Madeline Kahn
{{Short description|American actress (1942–1999)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Madeline Kahn
| image = File:Madeline Kahn publicity.jpg
| caption = Kahn in 1983
| birth_name = Madeline Gail Wolfson
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1942|9|29}}
| birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1999|12|3|1942|9|29}}
| death_place = New York City, U.S.
| occupation = {{hlist|Actress|comedian|singer}}
| years_active = 1964–1999
| education = Hofstra University
| spouse = {{marriage|John Hansbury|1999}}
}}
Madeline Gail Kahn (née Wolfson; September 29, 1942 – December 3, 1999) was an American actress, comedian, and singer. She was known for her comedic roles in films directed by Peter Bogdanovich and Mel Brooks, including What's Up, Doc? (1972), Young Frankenstein (1974), High Anxiety (1977), History of the World, Part I (1981), and her Academy Award–nominated roles in Paper Moon (1973) and Blazing Saddles (1974).
Kahn made her Broadway debut in Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1968, and received Tony Award nominations for the play In the Boom Boom Room in 1974 and for the original production of the musical On the Twentieth Century in 1978. She starred as Madeline Wayne on the short-lived sitcom Oh Madeline (1983–84) and won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1987 for an ABC Afterschool Special. She received a third Tony Award nomination for the revival of the play Born Yesterday in 1989, before winning the 1993 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the comedy The Sisters Rosensweig. Her other film appearances included The Cheap Detective (1978), Yellowbeard (1983), City Heat (1984), Clue (1985), and Nixon (1995).
Early life and education
File:Madeline Kahn Hofstra University Yearbook Photo.jpg
Kahn was born in Boston, the daughter of Bernard B. Wolfson, a garment manufacturer, and his wife Freda (née Goldberg).{{cite web|url=http://jwa.org/discover/infocus/comedy/kahn.html|title=Madeline Kahn|publisher=Jwa.org|access-date=2015-07-12|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130325225634/http://jwa.org/discover/infocus/comedy/kahn.html|archive-date=March 25, 2013|df=mdy-all}}{{cite web|url=http://billmadison.blogspot.com/2012/06/progress-report-14-when-hiller-met.html|title=Billevesées: Progress Report 14: When Hiller Met Paula|author=William V. Madison|date=June 13, 2012|access-date=April 26, 2013}} She was raised in a nonobservant Jewish family.{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE7D9153DF93BA35757C0A965958260|work=The New York Times|title=AT HOME WITH: Madeline Kahn; Funny? Yes, but Someone's Got to Be|first=Michael|last=Specter|date=April 8, 1993|access-date=May 12, 2010}} Her parents divorced when Kahn was two, and she moved with her mother to New York City. In 1953, Freda married Hiller Kahn, who later adopted Madeline; Freda eventually changed her own name to Paula Kahn. Madeline Kahn had two half-siblings: Jeffrey (from her mother's marriage to Kahn) and Robyn (from her father's second marriage).[https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/madeline-kahn-163400/bio/ Biography] tvguide.com, accessed February 16, 2015.
In 1948, Kahn was sent to the progressive Manumit School, a boarding school in Bristol, Pennsylvania. 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{{cite web|title=1960 Martin Van Buren Yearbook|url=http://www.classmates.com/yearbooks/Martin-Van-Buren-High-School/210?page=60|website=classmates.com|access-date=August 19, 2014}} in Queens, New York, and then earned a drama scholarship to Hofstra University on Long Island. At Hofstra, she studied drama, music, and speech therapy. 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. {{Citation needed|date=February 2013}} She later studied singing in New York City with Beverley Peck Johnson.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/22/arts/beverley-peck-johnson-96-voice-teacher.html|title=Beverley Peck Johnson, 96, Voice Teacher|work=The New York Times|date=January 22, 2001|author=Anthony Tommasini|author-link=Anthony Tommasini}}
Career
When asked on television by Kitty Carlisle and Charles Nelson Reilly how she began the opera aspect of her career, Kahn said:
It's so hard to determine exactly when I began or why, singing. The Muse was definitely not in attendance. I'll tell you exactly.{{cite web |title=Madeleine Kahn |url=http://placenote.info/en/Madeline-Kahn |website=Placenote |access-date=August 25, 2020}}
To earn money while a college student, Kahn was a singing waitress at a Bavarian restaurant named Bavarian Manor, a Hofbrau in New York's Hudson Valley. She also sang musical comedy numbers during shows.{{YouTube|qXueUMzXM1E|Madeline Kahn on her opera career}} (video clip).
