Karen Allen
With the phenomenal success that "Indiana Jones and the
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is currently enjoying our
thoughts turn to local Massachusetts beauty Karen Allen,
who reprises her role as the spunky Marion Ravenwood.

Karen Jane Allen (born October 5, 1951) is an American
actress, best known for her role as Marion Ravenwood in
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).Allen has also had roles in
the films National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), Split
Image (1982), Starman (1984), Scrooged (1988), The
Sandlot (1993) and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the
Crystal Skull (2008)
Allen was born in Carrollton, rural western Illinois, the daughter of Patricia A. (née Howell), a teacher, and Carroll Thompson Allen, an FBI agent. Allen
spent her first 10 years traveling around the country with her parents and two sisters. After graduating from DuVal Senior High School, in Lanham,
Maryland at 17 she attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City to study apparel design but her life took a different course after
encountering the experimental theatre of Jerzy Grotowski's Polish Theatre Laboratory. While living in Washington D.C. Karen studied and worked for three
years with the Washington Theatre Laboratory under the direction Anthony Abeson, a student of Grotowski.

In 1976 she moved back to New York City to pursue a career in theatre. However, her earliest opportunities as an actor came in the form of films when she
was cast as "Katy" in John Landis' National Lampoon's "Animal House." For the next twenty years Karen divided her time between theatre work in New York
City and work in films around the world. (See Karen's film And theatre work).

In the 1980's, after working at the Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge, MA, the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Williamstown, MA and Shakespeare
and Company in Lenox, MA, Karen decided to live in the Berkshires Mountains of Western Massachusetts. A long-time practitioner of Hatha and Ashtanga
yoga, Karen created and ran Berkshire Mountain Yoga from 1995 to 2000, which continues to be a thriving Yoga studio in Great Barrington, MA. During
this time she also taught workshops in Creative Knitting and Design, Intarsia Techniques and Sweater Design at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY and
at the Interlaken School of Art (IS183) in Interlaken, MA, and at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, MA. Along with workshops in knitting
Karen also currently teaches Film Acting at Simon's Rock College of Bard in Great Barrington, MA.

In 2002 Karen returned to the Fashion Institute of Technology to study machine knitting technology and shortly thereafter began Karen Allen - Fiber Arts
in Great Barrington, MA. Today, although she continues to work in theatre and films, her design work has become an equally fascinating aspect of her
creative life.
Filmography
Awards
2008 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull .... Marion Ravenwood
2004 When Will I Be Loved  .... Alexandra Barrie
2004 Poster Boy  .... Eunice Kray
2003 Briar Patch .... Butcher Lee
2003 The Root
2003 Where Are They Now?: A Delta Alumni Update   .... Katy Schoenstein
2001 Shaka Zulu: The Citadel  (TV) .... Katherine Farewell
2001 World Traveler ... Delores
2001 My Horrible Year! (TV) .... Belinda Faulkner
2001 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV) .... Paula Varney (1 episode)
2001 In the Bedroom  .... Marla Keyes
2000 The Perfect Storm  .... Melissa Brown
1999 The Basket .... Bessie Emery
1998 Wind River .... Martha (Wilson)
1998 Falling Sky  .... Resse Nicholson
1997 All the Winters That Have Been (TV) .... Hannah Raven
1997 'Til There Was You  .... Betty Dawkan
1996 Law & Order - TV .... Judith Sandler (1 episode)
1996 Hostile Advances: The Kerry Ellison Story  (TV) .... Margaret
1994 The Road Home  TV series .... Allison Matson
1993 Ghost in the Machine  .... Terry Monroe
1993 King of the Hill  .... Miss Mathey, Aaron's Teacher
1993 Voyage  (TV) .... Catherine 'Kit' Norvell
1993 The Sandlot  .... Mom
1993 Rapture (TV) .... Georgianne Corcoran
1992 Malcolm X  .... Miss Dunne
1992 The Turning  .... Glory Lawson
1992 Nonesense and Lullabyes: Nursery Rhymes  (V)
1992 Nonesense and Lullabyes: Poems  (V)
1991 Sweet Talker .... Julie Maguire
1990 Secret Weapon  (TV) .... Ruth
1990 Challenger  (TV) .... Christa McAuliffe
1989 Animal Behavior  .... Alex Bristow
1988 Scrooged  .... Claire Phillips
1987 The Glass Menagerie  .... Laura Wingfield
1987 Terminus  .... Gus
1987 Backfire  .... Mara McAndrew
1986 Alfred Hitchcock Presents - TV .... Jackie Foster (1 episode)
1984 Starman .... Jenny Hayden
1984 Until September  .... Mo Alexander
1982 Split Image  .... Rebecca/Amy
1982 Shoot the Moon  .... Sandy
1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark  .... Marion Ravenwood
1981 East of Eden  TV mini-series .... Abra
1980 A Small Circle of Friends  .... Jessica Bloom
1980 Cruising  .... Nancy
1979 Knots Landing - TV .... Annie Fairgate (1 episode)
1979 The Wanderers  .... Nina
1979 Manhattan  .... Television Actor #2
1978 Lovey: A Circle of Children, Part II (TV) .... Elizabeth
1978 Animal House  .... Katy
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films
1982  Saturn Award Best Actress   for: Raiders of the Lost Ark