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Madeline Kahn (September 29, 1942 – December 3, 1999) was an American actress. Kahn was known primarily for her comedic roles in films such as Paper Moon, Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, What's Up, Doc?, and Clue. Early life Kahn was born Madeline Gail Wolfson in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of Paula Kahn and Bernard B. Wolfson, who was a garment manufacturer. She was raised in a non-observant Jewish family. Her parents divorced when Kahn was two, and she and her mother moved to New York City. Several years later her parents remarried and gave Kahn two half-siblings: Jeffrey (from her mother) and Robyn (from her father). In 1948, Kahn was sent to a progressive boarding school in Pennsylvania and stayed there until 1952. During that time, her mother pursued her acting dream. Kahn soon began acting herself and performed in a number of school productions. In 1960, she graduated from Martin Van Buren High School in Queens, where she earned a drama scholarship to Hofstra University on Long Island. At Hofstra, she studied drama, music, and speech therapy. After changing her major a number of times, Kahn graduated from Hofstra in 1964 with a degree in speech therapy. She was a member of a local sorority on campus, Delta Chi Delta. Career Kahn began auditioning for professional acting roles shortly after her graduation from Hofstra; on the side, she briefly taught public school in Levittown, New York. Just before adopting the professional name Madeline Kahn (Kahn was her mother's maiden name), she made her stage debut as a chorus girl in a revival of Kiss Me, Kate, which led her to join Actors' Equity. Her part in the flop How Now, Dow Jones was written out before the 1967 show reached Broadway, as was her role as Miss Whipple in the original production of Promises, Promises. She earned her first break on Broadway with New Faces of 1968. That same year, she performed her first professional lead in a special concert performance of the operetta Candide in honor of Leonard Bernstein's 50th birthday. In 1969, she appeared Off Broadway in the musical Promenade. She appeared in two Broadway musicals in the 1970s: a featured role in Richard Rodgers' 1970 Noah's Ark-themed show Two by Two (her silly waltz "The Golden Ram," capped by a high C, can be heard on the show's cast album) and a leading lady turn as Lily Garland in 1978's On the Twentieth Century. She left (or was fired from) the latter show early in its run, yielding the role to her understudy, Judy Kaye, whose career it launched. She also starred in a 1977 Town Hall revival of She Loves Me (opposite Barry Bostwick and original London cast member Rita Moreno). Kahn's film debut was in the 1968 short De Düva (The Dove). Her feature debut was as Ryan O'Neal's hysterical fiancée in Peter Bogdanovich's screwball comedy What's Up, Doc? (1972) starring Barbra Streisand. Her film career continued with Paper Moon (1973), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Kahn was cast in the role of Agnes Gooch in the 1974 film Mame, but star Lucille Ball fired Kahn due to artistic differences. (Note: several of Ball's biographies note that Kahn was eager to be released from the role so that she could join the cast of Blazing Saddles, a film about to go into production; whether Kahn was fired or left Mame under mutual agreement is undetermined. However, Kahn stated in a 1996 Charlie Rose interview that she had indeed been fired from Mame) A close succession of Kahn comedies — Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), and High Anxiety (1977) — were all directed by Mel Brooks, who many Hollywood observers claimed was able to bring out the best of Kahn's comic talents. Their last collaboration was 1981's History of the World, Part I. For Blazing Saddles, she was again nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In the April 2006 issue of Premiere magazine, her performance as Lili von Shtupp in Saddles was selected as #74 on its list of the 100 greatest performances of all time. In 1978, Kahn's comic screen persona reached another peak with Neil Simon's The Cheap Detective (1978), a spoof of both Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon, directed by Robert Moore. In the film she befuddles Peter Falk's gumshoe with an array of fake identities. Kahn's roles were primarily comedic rather than dramatic, though the 1970s found her originating roles in two plays that had both elements: 1974's In the Boom Boom Room and 1977's Marco Polo Sings a Solo. After her success