoFundMe.com, to raise money to support a two-month clinical treatment in Europe for the actress.

Karen Black received an Oscar nomination for her role in Five Easy Pieces.

She also played an aspiring actress in "Day of the Locusts" (1976), a country singer in "Nashville" (1975), a sexually confidant lover in "Portnoy's Complaint" (1973) and a kidnapper in Alfred Hitchcock's final film "Family Plot" (1976).

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