Karen Lynn Gorney is an American actress, known for her roles on television and film.
Background
Gorney was born in Beverly Hills, California. She is the daughter of Sondra Karyl (Kattlove), a public relations consultant, and Jay Gorney, who was born in Białystok, Russia (now part of Poland), and was a composer who wrote the music for what many consider the definitive song about America"s Great Depression, "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?".
Education
She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Carnegie Mellon University and a Master of Fine Arts from Brandeis University.
Career
Her family is Jewish. Karen is the sister of author, professor, and physician Rod Gorney, who has taught for many years at University of California, Los Los Angeles Early work Gorney made her film debut as a teenage resident of a mental health treatment center in David and Lisa (1962). She did not appear in another film for nearly 15 years.
From 1970 to 1974, Gorney played the role of Tara Martin on the soap opera All My Children.
After she left the show, Gorney had agreed to return when her replacement, actress/writer Stephanie Braxton, decided to leave the show. She returned for the 1976-1977 season but was eventually fired as Tara and did not return to the show until almost 20 years later.
In 1977, Gorney co-starred in her second film, and biggest role to date, as Stephanie Mangano in Saturday Night Fever, alongside John Travolta. The next year, she appeared as a celebrity panelist on Hollywood Squares.
Return to film, stage and television After a lengthy hiatus, during which she managed an art gallery in Manhattan, New York, Gorney returned to acting in the early ’90s, appearing in small roles in such films as The Hard Way (1991), Ripe (1996), and Creating Karma (2005), and returning to All My Children during 1995 in cameo spots.
More recently, she has guest-starred in a number of television shows, including Law & Order, The Sopranos, and Six Degrees, as well as doing independent films and off-Broadway shows. Due to her connection with disco music, and her popular role in Saturday Night Fever, she has been featured on a number of disco documentaries and specials, including Get Down Tonight: The Disco Explosion, which she co-hosted with Saturday Night Fever choreographer Deney Terrio for Public Broadcasting Service. During the show Gorney and Terrio dance to Tavares" hit single "More Than a Woman" as she did with co-star John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever back in 1977. She appeared on Video Hits One"s When Disco Ruled the World and was interviewed for the disco video documentary Disco: Spinning the Story.
Karen appeared in the United Kingdom on ITV1"s lunchtime programme Loose Women (a topical debate programme from a woman"s perspective) on 28 September 2007, helping to promote the 30th anniversary of the launch of the film Saturday Night Fever and the Bee Gees" new Greatest Hits album.
She was featured in the role of the Judge in the 2008 independent feature film Dear J. Gorney is a long-time resident of New York City. Recently she appeared in the stage production Monsterface at the Irish Representative Theater.
In October 10, Gorney performed the role of "Belaria" in Frog and Peach Theatre Company"s production of Cymbeline at the West End Theatre, in Manhattan, New New York