in Brooks' films, she played in a number of less successful films in the 1980s (perhaps most memorably as Mrs. White in the 1985 film Clue). She also performed in the movie The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975) opposite Gene Wilder, the animation film My Little Pony: The Movie (1986), the holiday farce Mixed Nuts (1994) and a cameo in 1978's The Muppet Movie. In 1983, she starred in her own short-lived TV sitcom, Oh Madeline, which ended after only one season due to poor ratings. In 1986 she starred in ABC Comedy Factory's pilot episode of Chameleon, which never aired on the fall schedule; it co-starred Nina Foch. In 1987, Kahn won a Daytime Emmy award for her performance in the ABC Afterschool Special, Wanted: The Perfect Guy. Late in her career, Kahn returned to the stage, first in Judy Holliday's role in a 1989 revival of Born Yesterday, then as Dr. Gorgeous in Wendy Wasserstein's 1993 play The Sisters Rosensweig, a role that earned her a Tony Award. She played the corrupt mayor (Angela Lansbury's role) in a concert performance of Anyone Can Whistle that was released on CD. She also continued to appear in movies. In the early 1990s, Kahn recorded a voice for the animated movie The Magic 7. Her most notable role at that time was on the sitcom Cosby (1996–2000) as Pauline, the eccentric neighbor. She also voiced Gypsy the moth in A Bug's Life (1998). Kahn received some of the best reviews of her career for her Chekhovian turn in the 1999 independent movie Judy Berlin, her final film. Illness and death Madeline Kahn was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in early 1999. She underwent treatment and continued to work, continuing her role on Cosby. Kahn married her long-time companion, John Hansbury, in October 1999. However, the disease progressed very rapidly and she died December 3, 1999 in New York City.She was 57 years old. In Central Park, there is a bench erected by her husband and her brother, dedicated in her memory. Work Filmography De Düva (The Dove) (1968) What's Up, Doc? (1972) Paper Moon (1973) From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1973) Blazing Saddles (1974) Young Frankenstein (1974) At Long Last Love (1975) The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975) Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976) High Anxiety (1977) The Cheap Detective (1978) The Muppet Movie (1979) First Family (1980) Happy Birthday, Gemini (1980) Wholly Moses! (1980) Simon (1980) History of the World, Part I (1981) Slapstick of Another Kind (1982) Yellowbeard (1983) City Heat (1984) Clue (1985) My Little Pony: The Movie (1986) (voice) An American Tail (1986) (voice) Betsy's Wedding (1990) Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book (1992) (Narrator) Mixed Nuts (1994) Nixon (1995) A Bug's Life (1998) (voice) Judy Berlin (1999) Theatre Just for Openers (1965) Mixed Doubles (1966) Below the Belt (1966) Candide in Concert (1968) Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1968 (1968) Two by Two (1970) Boom Boom Room (1973) On the Twentieth Century (1978) Born Yesterday (1989) The Sisters Rosensweig (1993) Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall (1992) Television Harvey (1972) Saturday Night Live (Three episodes hosted: 1976, 1977 and 1995) The Muppet Show, Episode 209 (1977) Sesame Street, Episode 1576 (1981) Oh Madeline (1983) Comedy Factory CTV(1985–86) Season 2, Episode 6:Chameleon (1986) Mr. President (1987–1988) Monkey House (1991) (canceled after 7 episodes) Lucky Luke (1993) (canceled after 8 episodes) Sesame Street, Episode 3136 (1994) New York News (1995) (canceled after 13 episodes) London Suite (1996) Cosby (cast member 1996–1999) Little Bill (1999) Award Wins: 1987 Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Performer in children's programming for ABC Afterschool Special 1993 Tony Award for Best Actress in a play for The Sisters Rosenweig Award Nominations: 1973 Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer for What's Up Doc? 1974 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for Paper Moon 1974 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Paper Moon 1974 Tony Award for Best Actress in a play for Boom Boom Boom 1975 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for Young Frankenstein 1975 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Blazing Saddles 1978 Tony Award for Best Actress in a musical for On the Twentieth Century 1989 Tony Award for Best Actress in a play for Born Yesterday

Claudia Rachel Alessandra Cindy Emanuela Amber Lara Hilary Daria Claudia Toni Gia Stephanie Alessandra Edita Nadja

