Easy Rider star Karen Black dies at 74

Karen Black, who starred in classic films like Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces and Nashville in the 1960s and 70s died in a Los Angeles nursing home on August 8, her husband Stephen Eckelberry announced on his Facebook page. She was 74.

Black was diagnosed with ampullary cancer in November 2010 and had a third of her pancreas removed. She had two more operations this year to minimise the cancer, and her husband said in March that she was “mostly bed-bound” and down to just 6½ stone. 

The couple turned to a crowdfunding website and raised tens of thousands of dollars to pay for an experimental treatment in Europe but Black’s rapidly declining health stopped her from travelling, so sadly she never made it to Europe.