There was a really important customer there, a big Italian man, who shouted out to me 'Sing Madame Butterfly', and of course he didn't mean the whole opera. He meant that one very popular aria, "Un Bel Di". So, if I was to come back the next summer to earn more money during the next year, I'd better know that aria. You know, and I didn't know anything about it; I just learned that one aria and a few others and then one thing led to another and I studied that, and I discovered that I could sing that, sort of, that way. But my first actual thing that I did was Candide for Leonard Bernstein's 50th birthday at Philharmonic HallOnline programme Candide November 10, 1968 [http://www.sondheimguide.com/Candide/68nyc.html] retrieved 2013-10-17.—at the time that's what it was called.audio clip Philharmonic Hall performance, Nov 1968 {{YouTube|FDtwp3cB2yU}} retrieved 2013-10-17. And I don't know if that was an opera, but it was very hard to sing. I actually have done Musetta in La Bohème a long time ago in Washington, DC. I mean, utterly terrifying. I mean, basically I feel as though I was asked to do it and I did it.
=1960s=
Kahn began auditioning for professional acting roles shortly after her graduation from Hofstra; on the side, she briefly taught public school. Just before adopting the professional name Madeline Kahn (Kahn was her stepfather's surname), she made her stage debut as a chorus girl in a revival of Kiss Me, Kate,[https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/97804%7C0/madeline-kahn#life-events "Kahn Milestones"] tcm.com, accessed February 13, 2015. which led her to join Actors' Equity. Her part in the musical How Now, Dow Jones was written out before the 1967 show reached Broadway.Mandelbaum, Ken. [https://books.google.com/books?id=7oyEL8MBAcgC&dq=%22How+Now%2C+Dow+Jones%22+%22Madeline+Kahn%22&pg=PA201 Not Since Carrie] August 15, 1992, Macmillan,{{ISBN|1466843276}}, p. 201.
In 1968, Kahn performed her first professional lead in a special concert performance of the operetta Candide in honor of Leonard Bernstein's 50th birthday.[http://www.masterworksbroadway.com/artist/madeline-kahn "Kahn Biography"] masterworksbroadway.com, accessed February 13, 2015. She made her Broadway debut in 1968 with Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1968[http://www.playbillvault.com/Show/Detail/1711/Leonard-Sillmans-New-Faces-of-1968 New Faces Production] playbillvault.com, accessed February 13, 2015. and also appeared off-Broadway in the musical Promenade.[http://www.lortel.org/lla_archive/index.cfm?search_by=show&id=2592 Promenade Production] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150213191822/http://www.lortel.org/lla_archive/index.cfm?search_by=show&id=2592 |date=February 13, 2015 }} lortel.org, accessed February 13, 2015.
=1970s and 1980s=
Kahn appeared in two Broadway musicals in the 1970s: a featured role in Richard Rodgers' 1970 Noah's Ark–themed show Two by Two (singing a high C) and a lead turn as Lily Garland in 1978's On the Twentieth Century. She left (or, reportedly, was fired from) the latter show early in its run, yielding the role to understudy Judy Kaye.The New York Times, April 25, 1978, p. 46.Corry, John. "Broadway; Terrence McNally has a comedy about stage due in fall", The New York Times, May 5, 1978, p. C2. She starred in a 1977 Town Hall semi-staged concert version of She Loves Me (opposite Barry Bostwick and original London cast member Rita Moreno).Madison, William V. [https://books.google.com/books?id=CvAaBwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Town+Hall%22+Bostwick+%22She+Loves+Me%22&pg=PT166 She Loves Me] Madeline Kahn: Being the Music, A Life, (books.google.com), Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2015, {{ISBN|1617037621}}
Kahn's film debut was in the 1968 short De Düva (The Dove). Her feature debut was as Ryan O'Neal's character's hysterical fiancée in Peter Bogdanovich's screwball comedy What's Up, Doc? (1972) starring Barbra Streisand.[https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/23033/whats-up-doc " What's Up, Doc? Production"] tcm.com, accessed February 14, 2015. Her film career continued with Bogdanovich's 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. (Several of Ball's biographies say 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. Kahn stated in a 1996 interview with Charlie Rose that she was fired.{{cite web|url=http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/5799|title=An interview with Madeline Kahn|publisher=Charlie Rose|access-date=2012-05-04|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120524023345/http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/5799|archive-date=May 24, 2012|df=mdy-all}}) Ball's version was that Kahn had already been offered Blazing Saddles and thus deliberately got herself fired by acting badly in the first few days of shooting for Mame.https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-madeline-kahn-1130594.html. Retrieved 4 December 2024.
