Prolific actress Karen Black, whose big break came playing a tripped-out hooker in the classic hippie movie “Easy Rider,” has died of complications from cancer, her husband said yesterday.
Black, 74, appeared in more than 100 movies, including counterculture favorites “Five Easy Pieces” — for which she won an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe Award — and “Nashville,” which got her a Grammy nod for songs she composed and performed.
But she complained that her career as an A-lister was derailed by 1975’s “The Day of the Locust,” which garnered mixed reviews and forced her to take roles on TV and in low-budget horror films, most notably “Trilogy of Terror.”
Married four times, Black is survived by her husband, Stephen Eckelberry, son, Hunter Carson, and adopted daughter, Celine Eckleberry.