Althouse: Goodbye to Karen Black.

August 8, 2013

Goodbye to Karen Black.

A montage:

Remember when she was in everything?

She was 74.

18 comments:

victoria said...: So talented. Appeared in my absolute favorite Jack Nicholson movie, "Five Easy Pieces".

R.I.P. Karen.

Vicki from Pasadena; 8/8/13, 5:28 PM
William said...: She has an impressive résumé, but her movies are more memorable for the male leads than for her performances......I haven't seen Five Easy Pieces in quite a while, but I do remember the Jack Nicholson character as a total dick. I might not be remembering correctly, but I think her character thought of him more as a stud than a dick. I wish there had been more of a flicker of self awareness and intelligence to the roles she played. But maybe I've got it all wrong........I do remember Day of thr Locust although I don't remember her part in it. It was the most dispiriting movie I've ever seen. It featured a little kid who got beat to death in the end, and the kid was so obnoxious you felt he had it coming.; 8/8/13, 6:07 PM
harkin said...: Don't let the belt fall off that little tiki doll!; 8/8/13, 6:49 PM
Titus said...: I loved her in Airport.

Fab flight attendant flying a plane.; 8/8/13, 7:07 PM
Kelly said...: Watching that montage, she was one heck of an actress. Sadly, I only know her from Triology of Terror and Airport 75.; 8/8/13, 7:21 PM
Darrell said...: Since when did Hollywood distribute parts based on talent?

But today is a day to mourn Karen Black and say a prayer for her. And her loved ones.; 8/8/13, 7:37 PM
David said...: Karen Black was sexy. Not Hollywood sexy but real woman sexy. Goodbye Karen.; 8/8/13, 8:12 PM
Emil Blatz said...: R.I.P.

There was an article about her in The Wall Street Journal about 8-10 years ago. It really underscored the point that she was undoubtedly the hardest working woman in show business. Just working, working, working like crazy when she was in her 60's. Admittedly those were not box office gold, but you have to wonder what happened if she was working that frequently, and that late in her life, and yet her hubby had to resort to internet donations to get her a flight to Paris and some cancer treatment regime only available there. WTF?; 8/8/13, 8:41 PM
Bob_R said...: Altman directed some of the best female roles of the 70's, but I never thought she was really interesting in an Altman movie. (Altman was a classic great artist/terrible human. so many of his great roles seemed to stem from contempt. He just hated men and women in equally interesting ways. Maybe he couldn't project his hate on Black?)

That montage was kind of depressing. She had a lot of work in a lot of A-list movies. She certainly wasn't a bad actress, but the movies are all so forgettable. Or at least, the ones that aren't forgettable (Nashville, Five Easy Pieces, Easy Rider) aren't actually remembered as being good movies. (I'll let fans of Five Easy Pieces have their moment, but isn't it a very flawed movie with a few great performances / moments?); 8/8/13, 9:11 PM
Mr. D said...: A fine career. RIP.; 8/8/13, 9:16 PM
The Godfather said...: She was in a lot of movies that I never saw or even heard of. But she was the only redeeming grace in Five Easy Pieces (a movie about repellant people), which I think "everyone" has seen. She kept working to the end. I hope she got satisfaction out of it.; 8/8/13, 9:52 PM
grackle said...: "Five Easy Pieces." A film that perfectly, though perhaps unwittingly and admittedly tangentially, captures upper class contempt for the lower classes.

I never enjoyed any Altman film that I managed to sit through(2). I find his films boring. The bright spots were some of the actors he used, of which one was Karen Black. As a director he was second-tier, not deserving of being mentioned in the same breath as a Fellini or a Ford. "La Strada" is many times over a better film than, say, "Nashville," often cited as Altman's masterpiece. Ditto "The Searchers." There are many other examples that could be mentioned.

As for Karen Black, she was an actress that could play a certain part better than anyone else. It had to do with the projection of innocence and a naïve type of hope which she portrayed in her memorable roles. You felt sorry for her. You wanted her to be protected because of her vulnerability. She will be missed.; 8/8/13, 11:02 PM
Ann Althouse said...: As for Altman, I liked him before "Nashville." "Nashville" was overpraised in a way that made me avoid going to the movie. To this day, I've never seen it, not all the way through at least, and I bought the DVD to try to force myself to watch it. Strange!

Anyway, we saw "MASH" and (my favorite) "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" when they came out. Other pre-"Nashville" Altman movies that we saw at the time and liked were "Thieves Like Us" and "The Long Goodbye." Of the later films, I saw and liked "Short Cuts."

I also saw "Gosford Park" and didn't like it. It's the sort of thing that other people like. It was highly praised.; 8/9/13, 7:27 AM
richlb said...: Seriously, half a second of Trilogy of Terror? I know her more dramatic stuff was the point of this montage, but to a certain demographic (mine!) that role practically defined her.; 8/9/13, 9:02 AM
MadisonMan said...: Best Line: Is your Linguini ready for my clam?

A+ Delivery.; 8/9/13, 10:15 AM
Greg said...: Where's Reuben and Ed? http://www.echocave.net/rubin_ed.html; 8/9/13, 11:45 AM
LordSomber said...: Prof. Althouse should do an Amazon plug for "The Stewardess Is Flying the Plane!: American Films of the 1970s" with the late Ms. Black on the cover.

http://www.amazon.com/Stewardess-Flying-Plane-American-Films/dp/B000FVHJ9Y; 8/9/13, 1:43 PM
harkin said...: I think Altman's best films were M*A*S*H, California Split, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Buffalo Bill And The Indians, The Player and Cookie's Fortune. I also think his TV movie "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" is as good as any film he directed.

He was a man full of hate (look at what he did to Raymond Chandler/Philip Marlowe) but his films had some nice moments and he had a style all his own.; 8/10/13, 11:04 AM