Actress and occasional singer Karen Black has sadly passed away aged 74, after a lengthy battle with ampullary cancer, her husband Stephen Eckleberry confirmed yesterday.

Black’s prolific filmography included the beatnik classic ‘Easy Rider’, disaster movie ‘Airport’, and an Academy Award nominated performance alongside Jack Nicholson in the 1970 cult drifter drama ‘Five Easy Pieces’. Her later career incorporated a turn into the horror genre, and among the last of her film roles prior to her illness was the portrayal of serial killer matriarch Mama Firefly in metal icon Rob Zombie’s directorial debut, ‘House of 1000 Corpses’.

Alongside her career in cinema and television, Black was also a singer and songwriter, composing and performing her own songs for her turn as a country singer in Robert Altman’s ‘Nashville’, singing on Saturday Night Live, and providing guest vocals on the Cass McCombs track, ‘Dreams Come True Girl’.

Karen Black is survived by husband Eckleberry, three children and several grandchildren and great-children.