Some go for Shelley Duvall. Some say Mia Farrow. But goddamit if Karen Black isn’t our favorite creepy-pretty gal ever to grace a 1970s-era movie screen.
A serious actor tragically relegated to B-movie horror flicks, our girl K.B. made her name as a self-described “freak” in the counterculture classic Easy Rider, bringing a surprising vulnerability to her role as an acid-dropping prostitute. After that she became a sort of 70s It-Girl, winning an Oscar nomination for her heartbreakingly dim Rayette in Five Easy Pieces, and working with Hitchcock, Altman, and other greats.
Our Lady of the Voluptuous Hair died this past August. So we salute her here with, in no particular order, Five Easy Reasons We Love Karen Black.
