Karen Jane Allen (born October 5, 1951) is an American film, television and stage actress. She made her film debut in the comedy film Animal House (1978), which was soon followed by a small role in Woody Allen's romantic comedy-drama Manhattan (1979) and a co-lead role in Philip Kaufman's coming-of-age film The Wanderers (1979), before co-starring opposite Al Pacino in William Friedkin's crime thriller Cruising (1980).

Allen's critical and commercial breakthrough came when she portrayed Marion Ravenwood opposite Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), for which she won the Saturn Award for Best Actress. She later co-starred in Shoot the Moon (1982), Starman (1984), for which she was again nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Actress, and Scrooged (1988).

Allen has also received recognition for her work in The Glass Menagerie (1987), Year by the Sea (2016), and Colewell (2019). She reprised her role as Marion Ravenwood in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023). Her stage work has included performances on Broadway, and she has directed both stage and film productions.

Early life

Allen was born on October 5, 1951, in Carrollton, Illinois, to Ruth Patricia (née Howell) (1927–2020), a university professor, and Carroll Thompson Allen (1925–2015), an FBI agent. She is of English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh descent. Her father's job forced the family to move often. "I grew up moving almost every year and so I was always the new kid in school and always, in a way, was deprived of ever really having any lasting friendships", Allen said in 1987. Although Allen says her father was very much involved in the family, she felt that she and her two sisters grew up in a very female-dominated household.

After she graduated from DuVal High School, in Lanham, Maryland, in 1969, she moved to New York City to study art and design at Fashion Institute of Technology for two years. Allen later ran a boutique on the University of Maryland campus and spent time traveling through South and Central Asia. Three years later, she moved back to New York City and studied at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute. After a few minor films, including leading roles in the dramatic thriller Split Image (1982), In 1983, she played the lead in the off-Broadway play Extremities, a physically demanding role about a woman who turns the tables on a would-be rapist who attacks her.

In 1988, Allen returned to the big screen as Bill Murray's long-lost love, Claire, in the Christmas comedy Scrooged.

Allen reprised her best-known role as Marion Ravenwood for the 2008 sequel Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,

Allen starred in the American premiere of Jon Fosse's A Summer Day at the Cherry Lane Theater in New York City, which opened in October 2012. It won the Best International Short at the Manchester Film Festival in March 2017. Allen played the lead role in 2017's Year by the Sea, a film based on The New York Times bestselling memoir by Joan Anderson.

Allen reprised her role as Marion Ravenwood one last time in 2023's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

Personal life

thumb|right|upright|Allen at the Chiller Theatre Expo in 2013

In 1988, Allen married actor Kale Browne and had a son, Nicholas, in 1990. The couple divorced in 1998. Following the birth of her son, Allen accepted smaller roles in TV and films to concentrate on raising Nicholas.

In 2003, Allen started her own textile company, Karen Allen Fiber Arts, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The company has a store in Great Barrington that sells items Allen knits with a Japanese-made knitting machine

Allen also taught acting at Bard College at Simon's Rock, located in Great Barrington.

, Allen lives in Massachusetts. She also works as a stage director.

Filmography

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|-

! colspan=3 style="background:LightSteelBlue"| Film

|- style="background:#ccc; text-align:center;"

