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'Easy Rider' actress Karen Black dead at 74
foxnews.com ^ | 08/09/2013 | Associated Press

Posted on 08/09/2013 12:54:04 PM PDT by massmike

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

Known for her full lips and thick, wavy hair that seemed to change color from film to film, Black often portrayed women who were quirky, troubled or threatened. Her breakthrough was as a prostitute who takes LSD with Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda in 1969's "Easy Rider," the hippie classic that helped get her the role of Rayette Dipesto, a waitress who dates — and is mistreated by — an upper-class dropout played by Jack Nicholson in 1970's "Five Easy Pieces."

In 1971, Black starred with Nicholson again in "Drive, He Said," which Nicholson also directed. Over the next few years, she worked with such top actors and directors as Richard Benjamin ("Portnoy's Complaint"), Robert Redford and Mia Farrow ("The Great Gatsby") and Charlton Heston ("Airport 1975").

Black also starred as a jewel thief in Alfred Hitchcock's last movie, "Family Plot," released in 1976.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: hollywood; obituary
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Karen Black

1 posted on 08/09/2013 12:54:04 PM PDT by massmike
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To: massmike

Loved her in “5 easy pieces.”


2 posted on 08/09/2013 12:56:36 PM PDT by Huskrrrr
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To: massmike

RIP Karen.
In her heyday, one of the sexiest redheads ever!


3 posted on 08/09/2013 1:00:46 PM PDT by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra ( Ya can't pick up a turd by the clean end!)
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To: massmike

“Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean” - she was terrific in this movie.

RIP


4 posted on 08/09/2013 1:05:51 PM PDT by LadyBuck (....and we're off to the rodeo......)
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To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra

60’s & 70’s hotness...when we couldn’t see it, but just imagine it.


5 posted on 08/09/2013 1:09:04 PM PDT by ibytoohi (What the hell has happened to my country?)
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To: Huskrrrr

6 posted on 08/09/2013 1:10:35 PM PDT by massmike (At the heart of every Paul-bot argument is the fear that someone will keep them from their weed!)
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To: massmike
The full photo...


7 posted on 08/09/2013 1:14:28 PM PDT by newfreep (Breitbart sent me...)
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To: newfreep; a fool in paradise

Just show ya - smoking kills!


8 posted on 08/09/2013 1:15:09 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Bad things are wrong! Ice cream is delicious!)
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To: Huskrrrr

She was great, and while this wasn’t Karen’s scene, it is the epitome of Jack Nicholson. The waitress was played by a woman named Lorna Thayer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wtfNE4z6a8


9 posted on 08/09/2013 1:17:38 PM PDT by bigbob
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To: Revolting cat!

“Smokin’ hot legs!”


10 posted on 08/09/2013 1:18:27 PM PDT by newfreep (Breitbart sent me...)
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To: massmike
I like Trilogy of Terror
11 posted on 08/09/2013 1:22:38 PM PDT by Sybeck1 (Marco is a good conservative. Rush and Mark tell me that everyday.)
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To: bigbob

Yes, one of my all-time favorite scenes! It seems after this picture Jack had at least one scene in the next several movies where he “loses it.”


12 posted on 08/09/2013 1:26:22 PM PDT by Huskrrrr
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To: massmike

Thanks!


13 posted on 08/09/2013 1:26:40 PM PDT by Huskrrrr
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To: Sybeck1

Burnt Offerings (along with the already mentioned Airport 75) is what I’ll most remember her for. I’m convinced that American Horror Story’s first season had to be inspired by it in part.


14 posted on 08/09/2013 1:28:30 PM PDT by The Unknown Republican
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To: massmike

No dummy either...admitted to Northwestern at age 15


15 posted on 08/09/2013 1:39:32 PM PDT by Pharmboy (Democrats lie because they must.)
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To: massmike

She died of an odd cancer. Periampullary cancer.

Periampullary cancer is a cancer that forms near the ampulla of Vater, an enlargement of the ducts from the liver and pancreas where they join and enter the small intestine.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1e/Biliary_system_new.svg/631px-Biliary_system_new.svg.png


16 posted on 08/09/2013 1:48:59 PM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy (Be Brave! Fear is just the opposite of Nar!)
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To: massmike

Karen Black was one of those actresses whose natural beauty, comic timing, sense of irony and professionalism was usually overlooked because she was distractingly, relentlessly beautiful. Karen handled complicated roles with ease and panache. Something about Karen reminds me of those esoteric, conceptual films by Andy Warhol, so popular in the 60’s, done best through Fellini’s films or the latter Swedish films of Ingmar Bergman; baroque, superficial and deeply moving all at once. Scarlet Johansson and Megan Fox remind me a little of her in today’s films.


17 posted on 08/09/2013 1:49:33 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: massmike

capricorn 1 and airport.


18 posted on 08/09/2013 2:25:00 PM PDT by longfellow (Bill Maher, the 21st hijacker.)
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To: lee martell

I never thought she was beautiful. But she does star in the last film made by Hitchcock and she’s amazingly graceful in her slouch hat, raincoat and slacks. RIP, Miss Black.


19 posted on 08/09/2013 2:26:37 PM PDT by miss marmelstein ( Richard Lives Yet!)
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To: miss marmelstein

She got to work with one of the masters of film. I just remembered name number three of who Karen reminds me of, the third actress would be the co-star of Thelma and Louise, Geena Davis. Geena does character parts well, she never found the perfect signature vehicle to make her a stand alone type star, as Pretty woman did this for Julia Roberts, Basic Instinct solidified the career of Sharon Stone (for better of worse). Cleopatra for Liz Taylor. Geena might be just fine with having been a ‘second tier’ type actress. She still has a very different, upper eschelon sort of life than most ‘normal people’ do, those who are not professional athletes or entertainers.


20 posted on 08/09/2013 2:41:12 PM PDT by lee martell
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