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Madeline Kahn
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Madeline Kahn was a deliciously funny, offbeat comedienne whose career encompassed theater, film and TV. A trained classical singer, whose speaking voice had a distinctive nasal quality, the performer created a solid niche as a madcap film presence finding something of an apotheosis in her work with director Mel Brooks.
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Madeline Kahn was one of the most talented comedic artists ever. She did more with subtle facial expressions than anyone else, and showed that classical operatic training doesn't necessarily kill the punch line.
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Gilda Radner, Bob Newhart, and Madeline Kahn star in this comedy. The farce sends up an idiotic First Family in the persona of a bumbling president (Newhart), his semi-alcoholic wife (Kahn), and his oversexed daughter (Radner). Satirizing the artificial, formal speech of real-life First Families in television interviews, director Buck Henry carries this mode of speech into their private lives as well. The trio travel to an African country where the First Daughter is kidnapped and white Americans are traded as slaves in exchange for some special animal dung that is able to accelerate plant growth. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
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Funnylady Madeline Kahn may have started her career on the cabaret circuit, but she soon made a splash with her feature debut as Ryan O’Neil’s fiancée in Peter Bogdanovich’s What’s Up, Doc? (1972). Maddy's next effort, Paper Moon (1973), scored her Oscar nomination number one; she earned her second for her role as sexy songbird Lily Von Schtupp in Mel Brooks’s Blazing Saddles … Join Mr. Skin to read her entire Biography
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Madeline Kahn was born on September 29, 1942, in Boston, Massachusetts. She began her acting career in high school and went on to university where she trained as an opera singer and starred in several campus productions, ultimately earning a doctorate in her chosen field. Her finest years came in Paper Moon (1973) with Ryan O'Neal, which was followed the next year by Mel Brooks's outrageous Blazing Saddles (1974) as Lili Von Shtupp, a cabaret singer. She was so delightful in both that Madeline was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in both movies. In 1998, Madeline lent her voice to Gypsy in the wildly popular animated film A Bug's Life (1998). Tragically, on December 3, 1999, Madeline died of ovarian cancer in New York, a disease from which she suffered for about a year while she was a cast member of "Cosby" (1996).
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Hofstra graduate Madeline Kahn was trained for an operatic career, but found her most gainful employment in musical comedy and revue work. While reducing audiences to tears of laughter as a member of New York's Upstairs at the Downstairs satirical troupe, Kahn made her first appearance in the short-subject Bergman lampoon The Dove (1968). She was "officially" discovered for films by director Peter Bogdanovich, who cast her as Ryan O'Neal's frowsy fiancee in What's Up Doc (1972). Kahn was nominated for Academy Awards for her portrayals of Southern doxy Trixie Delight in Bogdanovich's Paper Moon (1973) and Dietrich-like chanteuse Lilly Von Schtupp ("Oh, it's twue, it's twue, it's twue!") in Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles (1974). Kahn went on to co-star in Brooks' Young Frankenstein (1974) and High Anxiety (1975), and made a return trip to the Bogdanovich fold in the disastrous At Long Last Love (1976) Her manic comedy style could be appealing, but, to paraphrase the late film encyclopedist Leslie Haliwell, it became a quickly overplayed hand. On Broadway, Kahn co-starred with Danny Kaye in Two by Two and was starred in the musical version of Twentieth Century, a grueling experience that all but destroyed her singing voice.
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Madeline Kahn