! Year

! Title

! Role

|-

| 1978||National Lampoon's Animal House||Katy

|-

| rowspan=2| 1979||Manhattan||Television Actor No. 2

|-

|The Wanderers||Nina

|-

| rowspan=2| 1980||Cruising||Nancy Gates

|-

| A Small Circle of Friends||Jessica Bloom

|-

| 1981||Raiders of the Lost Ark||Marion Ravenwood

|-

| rowspan=2| 1982||Shoot the Moon||Sandy

|-

| Split Image||Rebecca/Amy

|-

| rowspan=2| 1984||Until September||Mo Alexander

|-

| Starman||Jenny Hayden

|-

| rowspan=2| 1987||Terminus||Gus

|-

| The Glass Menagerie||Laura Wingfield

|-

| rowspan=2| 1988||Backfire||Mara McAndrew

|-

| Scrooged||Claire Phillips

|-

| 1989||Animal Behavior||Alex Bristow

|-

| 1991||Sweet Talker||Julie Maguire

|-

| rowspan=2| 1992||The Turning||Glory Lawson

|-

| Malcolm X||Miss Dunne

|-

| rowspan=3| 1993||The Sandlot||Mrs. Smalls

|-

| King of the Hill||Miss Mathey

|-

| Ghost in the Machine||Terry Munroe

|-

| 1996|| Ripper ||Dr. Claire Burton

|-

| 1997||Til There Was You||Betty Dawkan

|-

| 1998||Falling Sky||Resse Nicholson

|-

| rowspan=3| 2000||The Basket||Bessie Emery

|-

| Wind River||Martha

|-

|The Perfect Storm||Melissa Brown

|-

| rowspan=2| 2001||World Traveler||Delores

|-

| In the Bedroom||Marla Keyes

|-

| 2003||Briar Patch||Butcher Lee

|-

| rowspan=2| 2004||Poster Boy||Eunice Kray

|-

| When Will I Be Loved||Alexandra Barrie

|-

| 2008||Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull||Marion Ravenwood

|-

| 2010||White Irish Drinkers||Margaret

|-

| 2015||Bad Hurt||Elaine Kendall

|-

| 2016||Year by the Sea||Joan Anderson

|-

| 2019||Colewell||Nora Pancowski

|-

| 2021||Things Heard & Seen|| Mare Laughton

|-

| 2022||A Stage of Twilight||Cora

|-

| 2023||Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny||Marion Ravenwood

|-

|rowspan="2"| 2024||Unsinkable||Nancy Smith

|-

| The Easy Kind || Kathy

|-

| 2026||||Grandma Ruth

|}

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|-

! colspan=4 style="background:LightSteelBlue"| Television

|- style="background:#ccc; text-align:center;"

! Year

! Title

! Role

! Notes

|-

| 1978 || Lovey: A Circle of Children, Part II||Elizabeth ||Television film

|-

| 1979 || Knots Landing || Annie||Episode: "Pilot"

|-

| 1981 || East of Eden || Abra||Episode: "Part Three"

|-

| 1986 || Alfred Hitchcock Presents ||Jackie Foster ||Episode: "The Creeper"

|-

| rowspan=2| 1990||Challenger||Christa McAuliffe || rowspan="4" |Television film

|-

| Secret Weapon||Ruth

|-

| rowspan=2| 1993 || Rapture||Georgianne Corcoran

|-

| Voyage||Catherine "Kit" Norvell

|-

| 1994 || The Road Home ||Alison Matson ||6 episodes

|-

| rowspan=2| 1996 || Hostile Advances: The Kerry Ellison Story|| Margaret ||Television film

|-

| Law & Order ||Judith Sandler ||Episode: "Survivor"

|-

| 1997 || All the Winters That Have Been||Helen Raven ||Television film

|-

| rowspan=3|2001 || Law & Order: Special Victims Unit ||Paula Varney

|Episode: "Scourge"

|-

| My Horrible Year!||Belinda Faulkner || rowspan="5" |Television film

|-

| Shaka Zulu: The Citadel ||Katherine Farewell

|-

| 2009||A Dog Year||Paula (voice)

|-

| 2010||November Christmas||Claire

|-

| 2012||The Tin Star||Eliza Flynn

|-

| 2014 || Blue Bloods || Betty Lowe||Episode: "Unfinished Business"

|-

| 2020|| 50 States of Fright || Sheriff Stallings || rowspan="2" |3 episodes

|-

| 2022 || The Last Movie Stars || Frances Woodward (voice)

|}

Awards and nominations

{| class="wikitable sortable" width="95%"

|-

! width="10" | Year

! width="300" | Awards

! width="440" | Category

! width="230" | Nominated work

! width="30" | Result

! width="60" | Ref.

|-

| 1981

|Saturn Awards

|Best Actress

|Raiders of the Lost Ark

|

|

|-

| 1983

|Theatre World Award

|Outstanding New York City Stage Debut Performance

|Monday After the Miracle

|

|

  • New York Times: A Night Out With | Karen Allen, Only for You, Dr. Jones
  • Artist Direct Interview by Drew Tewksbury October 17, 2008