Karen Black starred in such classic ’70s films as Five Easy Pieces, Easy Rider and Nashville and today her husband, Stephen Eckelberry, announced on his Facebook page that she had died after a nearly-three-year battle with ampullary cancer that began in November 2010 when she had one-third of her pancreas removed.
Eckelberry’s Facebook post reads:
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. Thank you all for all your prayers and love, they meant so much to her as they did to me.
Black worked during what is now looked on as the Golden Era of Hollywood with the films I mentioned above and some of her latter roles include 1974’s The Great Gatsby where she played Myrtle Wilson and Rob Zombie‘s House of 1000 Corpses where she played Mother Firefly.
I personally will remember her as Rayette opposite Jack Nicholson in Bob Rafelson’s Five Easy Pieces for which she was nominated for an Oscar. If you haven’t seen that film, do yourself a favor for both her performance and Nicholson’s not to mention one hell of a great ending.
In their write up on Black’s passing, The Hollywood Reporter included a fantastic quote in which Black recalled Rafelson saying to her, “You know, Rayette is not very smart, I don’t think you can play her,” to which Black responded, “Let’s make a deal. When you say action, I’ll stop thinking.”