A close succession of comedies—Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), and High Anxiety (1977)—were all directed by Mel Brooks, who was able to bring out the best of Kahn's comic talents.[https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/97804%7C0/Madeline-Kahn/ "Kahn Biography"] tcm.com, accessed February 13, 2015. 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, her performance in Blazing Saddles as Lili von Shtupp was selected as number 74 on its list of the 100 greatest performances of all time.{{cite web|title=The 100 Greatest Performances of All Time|url=http://www.filmsite.org/100greatperformances.html|date=2006-03-27|work=Premiere Magazine}}
In 1975, Kahn again teamed with Bogdanovich to co-star with Burt Reynolds and Cybill Shepherd in the musical At Long Last Love. The film was a critical and financial disaster, but Kahn largely escaped blame for the failure. At Long Last Love was one of three films in which Kahn worked alongside the character actress Eileen Brennan, the other two being The Cheap Detective and Clue. In that same year, she again teamed with Gene Wilder, this time for his comedy The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother. In 1978, Kahn's comic screen persona reached another peak with her portrayal of Mrs. Montenegro in Neil Simon's The Cheap Detective (1978), a spoof of both Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon, directed by Robert Moore. That role was followed by a cameo in 1979's The Muppet Movie.{{cite web|title=The Muppet Movie (1979)|url=http://www.henson.com/muppets_content.php?content=muppetmovie|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924025754/http://www.henson.com/muppets_content.php?content=muppetmovie|archive-date=September 24, 2015|access-date=2015-07-12|publisher=Henson.com|df=mdy-all}}
Kahn's roles were primarily comedic rather than dramatic, although the 1970s found her originating roles in two plays that had elements of both: 1973's In the Boom Boom Room on Broadway[http://www.playbillvault.com/Show/Detail/11278/Boom-Boom-Room In the Boom Boom Room Production] playbillvault.com, accessed February 13, 2015. and 1977's Marco Polo Sings a Solo off-Broadway.[http://www.lortel.org/lla_archive/index.cfm?search_by=show&id=2969 Marco Polo Sings a Solo Production] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150213191819/http://www.lortel.org/lla_archive/index.cfm?search_by=show&id=2969 |date=February 13, 2015 }} lortel.org, accessed February 13, 2015.
After her success in Brooks' films, Kahn appeared in a number of films in the 1980s. She played Mrs. White in 1985's Clue,{{cite news|last=Maslin|first=Janet|title='Clue,' from Game to Film|newspaper=The New York Times|date=13 December 1985|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/13/movies/screen-clue-from-game-to-film.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250404030927/https://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/13/movies/screen-clue-from-game-to-film.html|archive-date=4 April 2025}} First Lady Constance Link in the 1980 spoof First Family, a twin from outer space in the Jerry Lewis sci-fi comedy Slapstick of Another Kind (1982), the love interest of Burt Reynolds in the crime comedy City Heat (1984), and Draggle in the animated film My Little Pony: The Movie (1986). She voiced the character Gussie Mausheimer in the animated film An American Tail. According to animator Don Bluth, she was cast because he was "hoping she would use a voice similar to the one she used as a character in Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles."{{cite web|url=http://www.cataroo.com/DBtail.html |title=Don Bluth American Tail |publisher=Cataroo.com |access-date=2015-07-12}}
In 1983, Kahn starred in her own short-lived TV sitcom, Oh Madeline, which ended after one season due to poor ratings. In 1986, she starred in ABC Comedy Factory's pilot of Chameleon, which never aired on the fall schedule.Terrace, Vincent. [https://books.google.com/books?id=YX_daEhlnbsC&dq=Chameleon+ABC+%22Madeline+Kahn%22&pg=PA175 Chamelon] Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010, 2d ed., McFarland, 2008, {{ISBN|0786486414}}, p. 175. In 1987, Kahn won a Daytime Emmy award for her performance in the ABC Afterschool Special Wanted: The Perfect Guy.
