News

Actress Karen Black, star of such films as Five Easy Pieces and Trilogy of Terror died today in Los Angeles. She was 74.

Born in 1939 in Illinois, she studied acting at Northwestern University until she dropped out and moved to New York. Summer stock and theater were Black's staples, eventually debuting on Broadway in 1961. Her first major film role was in Francis Ford Coppola's You're a Big Boy Now. Black is best known to "mainstream" audiences for her roles in films like Five Easy Pieces (a role for which she was nominated for an Oscar), Easy Rider, and Nashville, which represented a time when independent films were emerging as a viable, respectable segment of the film world.

Black's career took a "turn" in 1975 when she took the lead in Trilogy of Terror, a made-for-tv anthology film. (The "turn" reference comes from Hollywood Reporter, which to me comes off dismissive, as if she wasted her career.

Actress Elina Madison knows a good scream when she hears one. She's a queen of modern day horror flicks and has appeared in such classics as Curse of the Forty-Niner (2002), Creepshow III (2006), Petrified (2006) and a film she co-produced and starred in called Corporate Cut Throat Massacre (2009). In addition to her penchant for peril, Elina has appeared in various other projects in both television and film. She worked with director David Lynch in the 2001 psychological thriller Mulholland Drive (2001) and with Tom Hanks in the comedy/drama/musical hit That Thing You Do (1996). As a co-star in the award winning feature film Barracuda and the lead heroin (Minty) in the drama Minty: The Assassin (2009), Elina has also taken the plunge into the deep character-driven waters of independent films. Essentially, this versatile actress has played everything from an abused housewife to a sexy meter-maid and is thoroughly enjoying the diversity of a multi-genre'd career.