Madeline Kahn

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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

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