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Thread: Karen Black RIP

  1. #1
    All Things Must Pass spellbound's Avatar
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    Karen Black RIP

    Easy Rider star, actress Karen Black died Wednesday at age 74.



    http://news.yahoo.com/five-easy-piec...220015982.html
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    Member Joe F.'s Avatar
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    Trilogy of Terror was a cool movie when you were 9 years old.

    RIP

  3. #3
    Ordinary Idiot Superfly's Avatar
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    I've always loved her work. Burnt Offerings with Oliver Reed is a great one. She was a scream queen right until the end. Easy Rider changed my life. RIP
    "The Bill of Rights says nothing about the freedom of hearing. This, of course, takes a lot of the fun out of the freedom of speech." - Pat Paulsen

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    Member rcarlberg's Avatar
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    I remember her best from "Five Easy Pieces." She was masterful as Rayette Dipesto. Not a great beauty, not a classically great actress, but a wonderful character actress in over a hundred films. Not a bad career.

  5. #5
    Geriatric Anomaly progeezer's Avatar
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    RIP Karen. I thought she was soooo hot in 5 Easy Pieces.
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    Member rcarlberg's Avatar
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    Really? Sally Struthers filled that role for me, pre-AITF.

  7. #7
    contains the famous final scene..

    "She said you are the air I breathe
    The life I love, the dream I weave."


    Unevensong - Camel

  8. #8
    It seems like way too many people left us in the last few months. I liked her in Nashville playing a country singer. RIP Karen

  9. #9
    She's memorable as a character actress. Her roles were always flawed, if not broken somehow. She tugged at your heart if not lower. I was just talking about her to a friend last night. He was singing the song she sang in Nashville about a Rollin' Stone. She was often singing in a country vein.

    Nominated for supporting actress in Five Easy Pieces its easy to remember that she was in another movie with Nicholson, Easy Rider.

  10. #10
    Member Joe F.'s Avatar
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    I also enjoyed her in Day of the Locust.

  11. #11
    She was great in Killer Fish. She does the best panic attack ever when James Franciscus is pulling her out of the water after she retrieves the box with the stolen jewels in it.

  12. #12
    Member Joe F.'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by GuitarGeek View Post
    She was great in Killer Fish. She does the best panic attack ever when James Franciscus is pulling her out of the water after she retrieves the box with the stolen jewels in it.
    Was Lee Majors in that too? I'm pretty sure I saw that in the theater on a double bill back around '79.

  13. #13
    Day of the Locust was another Oscar contender with Donald Sutherland nominated. THe ending is horrifying. When I saw it in the theater, a worker on the roof dropped a wrench that started a frenzy and panic with audience members rushing for the doors- This was prior to the final scene when hordes of people become a mob. Fascinating!

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Joe F. View Post
    I also enjoyed her in Day of the Locust.
    I forgot about that film. Yea, she was good in that. (and Donald Sutherland plays a character named Homer Simpson).

  15. #15
    Re: Killer Fish

    Quote Originally Posted by Joe F. View Post
    Was Lee Majors in that too? I'm pretty sure I saw that in the theater on a double bill back around '79.
    Yeah, Karen Black, James Franciscus, Lee Majors, Margeux Hemingway, and I forget who else is in it. That was one of those great Italian made horror flicks from the 70's. They'd always get a couple Americans (though usually it'd be someone whose career was a bit past it's prime).

    There's a great scene where she's sort of flirting with the diver they've hired to retrieve the jewels, and he asks her if she has any German blood (I think because of her sort of dogmatic attitude toward him). She smiles, and says "No, I win my wars!".

    I read once that she was was unhappy with the kind of work she was offered after Trilogy Of Terror. I guess she got typecast, which is probably how she ended up in movies like Killer Fish and Children Of The Corn IV.

  16. #16
    Member Joe F.'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by GuitarGeek View Post
    Re: Killer Fish



    I read once that she was was unhappy with the kind of work she was offered after Trilogy Of Terror. I guess she got typecast, which is probably how she ended up in movies like Killer Fish and Children Of The Corn IV.
    I can see that.

    She did make some good movies after that though. The aforementioned Day of the Locust and Nashville were a couple. Plus, she got to work with Hitchcock on his last film Family Plot, though while not great, she still worked with a legend. But then there's stuff like Airport '75, which I enjoyed as a kid in the theater, but most likely wouldn't today.

  17. #17
    Member Gerhard's Avatar
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  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Joe F. View Post
    I can see that.

    She did make some good movies after that though. The aforementioned Day of the Locust and Nashville were a couple. Plus, she got to work with Hitchcock on his last film Family Plot, though while not great, she still worked with a legend. But then there's stuff like Airport '75, which I enjoyed as a kid in the theater, but most likely wouldn't today.
    I think Day Of The Locust and Family Plot are more or less contemporaneous with Trilogy Of Terror, so at that point she was still doing those kind of movies. I'd have to look at her credits on IMDB to see if she did much of those kind of films after Trilogy Of Terror. I just know she ended up doing a lot of B-movies, which I guess wasn't the kind of career she really wanted to have.

    As for Airport '75, that's probably my least favorite of the four Airport films (with Concorde: Airport 1979 being my favorite), but it's still an alright movie. Good way to kill 90 minutes on a lonely night when you can't get to sleep.1

  19. #19
    Member rapidfirerob's Avatar
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    A great actress with her own style of beauty. She is missed.

  20. #20
    Alexander Clepsydra's Avatar
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    Trilogy Of Terror - Classic!
    "Life Is Like A Pencil: It gets shorter the longer you use it,
    you can only erase so many mistakes, and ofter it's pointless"

  21. #21
    Member Digital_Man's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Superfly View Post
    I've always loved her work. Burnt Offerings with Oliver Reed is a great one. She was a scream queen right until the end. Easy Rider changed my life. RIP

    I didn't realize she was in Easy Rider. I only saw it once. Burnt Offerings is one of my all time favorite horror movies though. I loved it as a kid even though it scared the crap out of me.

  22. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by rcarlberg View Post
    I remember her best from "Five Easy Pieces." She was masterful as Rayette Dipesto. Not a great beauty, not a classically great actress, but a wonderful character actress in over a hundred films. Not a bad career.
    Nicely put!

    'Five Easy Pieces' and' Burnt Offerings' are favorites of mine. R.I.P.

  23. #23
    ALL ACCESS Gruno's Avatar
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    'Burnt Offerings' and 'Trilogy Of Terror' gave me many a sleepless night when I was a kid.

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  25. #25
    Member rapidfirerob's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gerhard View Post
    Very nice, thank you.

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