What is Karen Allen's net worth?
Karen Allen is an American actress and director who has a net worth of $2 million. Karen Allen is best known for starring as Marion Ravenwood in the 1981 Indiana Jones film "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and she reprised the role in 2008's "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." Karen has more than 60 acting credits to her name, including the films "National Lampoon's Animal House" (1978), "Starman" (1984), "The Glass Menagerie" (1987), "Scrooged" (1988), "Malcolm X" (1992), "The Perfect Storm" (2000), and "Year by the Sea" (2016) and the television series "The Road Home" (1994) and "50 States of Fright" (2020). Allen directed the 2017 short film "A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud.," and she has directed stage productions of Joan Ackermann's "The Batting Cage" (2008), Michael Weller's "Moonchildren" (2009; 2011), William Mastrisimone's "Extremities" (2013), Lucy Thurber's "Asheville" (2013), Terence McNally's "Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune" (2015), and John Patrick Shanley's "Outside Mullingar" (2019). She has also performed on Broadway, winning a Theatre World Award for a 1982 production of "Monday After the Miracle."
Early Life
Karen Allen was born Karen Jane Allen on October 5, 1951, in Carrollton, Illinois. Her father, Carroll, was an FBI agent, and her mother, Ruth, was a university professor. Due to Carroll's job, the family moved frequently, and Karen has said, "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 has two sisters, and she graduated from Maryland's DuVal High School, then spent two years studying art and design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Karen later attended Washington, D.C.'s George Washington University and performed with the Washington Theatre Laboratory. She joined the Massachusetts-based theatre group Shakespeare & Company in 1974, and in 1977, she returned to NYC and studied with acting teacher David Gideon at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute.
Career
Allen made both her big screen and small screen debuts in 1978, appearing in the film "National Lampoon's Animal House" and the TV movie "Lovey: A Circle of Children, Part II." She then had roles in the "Knots Landing" pilot (1979) and the films "Manhattan" (1979), "The Wanderers" (1979), "Cruising" (1980), and "A Small Circle of Friends" (1980). In 1981, she played Marion Ravenwood in the Steven Spielberg-directed film "Raiders of the Lost Ark" alongside Harrison Ford. The film grossed $389.9 million against a $20 million budget, and Karen reprised her role in the fourth film in the franchise, 2008's "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," which brought in $790.7 million at the box office. Allen followed her breakout role with the films "Shoot the Moon" (1982), "Split Image" (1982), "Starman" (1984), "Until September" (1985), "Terminus" (1986), "Backfire" (1988), and "Animal Behavior" (1989), and she played Laura Wingfield in the 1987 film adaptation of Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" and Claire Phillips in the 1988 Bill Murray comedy "Scrooged." In 1990, she portrayed astronaut Christa McAuliffe in the TV movie "Challenger," then she appeared in the films "Sweet Talker" (1991), "The Turning" (1992), "Malcolm X" (1992), "The Sandlot" (1993), "King of the Hill" (1993), "Ghost in the Machine" (1993), and "Falling Sky" (1998) and the TV movies "Secret Weapon" (1990), "Rapture" (1993), and "Voyage" (1993).
In 1994, Karen starred as Alison Matson on the short-lived CBS series "The Road Home," then she guest-starred on "Law & Order" (1996) and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (2001). She co-starred with George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, and Diane Lane in 2000's "The Perfect Storm," and in 2001, she played Marla Keyes in the independent drama "In the Bedroom," which earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. Allen appeared in the films "Briar Patch" (2003), "Poster Boy" (2004), and "When Will I Be Loved" (2004) and the TV movies "My Horrible Year!" (2001) and "Shaka Zulu: The Citadel" (2001), then she lent her voice to the HBO movie "A Dog Year" (2009). She won several awards for her performance as Joan Anderson in the 2016 independent film "Year by the Sea," and that year, she also directed the short film "A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud.," which received an award at the 2017 Manchester Film Festival. In 2019, Karen starred in the lead role in 2019's "Colewell," and in 2020, she played Sheriff Stallings in three episodes of the Quibi anthology series "50 States of Fright." In 2021, she co-starred with Amanda Seyfried in the horror film "Things Heard & Seen."
Personal Life
Karen married actor Kale Browne on May 1, 1988, and they welcomed son Nicholas on September 14, 1990. Allen and Browne divorced in June 1998. Nicholas grew up to be a chef and won the Food Network's "Chopped" competition in 2016.
Knitting
In 2003, Karen launched a textile business called Karen Allen Fiber Arts in Massachusetts, and in 2009, the Fashion Institute of Technology awarded her an honorary master's degree. Allen has also taught acting classes at Bard College at Simon's Rock in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
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Awards and Nominations
Allen has earned two Saturn Award nominations from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, winning Best Actress for "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in 1982; her other nomination was for Best Actress for "Starman" (1985). For "Year by the Sea," she won awards from the Hamilton Film Festival, Naperville Independent Film Festival, Port Townsend Film Festival, Rhode Island International Film Festival (which also gave her the Creative Vision Award), St. Louis International Film Festival, and Vail Film Festival in 2016, and the cast shared a Best Actors Film Festival award for Best Ensemble – Feature Dramedy. In 2017, "A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud." was named Best International Short at the Manchester International Film Festival. Allen received Film Independent Spirit Award nominations for Best Supporting Female for "The Glass Menagerie" (1988) and Best Female Lead for "Colewell" (2020), and "Colewell" also earned her a Chlotrudis Award nomination for Best Actress. In 1990, she received a Sant Jordi Award nomination for Best Foreign Actress (Mejor Actriz Extranjera) for "The Glass Menagerie," and in 2009, Karen and Harrison Ford earned an AARP Movies for Grownups Award nomination for Best Grownup Love Story for "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."
Real Estate
In 1988, Karen paid $430,000 for a 28-acre property in Sandisfield, Massachusetts. The property features a home that was built in 1910. Today the property is estimated to be worth a little under $1 million.
