Celebrity Nooz: Karen Allen

Karen Allen (Actress) as Marion Ravenwood - Raiders of the Lost Ark

Updated: 8/1/18

Name: Karen Allen

Born: October 5, 1951, Carrollton, Illinois

Claim To Fame: Karen made her major film debut in National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) and Hollywood took notice. Her next big break came in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) where she created the role of "Marion Ravenwood".

Family Life: Kale Browne (1 May 1988 - 1997) (divorced) 1 son.

Son, Nicholas, born on September 14th 1990.

Lived with musician Stephen Bishop.

Info: Born in rural southern Illinois, Karen spent her first 10 years traveling around the country with her mother, her FBI agent father, and two sisters. At 17, after graduating from high school, Karen moved to New York to study art and design. She later attended the University of Maryland and spent time traveling through South and Central America. In 1974 Karen joined a theatre group and 3 years later moved back to New York and studied with the Lee Strasberg Institute.

Trivia: Overcame temporary blindness caused by Kerato Conjunctivitis in 1978. She later won major theatre awards for playing a blind woman in "Monday Before the Miracle" and "Miracle Worker, The".

Considered for the role of Princess Leia Organa in Star Wars, later cast in the George Lucas-produced Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Studied in the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute.

Attended the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City at the age of seventeen to study apparel design but her life took a different course after encountering the experimental theater of Jerzy Grotowski's Polish Theatre Laboratory.

In 1995 she founded the Berkshire Mountain Yoga in Massachussets.

Has two sisters.

Graduated in 1969 from the DuVal High School in Glenndale Maryland.

Studied in the Washington Theater Laboratory.

Studied at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute.

Voted one of the most beautiful women in the world by the readers of Harpers Bazaar Magazine in 1983.

Where Are They Now: An accomplished hand knitting fanatic, Karen runs her own knitwear design studio, "Karen Allen Fiber Arts" that she started in 2004 in Massachussets.

She reprised her role as Marion Ravenwood in the fourth installment of the Indiana Jones series with Harrison Ford and director Steven Spielberg which was released in 2008.

Allen also teaches acting at Bard College at Simon's Rock, located in Great Barrington. She also teaches yoga. She currently lives in Monterey, Massachusetts.

Write To Karen Allen:
Karen Allen
Karen Allen Fiber Arts
35 Railroad Street
Great Barrington, MA 01230

Official Website: www.karenallen-fiberarts.com

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