Broadway, film, and television actor James Karen, who made over 200 onscreen appearances including notable roles in films such as Poltergeist and The China Syndrome, passed away on October 23, 2018. His wife of over 30 years, Alba Francesca, confirmed his passing. He was 94 years old.
Born Jacob Karnofsky on November 28, 1923 in northeastern Pennsylvania, Karen was encouraged to become an actor by U.S. Congressman Daniel J. Flood. An amateur thespian at the time, Flood recruited Karen for a production at the Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre. He went on to study acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York. His first big break came when he was asked to understudy Karl Malden in the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire. He went on to appear Broadway productions of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Cactus Flower, and Merton of the Movies where he toured alongside Buster Keaton.
From there, Karen branched into television, portraying Dr. Burke on As the World Turns, the original Lincoln Tyler on All My Children, and the popular Eliot Randolph on Eight Is Enough. Around this time, Karen became known throughout the East Coast as Mr. Pathmark for his 20-year run as the spokesman for the Pathmark supermarket chain. A lifelong member of The Actors Studio, Karen also made appearances in the situation comedy The Kallikaks, played Earl Sibert in Blind Ambition, and appeared as a prospective love interest for Dorothy on The Golden Girls. He later portrayed Herbert Purcell on The Jeffersons and served as the evil tycoon Nathan Lassiter in Little House on the Prairie.
Karen also starred in the disaster film, The China Syndrome alongside Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, and Michael Douglas. Across his long career, Karen appeared in three films for director Oliver Stone including Wall Street opposite Charlie Sheen, 1995’s Nixon, and the sports drama Any Given Sunday. Karen is best known in the horror genre for his role in the low-budget horror comedy The Return of the Living Dead. He actually portrays the medical warehouse manager who inadvertently causes the dead to be reanimated. He later starred as real estate developer Mr. Teague, who built the community of Cuesta Verde atop a former cemetery, in the cult classic Poltergeist.
During his later career, Karen appeared in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, hired a down on his luck Will Smith in The Pursuit of Happyness, and finalized his career with roles in the low budget films Bender and Cynthia. With 204 acting credits listed on IMDb, Karen was an instantly recognizable character actor who enjoyed a well-rounded seven-decade career.
Karen was married to renowned folk singer Susan Reed between 1958 and 1967. The pair had one son, Reed, whose godfather was the one and only Buster Keaton. He remarried Alba in 1986, who survives him.
