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Born Karen Jane Allen on October 5, 1951, in rural Carrollton, Illinois, she and her two sisters were shuttled through Knoxville, Chattanooga and Pittsburgh before the family settled in Washington, D.C when she was 11. Her father, Carroll Thompson Allen, worked for the FBI and her mother, Patricia A. Howell, was a school teacher. She lacked direction after graduating from DuVal High School in Glenn Dale, MD, in 1969. She left home and studied design at New York's Fashion Institure of Technology, ran a boutique, wrote short stories, lived alone in Jamaica for five months, and drove from Mexico to Peru with friends who were filming a documentary on South American Indians. She had decided she wanted to be a writer, until at 20 (1971) she saw a performance by Jerzy Grotowski's Polish Theatre Lab. "I didn't understand a word they said, but there was something in their acting that went beyond understanding. I was transfixed." Karen was able to study with the troupe for a while. Then on December 8, 1973 she auditioned for and won a small role in Saint, produced by St.Columba Church. She toured with it for six months, even going to England and Scotland.Shortly after that she auditioned for the Washington Theatre Laboratory Company in Washington, D.C., where she performed in The Innocent Party, The Player Queen and Three Women. "[They were] a small group of actors in their 20s, run by a man who had experience with Peter Brook and Grotowski, and I spent [three] years with them, producing, directing and acting" and, at times, even living in the back of a theatre. "My parents were supportive but I know they were hoping I'd outgrow it. Like all parents, you know, they were worried I'd never make a living. But I just became completely passionate about it... It was just a terrific way to enter the profession, because it was so not about a career. It was about the work." Karen also managed to squeeze in some classes at George Washington University (1974 - 76) and the University of Maryland. For about a year she was one of the directors (and creators) of the theater program at the Washington Project for the Arts, which brought theater companies from around the world to Washington, D.C. During that time she also appeared in her first film, a short film called The Whidjitmaker (1976), which won several awards, including one from the American Film Institute. "I loved living and breathing theatre so much that I decided I had to find a way to bring my desire to act and my ability to support myself together. I'd run through the possibilities in Washington, so that meant moving to New York." She moved back to the Big Apple in 1977, working variously as a waitress, house painter, bookstore clerk, and chief sandwich maker in a wine-and-cheese shop. She studied acting with Stella Adler, Warren Robertson, and for a time with Method guru Lee Strasberg at the Theatre Institute. She also acted in various student short films at NYU (e.g., The Aftermath), but by the time John Landis chose her for the female lead in National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), she was on poverty row. "I was so lucky. I was very broke and I was taking classes at Lee Strasberg's Institute and I saw a 3 X 5 index card on the bulletin board advertising for college-aged girls for a film. That was Animal House." National Lampoon's Animal House was her major film debut, for which she was paid $3,000 ("pretty pathetic"). As Landis recalls, Animal House was a picture that was "fun for everyone" [with] a leading lady who helped make it that way. "Karen's big brown eyes, freckles and wide-open smile charmed me the moment I met her... She's smart and she is delicious and she was an obvious choice for Katy." Shortly after filming wrapped, at age 28, she was afflicted with epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (EKC), a virus infection that caused a severe loss of vision. The disease went away three months later, but left her corneas slightly scarred and her sight somewhat less than perfect. She became involved in a relationship with singer-songwriter Stephan Bishop, who had a small part in National Lampoon's Animal House. For four years they "yo-yo'ed" between his LA canyon retreat and her townhouse duplex on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Her career received a big boost when Steven Spielberg selected her to create the role of Marion Ravenwood in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). "I remember I walked in to meet Steven Spielberg, and sat down and he looked at me and said — 'How far can you spit?' I thought, well, that's an interesting question. And I said 'I can spit with the best of 'em.' Which I guess was the right answer, because then Steven gave me a scene to read." "It's interesting to watch that film now, as a participant, because there are multiple realities. On one level, you're just watching the scene; on another, you're remembering the weeks when everybody was so terribly ill in Tunisia. So I have a very intimate relationship with the film, and I love that it keeps getting rediscovered." Of course, her fans were surprised when she was not invited to reprise the role in either of two sequels. She made her Broadway debut in The Monday After the Miracle (1982) for which she won a Theatre World Award (1983) as Best New Actress. Other stage credits include The Miracle Worker, Extremeties, The Glass Menagerie, As You Like It, The Country Girl, and others, at numerous venues from Charleston, South Carolina, to Montclair, New Jersey, to Williamstown, Massachusetts. In 1987 at a benefit performance at Olympia Dukakis' The Whole Theatre in Montclair, NJ, she met Kale