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Sylva Koscina (born August 22, 1933, Zagreb, Kingdom of Yugoslavia — died December 26, 1994, Rome, Italy) was an Italian actress. Biography Born in Zagreb as Sylva Koskinon of a Greek father and a Polish mother, she may be best-remembered for her role as Iole, the bride of Hercules (Steve Reeves) in Hercules (1958) and Hercules Unchained (1960). She also played Paul Newman's romantic interest in The Secret War of Harry Frigg (1968). During the Second World War when she was a teenager, she moved to Italy to live with her sister, who had married an Italian citizen. Koscina had an extensive film career there. She also starred in the 1967 comedy caper Three Bites of the Apple with David McCallum, and Deadlier Than the Male (1967), in which she and Elke Sommer portrayed sophisticated professional killers dueling with Bulldog Drummond. She also played Danica in the Yugoslavian movie The Battle of Neretva, in 1969. She played a German doctor, Bianca, in Hornets' Nest with Rock Hudson. Koscina had studied physics at the University of Naples, was Miss Di Tappa at the Tour of Italy bicycle race in 1954, as well as being a fashion model. She made a fleeting appearance in the part of an aspiring actress in Siamo uomini o caporali [Are we men or corporals?] (1955) before making a flying catch at her great opportunity: she portrayed Giulia, daughter of the train engineer Andrea, in Pietro Germi's Il ferroviere [The Railroad Man] (1956). Koscina immediately confirmed her talent in Guendalina (1957), where she had no difficulty playing the part of a young mother. A lead player in popular comedies, such as Nonna Sabella [Grandmother Sabella] (1957), Ladro lui, ladra lei [He a thief, she a thief] (1958), and Poveri millionari [Poor millionaires] (1958), Koscina alternated cleverly between roles as vamp and ingenue. She represented women in search of social upward mobility, the image of an Italy that had left its worst problems behind. Koscina was suited to sophisticated comedies like Mogli pericolose [Dangerous wives] (1958), where she made a direct sentimental challenge to poor Giorgia Moll. But she also seemed at ease draped in a peplum: she made a marvelous fiancee for Hercules in Le fatiche di Ercole [Hercules] (1958), a prototype of this kind of film. A true-life example of her popularity in Italy occurred when, in order to win her over, a police officer let her go without issuing a traffic ticket. Sylva was later a guest on a television program, where thanked him on the air, thus getting him into lots of trouble with the police department. The incident and its aftermath inspired the movie Il vigile [The policeman] (1960), where she played herself. In the first half of the sixties, Koscina married her lover, Raimondo Castelli, a small producer connected with Minerva Films. She managed to keep well afloat with roles in Damiano Damiani's Il sicario [The hired killer] (1961). In La lepre e la tartaruga [The Tortoise and the Hare], an episode in Le quattro verita [The Three Fables of Love] (1963), the director Blasetti constructed a duel between Koscina and Monica Vitti. In 1965, Koscina appeared in Giulietta degli spiriti. She was also a television personality, as she was often the special guest on variety shows. From the early 1960s, she invested most of her considerable salaries as a star in a luxurious villa, in the well-to-do district of Marino, Rome, complete with 16th-century furniture and artistic paintings. That lasted until her spending overcame her dwindling income, and she had to face a tax evasion inquest, when she was forced to sell her house in 1976. Living with Raimondo Castelli since 1960, she did not marry due to then Italian law and because his wife Marinella refused him an annulment. Castelli and Koscina married in Mexico in 1967, but that marriage was not recognized in Italy. After passing thirty, she partnered with actors such as Kirk Douglas in A Lovely Way to Die (1968) and Paul Newman in The Secret War of Harry Frigg (1967), but without any luck. Her fame being a bit tarnished, it was given a boost in the second half of the sixties when she was photographed bare-breasted in the Italian edition of Playboy magazine. Mauro Bolognini's L'assolute naturale (1969) was released complete with a "chaste" full nude shot.[citation needed] Personal quotes On her infamous love scene – "Of course, if it had not been for the director, I wouldn't have done this film." Death Sylva Koscina died in Rome in 1994, aged 61, from breast cancer. Selected filmography Swordsman of Siena (1962) Hot Enough for June (1964) The Dictator's Guns (1965) Deadlier Than the Male (1967) Kampf um Rom I (1968) Kampf um Rom II (1969) Sunday Lovers (1980)