Kahn returned to the stage as Billie Dawn in the 1989 Broadway revival of Born Yesterday, for which she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.[http://www.playbillvault.com/Show/Detail/3086/Born-Yesterday Born Yesterday Production] playbillvault.com, accessed February 13, 2015.
=1990s=
Kahn played the mother of Molly Ringwald's character in the 1990 film Betsy's Wedding,[https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/20838/betsys-wedding "Betsy's Wedding Cast and Crew"] tcm.com, accessed March 28, 2015. and shortly after she recorded a voice for the animated movie The Magic 7, which, as of 2024, has still not been released.[https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/534676/the-magic-7 " The Magic 7 Cast and Crew"] tcm.com, accessed March 28, 2015. In 1994, she portrayed suicide hotline worker Blanche Munchnik in the holiday farce Mixed Nuts. Kahn played the corrupt mayor in a benefit concert performance of Anyone Can Whistle in 1995.[http://www.sondheimguide.com/concerts2.html#ACW " "Anyone Can Whistle' Concert, 1995"] sondheimguide.com, accessed February 13, 2015. She appeared in Nixon as Martha Beall Mitchell (1995).[https://web.archive.org/web/20140903144939/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/135504/Nixon/cast Nixon Cast] nytimes.com, accessed February 13, 2015.
On stage, Kahn played Dr. Gorgeous in Wendy Wasserstein's 1993 Broadway play The Sisters Rosensweig, a role for which she earned a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.[http://www.playbillvault.com/Person/Detail/64949/Madeline-Kahn "Madeline Kahn, Credits and Awards"] playbillvault.com, accessed February 13, 2015. She was a member of the cast of Cosby (1996–1999) as Pauline, the eccentric friend and neighbor.
Kahn participated in a workshop reading of Dear World at the Roundabout Theatre Company in June 1998, reading the part of Gabrielle.[http://archive.roundabouttheatre.org/index.php/Detail/Occurrence/Show/occurrence_id/305 " Dear World Reading"] roundabouttheatre.org, accessed February 14, 2015. She also voiced Gypsy the moth in A Bug's Life (1998).[https://web.archive.org/web/20140304080805/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/174122/A-Bug-s-Life/cast A Bug's Life Cast] nytimes.com, accessed February 13, 2015.
Kahn received good reviews for her Chekhovian turn in the 1999 independent movie Judy Berlin, her final film.Holden, Stephen. [https://web.archive.org/web/20140123182916/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/176015/Judy-Berlin/overview Judy Berlin Overview] nytimes.com, accessed February 13, 2015. Before her death, she also voiced Mrs. Shapiro on the first two episodes of Little Bill, the second of which ("Just a Baby" / "The Campout") was dedicated to her memory. Kathy Najimy succeeded her in the role following Kahn's death.
Illness and death
Kahn was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in September 1998. She underwent treatment, continued to work on Cosby, and married John Hansbury in October 1999.Variety, p. 7, December 6, 1999. However, the disease spread rapidly, and she died on December 3, 1999, at age 57.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/04/arts/madeline-kahn-comedian-of-film-fame-dies-at-57.html|work=The New York Times|title=Madeline Kahn, Comedian Of Film Fame, Dies at 57|date=December 4, 1999|access-date=May 14, 2010|first=William H.|last=Honan |author-link=William H. Honan}}
She was cremated on December 6, at Garden State Crematory in North Bergen, New Jersey.{{cite book|author=Scott Wilson|title=Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FOHgDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA390|date=August 19, 2016|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-1-4766-2599-7|page=390}} A bench dedicated to her memory was erected in Central Park by her husband John and her brother Jeffrey. The bench is located near the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir on West 87th Street.
