Karen Lynn Gorney

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Karen Lynn Gorney (born January 28, 1945 in Beverly Hills, California) is an American actress, best known for her roles on television and film.

Gorney earned degrees from both Carnegie Mellon University and Brandeis University.

In the 1970s, the actress created the role of Tara Martin on the soap opera All My Children. She left the show but agreed to return when her replacement, actress/writer Stephanie Braxton, decided to leave the show. She was eventually fired as Tara and did not return to the show. She was offered the lead female role of Stephanie in the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever, alongside John Travolta, in which she was well-received.

After that, however, she almost completely vanished from the acting and entertainment scene, for reasons that have never been made clear. Sources say she stuck to mainly stage and her love of painting.

In the early 1990's Gorney began to appear in small roles again in such films as The Hard Way, Ripe and Rock The Cradle among others and even returning to All My Children during 1995 in cameo spots. She has, and continues to, film guest starting roles in a number of popular TV shows including Law And Order, The Sopranos and Six Degrees.

Currently Gorney is concentrating mostly on independent films and off-Broadway shows. She has also been featured on a number of Disco documentaries and specials including Get Down Tonight: The Disco Explosion, where she co-hosted the show with Saturday Night Fever choreographer Deney Terrio for PBS. During the show Karen and Deney 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 VH1's When Disco Ruled The World and was interviewed for the Disco video documentary Disco: Spinning The Story. Karen Lynn's father was composer Jay Gorney, who wrote the music for what many consider the definitive song about America's Great Depression, Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?.