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.
Born in Boston but raised in NYC, Kahn studied speech in college while performing in opera and theatrical productions. After a brief stint as a schoolteacher, she made her professional stage debut in the chorus of a revival of "Kiss Me, Kate" and went on to perform in nightclubs and stage musicals, notably Leonard Silliman's "New Faces of '68" and as one of the daughters-in-law of Danny Kaye's Noah in the biblically-inspired "Two by Two". Kahn first drew attention in the hilarious Oscar-nominated short film "The Dove" (1968) before Peter Bogdanovich put her in her first feature role as Ryan O'Neal's shrewish fiancee in the screwball "What's Up, Doc?" (1972). For her superb turn as the floozy Trixie Delight in Bogdanovich's next outing, "Paper Moon" (1973), she picked up an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress, then nabbed a second one in the same category the following year as Marlene Dietrich parody Lili von Shtupp, a role which fully exploited Kahn's singing training and zany personality, in Mel Brooks' Western comedy "Blazing Saddles" (1974). Brooks tapped Kahn's talents again for his next spoof "Young Frankenstein" (1974), playing the title character's girlfriend. She then starred in fellow "Brooks brother" Gene Wilder's "The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother" (1975).
Throughout the late 1970s and 80s Kahn appeared in one comedy feature after another, not all of them winners. Among the lesser bombs were the parody of sleuth films "The Cheap Detective" (1978), Marshall Brickman's uneven directorial debut "Simon" (1980), and as Empress Nympho in Brooks' scattered if sometimes sidesplitting "The History of the World Part I" (1981). As the 90s dawned, she was still relegated to roles that often wasted her special gifts. One exception was her touching portrayal of a bored mother and housewife fearful that her marriage is unraveling in "Judy Berlin" (festival screened in 1999; released theatrically in 2000).
Like some of her contemporaries, Kahn made periodic returns to the Broadway stage. She solidified her reputation as a gifted dramatic actress with a powerful Tony-nominated turn as a go-go dancer in David Rabe's "Boom Boom Room/In the Boom Boom Room" in 1973. Her next stage venture, however, proved problematic. While out-of-town critics adore her in the Carol Lombard role of a haughty movie star in the musical "On the Twentieth Century". Despite earning another Tony nomination, she left the production under a cloud amid rumors of clashes with director Harold Prince and others in the productions. The official reason was vocal strain and, indeed, on the show's original cast recording, there are moments when this classically trained singer seemed to be struggling. When she chose to return to the Great White Way after the failure of her ABC sitcom "Oh Madeline" (1983) and a string of subpar films (e.g., "Slapstick of Another Kind" 1984; "Clue" 1985), Kahn triumphed as Billie Dawn in a revival of "Born Yesterday", receiving yet another Tony nomination. She finally took home the medallion in 1993 for her performance as radio personality "Doctor" Gorgeous Teitelbaum, one of "The Sisters Rosensweig" in Wendy Wasserstein's acclaimed play.
Kahn returned to the small screen to essay a tabloid gossip columnist in the short-lived CBS series "New York News" (1995) before finding her niche as the best friend of Phylicia Rashad and bane to Rashad's husband Bill Cosby in the popular CBS sitcom "Cosby". She lent her vitality and vibrancy to the role of Pauline and won a new legion of fans. So it came as a great shock when in November 1999 Kahn disclosed that she had been undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer for nearly a year. At the time of her disclosure, the actress went public in the hopes of raising awareness of the disease. Within weeks of her announcement, though, she succumbed to the cancer at the age of 57, leaving a legacy of laughter for movie lovers all over the world.