Vera Vasilyevna Kholodnaya (Russian: Вера Васильевна Холодная; August 30, 1893 - February 16, 1919) was the first star of Russian silent cinema. Only five of her films still exist and the total number she acted in is unknown, with speculation ranging between fifty and one hundred. Early life Born in Poltava, Russian Empire,now Ukraine as Vera Levchenko, she went to live in Moscow with her widowed grandmother at the age of two. As a girl she dreamed of a career in classical ballet and even enrolled at the Bolshoi Theatre ballet school. Career Rise In 1908, Vera attended a performance of Francesca da Rimini, with Vera Komissarzhevskaya in the title role. She was deeply impressed with Komissarzhevskaya's artistry and decided to venture in film acting. She approached Vladimir Gardin, a leading Russian film director, who cast her in a minor role in his grand production of Anna Karenina. In 1910, she married Vladimir Kholodny, said to be one of the first Russian car racers and the editor of a daily sport newspaper. Vera would often accompany him in races which resulted in road accidents. She also adopted his surname, which translates to "the cold one". Later, many took it for a well-chosen pseudonym. Their daughter Evgeniya was born in 1912, and they adopted another child a year later. World War I and the Russian Revolution After her husband was drafted to fight in World War I, Kholodnaya signed with a rival Khanzhonkov studio. She starred in The Song of the Triumphant Love (after Turgenev), which proved to become a major box-office hit. At first she imitated the acting of Asta Nielsen but gradually developed her own style. Vera's extravagant costumes and large gray eyes made her an enigmatic screen presence which fascinated audiences across Imperial Russia. Tremendous success was Pyotr Chardynin’s tragic melodrama The Mirages (1916), followed by the ‘fancy drama’ Beauty Must Reign in the World by Bauer, melodrama Fiery Devil, and another melodrama A Life for a Life, which turned one of the most popular films in Vera Kholodnaya’s career and brought her the title ‘the Queen of Screen’. The author of this title was Alexander Vertinsky who venerated the actress and frequented her house. In 1916 Khanzhonkov’s company started making the film Pierrot with Vertinsky and Kholodnaya playing the leads. Unfortunately, the film was not completed. By the time of the Russian Revolution, a new Kholodnaya film was released every third week. At the Fire Side was her massive commercial success: the movie was run in cinemas until 1924, when the Soviet authorities ordered many of the Kholodnaya features destroyed. Her last box-office champion was titled [[Molchi, grust... molchi]: like many of her films, it was based on a Russian traditional love song. During the Russian Civil War, the Bolshevik authorities requested film companies to produce less melodrama and more adaptations of classics. Accordingly, Kholodnaya was cast in a screen version of Tolstoy's The Living Corpse. Her acting abilities in this film were applauded by Stanislavsky, who welcomed Vera to join the troupe of the Moscow Art Theatre. By that time, the actress had determined to move with her film company to Odessa, where she died at the age of 25 in the 1918 flu pandemic. On learning about her death, Alexander Vertinsky, wrote one of his most poignant songs, "Your fingers smell of church incense, and your lashes sleep in grief..." A director with whom she had worked for several years filmed her large funeral. Ironically, this seems to be her best known film today. The other five extant films with Vera Kholodnaya are: Children of the Age (1915), The Mirages (1915), A Life for a Life (1916), A Corpse Living (1918), and Molchi, grust... molchi (1918). Circumstances of her death Official Russian records state that Vera Kholodnaya died of the Spanish flu during the pandemic of 1919. While that seems quite likely, there is much speculation around her death. Оther stories claim she was poisoned by the French ambassador with whom she reportedly had an affair and who believed that she was a spy for the Bolsheviks. Legacy Her life was dramatized in Nikita Mikhalkov's movie Slave to Love (1975). A documentary on her life was filmed in 1992. A year later, her image was depicted on a postage stamp and in 2003 a life-size bronze statue of her was erected in Odessa, Ukraine; created by the artist Alexander P. Tokarev.

