Karen Black

Black was born Karen Blanche Ziegler on July 1, 1939, in Park Ridge, Illinois, the third child of Elsie Mary (née Reif), a writer of several prize-winning children's novels, and Norman Arthur Ziegler, an engineer and businessman. Her paternal grandfather was Arthur Charles Ziegler, a classical musician and first violinist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She had a brother and a sister, Gail Brown. Black was of German, Czech, and Norwegian descent. The Zieglers came to the United States from Neukirch, Württemberg, Germany.

Black and her siblings were raised at 224 N. Greenwood Ave. in Park Ridge, and often spent time on her uncle's farm near Green Bay, Wisconsin. As a young teenager, she aspired to have a career as a stage actress, seeking out summer stock theater job opportunities. "From the age of 13 I'd rush out during vacations to find work in summer stock," Black recalled. "I started by cleaning toilets and by the time I was 16 I was a prop-girl and in the chorus line singing, and at 17 I got my first real acting, paid job."

Black attended Maine East High School for her freshman year and part of her sophomore year. She resumed her education at Jefferson High School in Lafayette, Indiana and attended Purdue University for one year, then transferred to Northwestern University, where she majored in theatre arts, studying under Alvina Krause. Black completed two years of studies at NU before dropping out. She later reflected on her training unfavorably, stating: I would say that the college training was very lousy, and I don't think that people learn by being invalidated... Acting teachers, not all of them but many, seem to think that beating up their students and invalidating them will make them better, which I think is completely wrong. And at that age, you don't realize that this sick person is really projecting all their neurosis onto you, you think that you're the one who's damaged... Alvina Krause would not validate and would not allow. I think she had favorites, and you could never figure out why you weren't a favorite, and it never made any sense. The thing you have to remember is that if a person is making you feel bad about yourself, that person is going to be in his or her own world. They are lost in their own universe.