Oscar Profile #558: Madeline Kahn

Born September 29, 1942 in Boston, Massachusetts, Madeline Gail Wolfson known professionally as Madeline Kahn, was the daughter of a garment manufacturer and his wife. Her parents were divorced when she was two and she moved to New York with her mother. Her mother later married her stepfather, Hiller Kahn, who adopted her.

Kahn graduated from Martin Van Buren High School and attended Hofstra University on a scholarship where she studied drama, music, and speech therapy, graduating with a degree in the latter. She made her stage debut as a member of the chorus in a 1965 off-Broadway revival of Kiss Me, Kate. Her roles in the Broadway bound musicals How Now, Dow Jones and Promises, Promises were written out of the shows before they reached the Great White Way. She made her Broadway debut in New Faces of 1968 and later had a major role in Two by Two before heading to Hollywood.

Kahn’s feature film debut was in a major supporting role in Peter Bogdanovich’s 1972 film, What’s Up, Doc? which led to her casting in Bogdanovich’s 1973 film, Paper Moon which garnered her the first of her back-to-back Oscar nominations. Her second was for 1974’s Blazing Saddles, the first of two films she made for Mel Brooks that year, the other being Young Frankenstein. Subsequent 1970s films included At Long Last Love, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother, Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood, High Anxiety, The Cheap Detective, and The Muppet Movie.

Her roles in two Broadway shows, the 1974 play, Boom Boom Room and the 1978 musical, Twentieth Century earned Kahn the first and second of four Tony nominations. She was forced to leave the latter after nine weeks due to damage to her vocal cords. Her third Tony nod would be for the 1989 revival of Born Yesterday and her fourth would be for 1993’s The Sisters Rosenweig which she won.

Kahn’s 1980s films included First Family, History of the World, Part 1, Yellowbeard, City Heat, Clue, and An American Tail. Her 1990s films included Betsy’s Wedding, Mixed Nuts, Nixon, A Bug’s Life, and Judy Berlin.

Kahn was also a popular television performer having starred in such series as Sesame Street (1978-1979), Oh Madeline (1983-1984), Mr. President (1987-1988), and Cosby (1996-1999). She also hosted Saturday Night Live three times, one each in 1975, 1976, and 1995.

Kahn developed ovarian cancer in 1998 and underwent treatment while continuing to work on the Cosby show. However, the cancer spread quickly. She married John Hansbury on October 10, 1999 and died less than two months later on December 3, 1999. She was 57.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

WHAT’S UP, DOC? (1972), directed by Peter Bogdanovich

Although Bogdanovich clearly envisioned this as remake of Howard Hawks’ 1938 screwball classic, Bringing Up Baby but the screwball classic he had stars Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal in preparation was Preston Sturges’ The Lady Eve from 1941. Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant starred in the former, Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda in the latter. Madeline Kahn’s role of O’Neal’s girlfriend was more substantial than the role it was based on in Bringing Up Baby allowing Kahn to steal the film for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer.

PAPER MOON (1973), directed by Peter Bogdanovich

Kahn was nominated for her first Oscar for playing exotic dancer Trixie Delight who is rescued from a traveling carnival by star Ryan O’Neal. Kahn initially refused to say the line “Let Miss Trixie sit up front with her big tits,” to O’Neal’s 9-year-old daughter, Tatum, because of its vulgarity. Bogdanovich promised to make just one take of scene and then discard it but left it in the film. Her embarrassment after saying the line was genuine. The film earned Kahn her first Oscar nomination, but she lost to Tatum who was her father’s co-star and in every scene of the film in one of the most famous examples of category fraud in Oscar history.

BLAZING SADDLES (1974), directed by Mel Brooks

Brooks’ western spoof was one of the biggest hits of the year as well as one of the biggest of his celebrated career. Kahn earned a second Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Lili von Schtupp, a dance hall chanteuse patterned after Marlene Dietrich in Destry Rides Again. Her song, “I’m Tired”, however, has more in common with “Falling in Love Again” from Dietrich’s The Blue Angel than it does with her equally iconic “The Boys in the Back Room” from Destry Rides Again. She would later sing “I’m Tired” in her last TV appearance before her death in 1999.

YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974), directed by Mel Brooks

Released the same year as Blazing Saddles, the New York Film Critics nominated Kahn’s performance as the bride of Frankenstein in this spoof of the classic horror film and its sequels rather than for her Dietrich imitation in Blazing Saddles. She lost the New York Film critics award to Valerie Perrine in Lenny and the Oscar to Ingrid Bergman in Murder on the Orient Express. Gene Wilder, who played Frankenstein’s grandson, considered this his favorite film. Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman, Cloris Leachman, Teri Garr, Kenneth Mars, and Richard Haydn co-star.

NIXON (1995), directed by Oliver Stone

The film’s four Oscar nominations included those for Anthony Hopkins and Joan Allen for their portrayals of Richard and Pat Nixon in Stone’s biography of the disgraced former president. The film follows his life from boyhood to his resignation of the presidency. Powers Boothe as Alexander Haig, Ed Harris as E. Howard Hunt, Bob Hoskins as J. Edgar Hoover, and E.G. Marshall as John Mitchell were billed next. Kahn was billed 19th for her portrayal of Martha Mitchell, the loudmouthed, opinionated ex-wife of Nixon’s attorney general. Like her character, Kahn would die of cancer four years later.