Karen Black was born in Park Ridge, Illinois with the birth name Karen Blanche Ziegler, born to parents, Elsie Mary who was an author for a number of children's books and Norman Arthur Ziegler.
After completing high school she attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois for two years before deciding to relocate to New York and pursue a career as a stage actress. She studied under Lee Strasberg.
She began with working in a number of off Broadway stage productions and it did not take too long before she was appearing in a number of films such as, "The Prime Time" (1959) but then for the next six years she focused only on stage roles.

Later in her career more significant film roles followed such as, "You're a Big Boy Now" (1966) starring Geraldine Page, Julie Harris, Rip Torn and Elizabeth Hartman, "The Second Hundred Years" (1967), "Easy Rider" (1969) as a prostitute taking LSD starring alongside Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson and Peter Fonda, "Five Easy Pieces" (1970) with Jack Nicholson, "A Gunfight" (1971) featuring Kirk Douglas and Johnny Cash, "Airport 1975" (1974) starring with Charlton Heston, George Kennedy, Gloria Swanson, Guy Stockwell, Dana Andrews, id Caesar, Martha Scott, Norman Fell, Ed Nelson, Myrna Loy, Helen Reddy, Roy Thinnes, Beverly Garland, Efram Zimbalist Jr. and Susan Clark, "The Great Gatsby" (1974) co-starring Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Sam Waterston, Howard Da Silva, Bruce Dern, Edward Herrmann, Lois Chiles and Scott Wilson, "The Day of the Locust" (1975) with William Atherton and Donald Sutherland, "Nashville" (1975) appearing with an all-star ensemble cast, "Family Plot" (1976) directed by the great Alfred Hitchcock and starring with Barbara Harris, William Devane, Bruce Dern and Ed Lauter and "Burnt Offerings" (1976) co-starring Burgess Meredith, Bette Davis and Oliver Reed.
Karen worked on a couple more films but none received much success until she appeared in, "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" (1982) along with Cher Sarkisian, Sandy Dennis, Kathy Bates, Mark Patton and Sudie Bond, which earned great reviews. Some of her latest film roles have been in, "Stuck!" (2009) and "Some Guy Who Kills People" (2010).
Her career consisted of note only being a working actress but she also worked as a screenwriter, singer and songwriter. Throughout her career as an actress she has so far won two Golden Globe Awards and also earned an Academy Award nomination.
She has married four times. Her first husband was Charles Black from 1955 through 1962. Karen then married, Robert Burton in 1973 but only for one year before this marriage also ended in a divorce. Her third time to marry was to, screenwriter, L.M. Kit Carson in 1975 and they had one son, actor, Hunter Carson, sadly this marriage did not last either. She finally married Stephen Eckelberry in 1987 and they have one adopted daughter, Celine and remain married today.
Karen Black and her husband Eckelberry are active in the Church of Scientology. She continued to work in the industry and her two latest film roles released were in, "Heated Rivalry" and "Periphery" (both 2011).
A prolific actress who appeared in more than 100 movies Karen Black passed away after a lengthy battle with cancer at the age of 74 on August 7, 2013 in Santa Monica, California.

Source: Wikipedia.org