Karen Black

Trivia

• Godmother of Dylan Purcell.
• Is the highest ranked actress on the "Oracle of Bacon" website (and 21st overall), which uses the IMDB database to determine which actors can be linked by the highest number of other actors in the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" trivia game.
• Has a cult glam-punk band named after her. Called The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, Kembra Pfahler is the American performance artist and singer/rock musician who fronts it. She is known for the often sexual nature of her pieces.
• She and her husband Eckelberry are active in the Church of Scientology.
• Guitarist Abby Normal featured a song titled "Scream Karen Black" on his solo project album Midnight Creature Feature Picture Show.
• Wrote the songs "Memphis" and "Rolling Stone" which she performed in character as country singer Connie White in the movie Nashville (1975). As a result she was nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Series.
• Launched her career as a playwright in May 2007 with the opening of "Missouri Waltz" in Los Angeles; Black starred in the play as well. The piece is conceived as a play with music, rather than a musical.
• Made her Broadway debut in 1965's "The Playroom", which ran less than a month. She received great reviews, however, and nominated for a Drama Circle Critics Award for Best Actress.
• Attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, for two years before moving to New York, where she studied with Lee Strasberg at the Actor's Studio and appeared in a number of Off-Broadway productions.
• She is noted for films such as Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Great Gatsby, The Day of the Locust, Nashville, Family Plot and Firecracker in a career that has spanned five decades.

Quotes

• "There is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow."
• "Illiteracy is rampant. People are out of communication."
• "If you didn't know that I am an actress, I don't think you could tell from my lifestyle. I cook and cook and cook. I like to be with my daughter. She's 16, so of course I bore her."
• "If you can write it, I can be it."
• "If I turn on the television, am I to believe that that is America? I'm sorry, I don't believe that's America."
• "I've been invited to do a trio with a fantastic jazz guitarist and a harmonica player."
• "I love what I do, so it's not tiring. If I worked at a computer or drove a truck, I'd be dead in a week."
• "I love playing strong women, even if they're nuts."
• "I love coloring books. I keep some by my bed."
• "I dislike when people try to pigeonhole me, when all I want is to do good work."