Merna Kennedy (September 7, 1908 - December 20, 1944) was an American actress of the late silent era. Short career Kennedy (born as Maude Kahler) was best-known during her brief career for her role opposite Charlie Chaplin in the silent film The Circus (1928). Kennedy was brought to the attention of Chaplin by her friend Lita Grey, who became Chaplin's second wife in 1924. A dancer, she had muscular legs which helped her gain the role of the circus bareback rider. Kennedy continued acting after The Circus, starring in early sound films, but retired in 1934, when she married choreographer/director Busby Berkeley. Their marriage broke up a year later, and Kennedy died of a heart attack in 1944, aged 36. Filmography Silent Films 1928 The Circus 1929 Broadway 1929 Barnum Was Right 1929 Skinner Steps Out [edit]Talkies 1930 The Rampant Age 1930 Embarrassing Moments 1930 The King of Jazz 1930 Worldly Goods 1930 Midnight Special 1931 Stepping Out 1932 The Gay Buckaroo 1932 Lady with a Past 1932 Ghost Valley 1932 Come On, Tarzan 1932 The All-American 1932 The Red-Haired Alibi 1932 I Like It That Way 1933 Laughter in Hell 1933 Emergency Call 1933 Easy Millions 1933 Don't Bet on Love 1933 I Love That Man (scenes deleted) 1933 Arizona to Broadway 1933 Police Call 1933 The Big Chance 1933 Son of a Sailor 1934 Wonder Bar 1934 Jimmy the Gent

Joanne Whalley (born 25 August 1964) is an English actress. Early life Whalley was born in Salford but brought up in Stockport where she studied at the Braeside School of Speech and Drama, Marple. Whalley first appeared as a child in How We Used To Live and bit parts in soap operas, especially Coronation Street and Emmerdale. Her early film roles include a non-speaking part as a groupie in Pink Floyd's The Wall; and as a young Beatles fan in Birth of the Beatles. Music In the post punk era, she flirted with the fringes of the Manchester New Wave scene and was briefly a member of a Stockport-based band called The Slowguns but left before the release of their two singles. Later, in 1982, at Abbey Road Studios as the lead singer of the pop group Cindy & The Saffrons, they recorded the Shangri-Las song "Past, Present and Future" and the next year, "Terry" by Twinkle. The group split up soon thereafter. Career In 1982 she played Ingrid Rothwell in A Kind of Loving, a well received Granada TV adaptation of Stan Barstow's three Vic Brown novels. Whalley acted in the film No Surrender (Dumbarton Films with Film Four) scripted by Alan Bleasdale, released in 1985, but the film was not successful. Whalley came to prominence on British television as Emma Craven in Troy Kennedy Martin's Edge of Darkness (1985), quickly followed by Nurse Mills in the Dennis Potter-written serial The Singing Detective (1986) both for BBC Television. In 1987 she played Jackie in the TV movie Will You Love Me Tomorrow, she also played a role in The Good Father (1985), another Channel 4 backed film. Whalley met the American actor Val Kilmer while filming the fantasy adventure Willow, and after marriage in 1988 moved to Los Angeles, where she used the professional name Joanne Whalley-Kilmer. She continued filming, making more films in Hollywood than the UK, including the mystery noir Shattered and, in 1989, the role of Christine Keeler in Scandal alongside stars John Hurt and Sir Ian McKellen. In 1994 she became the second actress to play Gone with the Wind heroine Scarlett O'Hara when she appeared in a made-for-TV adaptation of the sequel novel, Scarlett. She also starred in the 1997 film The Man Who Knew Too Little. After divorce, Whalley returned to acting through making television films, including the 2000 television film Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis in which she played the title character. After divorce from Kilmer, she collaborated with the pop-punk band Blink-182 to read a letter at the beginning of the song "Stockholm Syndrome". In 2005, she appeared as Mary I of England in The Virgin Queen, a BBC serial about the life of Queen Elizabeth I which also starred Anne-Marie Duff and Tara FitzGerald. The same year she also filmed Played which also starred her ex-husband Val Kilmer but the two didn't share any scenes. In 2006, she appeared in Life Line, a two-part drama on BBC1, starring opposite Ray Stevenson. In 2008, she appeared