Madeline Kahn

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Madeline Kahn
Madeline Kahn in Young Frankenstein
Born September 29, 1942
Boston, Massachusetts
Died December 3, 1999
New York, New York

Madeline Kahn (September 29, 1942 – December 3, 1999) was an Academy Award-nominated Jewish American actress of movie, television, and theater distinguished by an unusual gift for comedy. Director Mel Brooks – who directed her in four films – said of her: "She is one of the most talented people that ever lived. I mean, either in stand-up comedy, or acting, or whatever you want, you can't beat Madeline Kahn".

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Kahn was born in Boston, Massachusetts as Madeline Gail Wolfson to Paula and Bernard Wolfson. Her mother was just 17 when Kahn was born. Although Kahn's parents were high school sweethearts, they divorced after her father's return from World War II (Kahn was only two years old at the time). After the divorce was finalized, Kahn and her mother moved to New York City. A few years later, her mother remarried and gave Kahn two half-siblings (Jeffrey and Robyn).

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 the Martin Van Buren High School in Queens, NY, where she earned a drama scholarship to Hofstra University. 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.

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 stepfather's last name), she made her stage debut as a chorus girl in a revival of Kiss Me, Kate, which led her to join the 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. But 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 revue 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 fiancé 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).

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 would be 1981's History of the World, Part I. For Blazing Saddles, she was again nominated for 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 number 31 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, a spoof of 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 opposite Gene Wilder.

In 1983, she starred in her own short-lived TV sitcom, Oh Madeline, which showcased her considerable comedic talents but ended after only six episodes due to poor ratings.

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 gained her a Tony Award. She played Angela Lansbury's role in a concert revival of Anyone Can Whistle that was released on CD, and also continued to appear in movies, including the holiday farce Mixed Nuts.

In the early 1990's, Kahn recorded a voice for the animated movie The Magic 7. Her most notable role at this time was her recurring role on the sitcom Cosby as Pauline, the eccentric neighbor. She also voiced Gypsy the moth in A Bug's Life. She also received some of the best reviews of her career for her Chekhovian turn in the 1999 independent movie Judy Berlin, her final film.

Kahn was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in early 1999. She underwent treatment and continued to work, even making an appearance on Cosby. However, the disease progressed rapidly, and on December 3, 1999, Kahn died at the age of 57.

She was survived by her husband, John Hansbury (her longtime partner whom she had married shortly before her death) as well as her mother, Paula Kahn; brother, Jeffrey Kahn; and niece, Eliza Kahn.

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