Filmography
=Film=
| class="wikitable sortable" | |||
| Year ||Title ||Roles ||Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1968 | The Dove | Sigrid | Short subject |
| 1972 | What's Up, Doc? | Eunice Burns | |
| rowspan="2" | 1973 | Paper Moon | Trixie Delight | |
| From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler | Schoolteacher | ||
| rowspan="2" | 1974 | Blazing Saddles | Lili Von Shtupp | |
| Young Frankenstein | Elizabeth Benning | ||
| rowspan="2" | 1975 | At Long Last Love | Kitty O'Kelly | |
| The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother | Jenny Hill | ||
| 1976 | Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood | Estie Del Ruth | |
| 1977 | High Anxiety | Victoria Brisbane | |
| 1978 | The Cheap Detective | Mrs. Montenegro | |
| 1979 | The Muppet Movie | El Sleezo Patron | |
| rowspan="4" | 1980 | Simon | Dr. Cynthia Mallory | |
| Happy Birthday, Gemini | Bunny Weinberger | ||
| Wholly Moses! | The Witch | ||
| First Family | Mrs. Constance Link | ||
| 1981 | History of the World, Part I | Empress Nympho | |
| 1982 | Slapstick of Another Kind | Eliza Swain / Lutetia Swain | |
| rowspan="2" | 1983 | Yellowbeard | Betty | |
| Scrambled Feet | Madeline | ||
| 1984 | City Heat | Caroline Howley | |
| 1985 | Clue | Mrs. White | |
| rowspan="2" | 1986 | My Little Pony: The Movie | Draggle | rowspan="2" |Voice |
| An American Tail | Gussie Mausheimer | ||
| 1990 | Betsy's Wedding | Lola Hopper | |
| 1994 | Mixed Nuts | Mrs. Munchnik | |
| 1995 | Nixon | Martha Mitchell | |
| 1998 | A Bug's Life | Gypsy | Voice |
| 1999 | Judy Berlin | Alice Gold |
=Television=
Theater
Awards and nominations
- Year given is year of ceremony
| class="wikitable" |
| Year
!Award !Category !Work !Result !Ref |
|---|
| 1973
| rowspan="2" |Golden Globe Award | New Star Actress of the Year |{{nom}} |[http://www.hfpa.org/browse/?param=/member/29617 Kahn list] hfpa.org, accessed February 15, 2015. |
| rowspan=4|1974
|Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture |rowspan=2|Paper Moon |{{nom}} |
| Academy Award
|{{nom}} |
| Drama Desk Award
|Outstanding Performance |rowspan=2|In the Boom Boom Room |{{won}} | |
| Tony Award
|{{nom}} | |
| rowspan=2|1975
|Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture |{{nom}} |
| Academy Award
|{{nom}} |
| 1978
|{{nom}} | |
| rowspan=2|1984
|Best Actress - Television Musical or Comedy |rowspan=2|Oh Madeline |{{nom}} |
| People's Choice Award
| Favorite Female Performer in a New TV Series |{{won}} | |
| 1987
|Outstanding Performer in Children's Programming |ABC Afterschool Special: Wanted: The Perfect Guy |{{won}} | |
| 1989
|{{nom}} | |
| rowspan=2|1993
|Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play |rowspan=2|The Sisters Rosensweig |{{won}} | |
| Tony Award
|{{won}} | |
| colspan=6|Honorary awards |
| 2003
| |American Theatre Hall of Fame | {{n/a}} |{{won|Inductee}} |
References
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}
External links
{{Wikiquote}}
- {{IBDB name|47413}}
- {{IOBDB name|17308}}
- {{Playbill person|madeline-kahn-vault-0000064949}}
- {{IMDb name|1404}}
- {{TCMDb name|id=97804{{!}}0|name=Madeline Kahn}}
- [http://www.denofgeek.us/movies/madeline-kahn-retrospective/66690/madeline-kahn-a-retrospective Madeline Kahn, a retrospective]
{{Navboxes
|title = Awards for Madeline Kahn
|list =
{{DramaDesk PlayFeaturedActress}}
{{Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in Children's Programming}}
{{TonyAward PlayLeadActress}}
}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kahn, Madeline}}
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:20th-century American comedians
Category:20th-century American Jews
Category:20th-century American singers
Category:20th-century American women singers
Category:Actresses from Boston
Category:Actresses from New York City
Category:American film actresses
Category:Jews from Massachusetts
Category:Jews from New York (state)
Category:American musical theatre actresses
Category:American stage actresses
Category:American television actresses
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Category:American women comedians
Category:Comedians from Boston
Category:Comedians from New York City
Category:Daytime Emmy Award winners
Category:Deaths from ovarian cancer in New York (state)
Category:Drama Desk Award winners
Category:Hofstra University alumni
Category:Jewish American actresses
Category:Jewish American comedians
Category:Jewish women comedians