in the ITV mini series Flood with Robert Carlyle amongst others. In February 2008, she appeared on stage in Billy Roche's Poor Beast in the Rain presented by the Salem K. Theatre Company at The Matrix Theatre, Los Angeles, California. Whalley plays one of the female leads, Vannozza dei Cattanei, mistress of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, future Pope Alexander VI, in the Showtime historical drama The Borgias. She guest-starred as Princess Sophie in season 4 of Gossip Girl. Personal life Whalley met the American actor Val Kilmer while filming the fantasy adventure Willow. The couple married in 1988, and she used the name Joanne Whalley-Kilmer professionally for several years. Whalley took a break from filming to raise her two children with Kilmer: daughter Mercedes (born October 29, 1991, in Santa Fe, New Mexico), and son Jack (born in June 1995). Shortly after the birth of their son, the pair separated. Whalley filed for divorce on July 21, 1995, citing irreconcilable differences. This was the day after he left to start filming The Island of Dr. Moreau, with him claiming to have found out from a CNN broadcast. Whalley has since taken Kilmer to court twice for non-payment of maintenance. Filmography Pink Floyd The Wall (1982) Dance with a Stranger (1985) No Surrender (1985) The Good Father (1985) Willow (1988) To Kill a Priest (1988) Scandal (1989) Kill Me Again (1989) Navy Seals (1990) The Big Man (1990) Shattered (1991) Storyville (1991) The Secret Rapture (1993) Scarlett (1994) Mother's Boys (1994) A Good Man in Africa (1994) Trial by Jury (1994) The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997) A Texas Funeral (1999) The Guilty (2000) Breathtaking (2000) Before You Go (2002) Virginia's Run (2002) The Californians (2005) Played (2006) The Virgin Queen (2006) Flood (2007) 44 Inch Chest (2009) Diverted (2009) Golf in the Kingdom (2010) Gossip Girl (2011) The Borgias (2011) Twixt (2011)

Helen Kane (August 4, 1904) – September 26, 1966) was an American popular singer; her signature song was "I Wanna Be Loved By You". Kane's voice and appearance were a likely source for Fleischer Studios animator Grim Natwick when creating Betty Boop, although It-girl Clara Bow is another possible influence. Early life Born as Helen Clare Schroeder, Kane attended St. Anselm’s Parochial School in the Bronx. She was the youngest of three children. Her father, Louis Schroeder, the son of a German immigrant, was employed intermittently; her Irish immigrant mother, Ellen (Dixon) Schroeder, worked in a laundry. Kane's mother reluctantly paid $3 for her daughter's costume as a queen in Kane's first theatrical role at school. By the time she was 15 years, Kane was onstage professionally, touring the Orpheum Circuit with the Marx Brothers in On the Balcony. She spent the early 1920s trouping in vaudeville as a singer and kickline dancer with a theater engagement called the 'All Jazz Revue.' She played the New York Palace for the first time in 1921. Her Broadway days started there as well with the Stars of the Future (1922–24, and a brief revival in early 1927). She also sang onstage with an early singing trio, the Hamilton Sisters and Fordyce, later known as The Three X Sisters. Kane's roommate in the early 1920s was Jessie Fordyce. The singing trio act might have become the Hamilton Sisters and Schroeder, however Pearl Hamilton chose Fordyce to tour as a trio act "just to see what happens" at the end of the theatrical season. Music Kane's career break came in 1927, when she appeared in a musical called A Night in Spain. It ran from May 3, 1927 through Nov 12, 1927 for a total of 174 performances, at the 44th Street Theatre in NYC. Subsequently, Paul Ash, a band conductor, put her name forward for a performance at New York's Paramount Theater. Kane's first performance at the Paramount Theater in Times Square proved to be her career's launching point. She was singing "That's My Weakness Now", when she interpolated the scat lyrics “boop-boop-a-doop.” This resonated with the flapper culture, and four days later, Helen Kane’s name went up in lights. Oscar Hammerstein’s 1928 show Good Boy, was where she first introduced the hit "I Wanna Be Loved by You" . Then it was back to the Palace, as a headliner for $5,000 a week. She rejoined her friends