Today is the great Ms. Karen Black's birthday.

I hope you enjoy this tribute. Many of my favorite Karen Black moments are here.
Airport 1975 was my first exposure to Ms. Black's oeuvre. When she says: "There's no one left to fly the plane", I remember thinking, that's the story of my life. And I love how the characters she has played, no matter how tough they are, are often in way over their heads. Ah, but perhaps I'm just projecting here.

Ms. Black is currently in a Henry Jaglom play that is running at the Edgemar in Santa Monica. If you are in Los Angeles--go see it. It's called "45 Minutes from Broadway" and deals with a Yiddish theater family now in living in the 'burbs and struggling to find acting work. Yiddish and Karen Black? Mr. Jaglom is clearly courting me as an audience member.

Ms. Black is kind enough to be my friend on Facebook. How fun is that?

The on-going Karen Black Film Festival is now showing: Firecracker. I haven't seen any of these more current films but am excited to see that Ms. Black has taken the Bette Davis path of finding the juiciest roles as villainesses in off-kilter films.