Bob Rafelson Productions) -- and gave us "Easy Rider", "Five Easy Pieces", "The Last Picture Show" and "Hearts and Minds", and lamenting the absence of such risk-taking companies today." "Five Easy Pieces" was written by Rafelson and Carole Eastman (under the alias Adrien Joyce) and starred Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, and Susan Anspach. Nicholson plays Bobby Dupea, a gifted classical piano player who works on an oil rig in California and spends most of his time drinking beer and bowling with his put-upon girlfriend Rayette (Black). Bobby is constantly dissatisfied and a non-conformist, stating: "I move around a lot. Not because I'm
Karen Black feature film career expanded in 1969, playing the role of an acid-tripping prostitute opposite Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda in the iconic counterculture movie "Easy Rider". In 1970, Black appeared as Rayette, the waitress girlfriend of Jack Nicholson, in the film "Five Easy Pieces", for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and earned her her first Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress-Motion Picture. She also won a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film. Black played an unfaithful wife, Myrtle Wilson, in the 1974