from vaudeville, The Three X Sisters (formerly The Hamilton Sisters and Fordyce) for one night. In a 1935 live stage performance, she harmonized with their unique banter to a novelty tune, "The Preacher and the Bear". Kane had excellent diction, intonation and timing, learned during her apprenticeship in vaudeville. Her songs have a strong word focus, and capitalize on her coquettish voice. She blended several fashionable styles of the late 1920s. These included scat singing, a kind of vocal improvisation, and also blending singing and speech. Sprechgesang ("speech-song") was fashionable at this time in Germany's Weimar Republic in both nightclubs and in serious music. Kane recorded 22 songs between 1928 and 1930. After 1930 and up to 1951, she recorded four sides for Columbia in addition to the "Three Little Words" soundtrack single recording of "I Wanna Be Loved by You" She also recorded four songs that comprise a 1954 MGM 45Ep entitled, "The Boop Boop a Doop Girl". Cult following As she took on the status of a singing sensation, there were Helen Kane dolls and Helen Kane look-alike contests, appearances on radio and in nightclubs. This cult following reached its peak in late 1928 and stayed there until early 1929. Kane's height (only 5 feet tall) and slightly plump figure attracted attention and fans. Her round face with big brown eyes was topped by black, curly hair; her voice was a baby squeak with a distinct Bronx dialect. Films In mid-1929, Paramount Pictures signed Kane to make a series of musicals at a salary as much as $8,000 a week (equivalent to over $160,000 in 2009). Her films were: 1929: Nothing But the Truth a comedy starring Richard Dix 1929: Sweetie a college musical, which starred Nancy Carroll, Jack Oakie and Stanley Smith 1929: Pointed Heels, which starred William Powell and Fay Wray 1930: Paramount on Parade, an all-star extravaganza 1930: Dangerous Nan McGrew, with Stuart Erwin, Frank Morgan, and Victor Moore 1930: Heads Up! , starring Buddy Rogers and Victor Moore 1931: A Lesson in Love, a musical short film It should be noted that although Helen was not the "star" of most of her pictures (with Dangerous Nan McGrew being the one exception) she was so popular that in the case of "Sweetie," her name appeared over the title on the marquee when the movie premiered at the New York Paramount (although Nancy Carroll was the true star). Helen provided all the fun and she and Jack Oakie taught the college kids, "The Prep Step," a big hit along with "He's So Unusual." Another hit from this picture was Nancy Carroll's, "My Sweeter Than Sweet." In the opening credits of Pointed Heels, Helen's name is equal with William Powell on the same line in large letters just below the title with Fay Wray and the rest in smaller letters underneath. She had equal billing with Buddy Rogers in Heads Up! and it is their faces which appeared in all the ads. And in Dangerous Nan McGrew, Helen received top billing in the film's credits. Fleischer v. Kane In 1930, Fleischer Studios animator Grim Natwick introduced a caricature of Helen Kane, with droopy dog ears and a squeaky singing voice, in the Talkartoons cartoon Dizzy Dishes. "Betty Boop", as the character was later dubbed, soon became popular and the star of her own cartoons. In 1932, Betty Boop was changed into a human, the long dog ears becoming hoop earrings. In May 1932, Kane filed a $250,000 suit against Paramount and Max Fleischer, charging unfair competition and wrongful appropriation in the Betty Boop cartoons. The trial opened that year with Helen Kane and Betty Boop films being viewed only by the judge. No jury was called., Bonnie Poe, Kate Wright, Margie Hines, and most notably Mae Questel were all summoned to testify. The case dragged on for more than two years before the judge ruled against Kane, claiming her testimony did not prove that her singing style was unique and not an imitation itself; a little-known African American singer known as "Baby Esther" had been cited by the defense as "booping" in song. Later years With the hardships of the Great Depression biting, the flamboyant world of the flapper was over, and Kane's style began to date rapidly. After 1931 she lost the favour of the movie makers, who chose other singers for their films. She appeared in a stage production called