Browne (nee David Charles Browne), a popular TV soap opera actor. Karen was singing, and Kale was being auctioned off for a dance. Kale and Karen were married the next year, on May 1, 1988. Kale played Michael Hudson on Another World from January 26, 1986 until the summer of 1997. They appeared together as husband and wife in both Challenger and 'Til There Was You. After the birth of their son Nicholas on September 14, 1990, Karen and Kale decided to scale back their careers to spend more time raising young Nicholas. Karen took smaller, less time-consuming roles in movies like The Sandlot and King of the Hill, while in January of 1992, Kale took a three year respite from Another World. Also in 1992 they bought a renovated 19th-century barn on a 22 acre farm in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts where Karen and Nick still live. Karen and Kale split up in late 1997 and divorced after ten years of marriage. Karen Allen is involved in more than just acting. In 1990 she founded her own yoga center, Berkshire Mountain Yoga, an institution she ran until 2000. But then, in 2001, Karen came to a two-pronged realization: that she wanted to be able to produce more of her knitwear in a shorter amount of time, and that her acting career "was sort of winding down... I could probably write down the names of 50 actresses of my generation whom I admire enormously and almost never see on television or film. Possibly some of that's by choice, but I can say from my own perspective, there's just not much available that's interesting." "I wanted to be able to really let my fascination and interest with this develop more than just doing the occasional hand-knitted sweater or scarf," she said. "In the process of that, I thought, 'Well, I'm sort of getting to this point in my acting career where there really isn't that much that is interesting to do.' I mean, I love acting, I love working in theater, I loved making films, but I'm looking for something to do in my life where every day is interesting." Karen returned to FIT in 2002 to study machine knitting technology. She created a line of sweaters, scarves, shawls, etc. made from Scottish and Italian cashmere that started being shown in galleries and stores in New York. Then, in the fall of 2004, She opened Karen Allen—Fiber Arts. in Great Barrington, MA, where she teaches advanced knitting, sweater design and multi-color knitting and also sells her work. In early 2005 she began teaching acting and occasionaly directing at a college in the Western Massachusetts area. "Yes. I've been teaching and directing at Simon's Rock for the last year and a half and love it," she told me recently. Karen Allen's Awards and Honors: 1988 Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female for The Glass Menagerie 1985 Saturn Award nomination for Best Actress for Starman, from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. Karen lost to Daryl Hannah (Splash); however, Jeff Bridges won Saturn Award for Best Actor for Starman. 1983 Selected as one of the 10 Most Beautiful Women in America by Harper's Bazaar Magazine. 1983 Theatre World Award for Best New Actress, from Theatre World Magazine, for her role in Monday After the Miracle. 1982 Saturn Award for Best Actress for Raiders of the Lost Ark, from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. Harrison Ford won that year for Best Actor and Raiders of the Lost Ark won for Best Fantasy Film. Writing Credits: Karen Allen has completed a screenplay based on Walker Percy's novel The Second Coming, which she anticipates (4-96) will be made into a movie. A few unpublished short stories. Other Noteworthy Activities: In the mid-1970's, when she lived in Washington, D.C., one of Karen's boyfriends was writer Terence Winch. He wrote about their relationship in a story called "The Age of Transition" in his book Contenders. At the American Museum of the Moving Image in New York City, a row of "actor's booths" are set up with video screens and earphones, enabling visitors to hear, among others, Karen Allen talking about her work in Raiders of the Lost Ark. In June of 1995, Karen founded Berkshire Mountain Yoga in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Her experience with yoga dates back to when she was 19 years old and living in Jamaica. There she found people involved in the ancient practice. Some years ago she discovered Astanga yoga, yoga's most vigorous form. Within two years she began looking for a place where she and others could have a place to teach. The Center is open every day and offers all levels of instruction, for the newcomer and beginner to the most advanced students. Karen sold the business to Deborah Smith, who renamed it Yoga Great Barrington. In the late 1990's Karen began her own clothing label Imagine for which she designs and knits sweaters, hats, and scarves. She teaches advanced knitting, sweater design and multi-color knitting at schools in upstate New York and western Massachusetts. Trivia: Karen Allen and her former husband actor Kale Browne played husband and wife twice — in the 1997 film 'Til There Was You and in the TV movie Challenger (1990). Karen Allen's Agencies and Management: Agent Agency When Sarah Fargo, agent, (212) 246-1030 Paradigm Talent Agency August 2003 - Present Jeff Berger, manager, (212) 586-4978 Writers & Artists Agency October 2000 - Present Scott Landis Innovative Artists Agency September 1995 - October 2000 David Guc David Gersh Agency NY May 1994 - September 1995 Joan Hyler William Morris Agency 1991 - May 1994 ? Triad Artists NY 1989 - 1991 Joan Hyler William Morris Agency 1987 - 1989 Brenda Feigen William Morris Agency 1983 - 1987

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