Karen Black, "Five Easy Pieces" Star, Dead at 74

[Hissyspit]

Last edited Thu Aug 8, 2013, 08:33 PM - Edit history (2)

Source: CBS News

@CBSNews: RT @CBSShowbiz: Karen Black, "Five Easy Pieces" star, dead at 74. http://t.co/pikZIoB9Ra

Karen Black, "Five Easy Pieces" star, dead at 74

August 08, 2013

Karen Black, who appeared in more than 100 movies and was featured in such counterculture favorites as "Easy Rider," "Five Easy Pieces" and "Nashville," has died.

Black's husband, Stephen Eckelberry, says the actress died Wednesday from complications from cancer. She was 74.

"It is with great sadness that I have to report that my wife and best friend, Karen Black has just passed away, only a few minutes ago," he wrote on Facebook. "Thank you all for all your prayers and love, they meant so much to her as they did to me."

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-207_162-57597691/karen-black-five-easy-pieces-star-dead-at-74

[PassingFair]

1. This is so sad.

I read that people were trying to raise money for her.

[monmouth3]

2. I always liked her, my age group is going way too fast..sigh...n/t

[RebelOne]

20. I always liked her also, and I am 74 also.

When someone your own age dies, you began to wonder how much longer you will be around.

[Ken Burch]

3. Shit! She was great in pretty much everything.

Karen Black embodied what will probably be remembered as the last era of truly great filmmaking in Hollywood(an era which started when independent-minded actors, directors and writers with Sixties values began to get their visions onscreen, and which ended when STAR WARS basically killed any films that weren't about epic battles with killer robots).

Today, the closest thing you get to the kind of films Karen Black, Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper and the rest of their generation were making in the early Seventies is the programming on premium cable...where risks are allowed to be taken and the work is allowed, more or less, to be honest and real.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Seems to me she dropped off the radar after that movie..

I don't recall seeing her in many other films, if at all.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

6. She shook things up in Rob Zombie's "House of 1000 Corpses" (2003)

[L0oniX]

21. That was a great movie. n/t

[AsahinaKimi]

5. She had been in Easy Rider...

[edbermac]

7. Also Nashville and Family Plot, two other faves.

RIP

[PassingFair]

8. Link to story about her fundraising for her treatment.

http://www.ibtimes.com/karen-black-cancer-actress-raising-funds-gofundme-experimental-ampullary-cancer-treatment-1152045

[snappyturtle]

10. Thanks for the article...I didn't know this. How sad. nt

[Cooley Hurd]

11. Cross gently, Karen...

[Faygo Kid]

12. Wow. She was great; of a time.

For me, a very good time.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. Oh no!

She's was like a '70s icon.

I've been doing too many "Oh nos" this week.

R.I.P.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

14. Aw. Don't call her 'mac,' honey. RIP.

[mikeysnot]

15. trilogy of terror

that little voodoo doll freaked me out when I was little...

[Kablooie]

22. That's the main film I remember of hers.

[Bigleaf]

23. That little doll was scary. Another scary film she starred in was Burnt Offerings

with Oliver Reed and Betty Davis.

[PasadenaTrudy]

25. I love Burnt Offerings!

Ollie Reed was another great one...

[Lars39]

26. Thanks for solving that particular mystery!

I think. that movie freaked me out ad an adult!

[mikeysnot]

30. ON netflix

might watch it again...

[Lars39]

31. Lol...I'm going to have to think about that.

I'm still chicken when it comes to horror movies.

[mikeargo]

16. I had a huge crush on her when I was 16

Something about the eyes.

RIP, Karen

[GliderGuider]

17. Sigh.

Thank you, Karen.

[BeyondGeography]

18. Damn

Too much of this lately. Five Easy Pieces...what a great film; impossible to contemplate it without her performance. When Bobby/Jack Nicholson stands up to the "pompous celibate" toward the end of the film who was condescending to Karen's character, it was so powerful because she had steadily built up the viewer's genuine affection throughout the course of the film.

RIP, Karen.

[DainBramaged]

19. If we spent as much money on cancer research as guns, maybe she'd still be with us

Rest in peace Ms. Black....

[Nanjing to Seoul]

24. The only thing I remember her in was that God awful, plot hole driven mess Airport '75

starring uber-POS Charlatan Heston (yes, it is misspelled on purpose).

[jasond54231]

27. I loved her acting in Five Easy Pieces

Rest in peace, Mrs. Black. We hardly knew ye.

[Gregorian]

28. This is weird.

After at least 15 years of searching, and trying to figure out who did this song, I found out last night. Then today Karen Black dies.

And the thing about this tune that's even weirder is that the lyrics ARE the exact words taken from the back seat hitchhiker in Five Easy Pieces, which really freaked me out when I watched the movie.

[avaistheone1]

29. She was a wonderful actress and a great beauty too.

Karen Black and Jack Nicholson in “Five Easy Pieces.”

[Tom Ripley]

32. +1000

[zonkers]

33. She was a real talent. Beautiful mind. Trained actress. Singing, dancing, etc.

She could do it all. There was a one woman show a while back. She was a bit off beat for Hollywood -- that is why she probably dropped off the radar as some noted upthread but she had a beautiful full life and was a beautiful, generous person. I had the good luck to meet her five or ten times socially.