Shady Lady in 1933, and made appearances at various nightclubs and theatres during the 1930s. In 1950, she dubbed Debbie Reynolds, who performed "I Wanna Be Loved By You" in the MGM musical biopic of songwriters Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby: Three Little Words. She did not appear in the film's credits. She appeared on several TV shows in the 1950s and 1960s, principally Toast of the Town, later known as The Ed Sullivan Show. Kane's final public appearance was on the Sullivan Show on St. Patrick's Day 1965. In addition, she was given overdue tribute in the early 1950s on This is Your Life with Ralph Edwards. It brought a tearful reunion with Helen's old friend, actress Fifi D'Orsay, and a lifelong fan who once sent her money when she was down on her luck. Renewed interest in Helen brought her a one-record contract with MGM Records and appearances on I've Got a Secret and You Asked for It. She sang on all of these TV shows. Personal life In November 1924, Helen Schroeder married department store buyer Joseph Kane and took his last name professionally. The marriage was over by 1925, ended in 1928, and Helen went to Mexico to get a final divorce in December 1932. In February 1933 she married an actor, Max Hoffman, Jr. After six months he deserted her and Helen filed for divorce. The divorce was finalized in May 1935. In 1939 she married Dan Healy, whom she had worked with in Good Boy in 1928. They opened a restaurant in New York City, "Healy's Grill." She remained married to Healy for the rest of her life. However, the marriage was childless. Helen Kane battled breast cancer for more than a decade. She had surgery in 1956 and eventually received two hundred radiation treatments as an outpatient at Memorial Hospital. She died on September 26, 1966 at age 62, in her apartment in Jackson Heights, Queens (New York City). Her husband of 27 years was at her bedside. Her remains were buried in the Long Island National Cemetery. Discography Single Release Date Remarks 1 "Get Out and Get Under the Moon" July 16, 1928 2 "That's My Weakness Now" July 16, 1928 3 "I Wanna Be Loved by You" September 20, 1928 from the musical Good Boy 4 "Is There Anything Wrong in That?" September 20, 1928 5 "Don't Be Like That" December 20, 1928 6 "Me and the Man in the Moon" December 20, 1928 7 "Button Up Your Overcoat" January 30, 1929 from the musical Follow Thru 8 "I Want to Be Bad" January 30, 1929 from the musical Follow Thru 9 Do Something (1929) March 15, 1929 from the movie Nothing But the Truth 10 "That's Why I'm Happy" March 15, 1929 11 "I'd Do Anything for You" June 14, 1929 12 "He's So Unusual" June 14, 1929 from the movie Sweetie[8] 13 "Ain'tcha?" October 29, 1929 from the movie Pointed Heels 14 "I Have to Have You" October 29, 1929 from the movie Pointed Heels 15 "I'd Go Barefoot All Winter Long" March 18, 1930 16 "Dangerous Nan McGrew" April 12, 1930 from the movie Dangerous Nan McGrew 17 "Thank Your Father" April 12, 1930 from the musical Flying High 18 "I Owe You" April 12, 1930 from the movie Dangerous Nan McGrew 19 "Readin' Ritin' Rhythm" July 1, 1930 from the movie Heads Up! 20 "I've Got It (But It Don't Do Me No Good)" July 1, 1930 from the movie Young Man of Manhattan 21 "My Man Is on the Make" July 2, 1930 from the movie Heads Up! 22 "If I Knew You Better" July 2, 1930 from the movie Heads Up! 23 "I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat" between 1950–51 with Jimmy Carroll & His Orchestra 24 "Beanbag Song" between 1931–51 with Jimmy Carroll & His Orchestra 25 "Hug Me! Kiss Me! Love Me!" between 1931–51 with George Siravo & His Orchestra 26 "Aba Daba Honeymoon" between 1931–51 with George Siravo & His Orchestra 27 "I Wanna Be Loved by You" c. 1950 from the movie Three Little Words The release dates of recordings 1 to 22 are derived from the cover notes of the CD Helen Kane - Great Original Performances - 1928 to 1930 (RPCD 323) In 1954, MGM records issued the last Helen Kane recordings as a 45-rpm Ep X1164 called "The Boop-Boop-A-Doop Girl!", orchestra directed by Leroy Holmes, and the songs are "When My Sugar Walks Down the Street", "When I Get You Alone Tonight, Do Something" (from Nothing But the Truth) and "That's My Weakness Now".

6 6 5 1 10 9 6 for overall

Lips: 2 Smile: 2 Hair: 2 Eyes: 4 Nose: 2 Body: 1

NA 5