KAHN, MADELINE

KAHN, MADELINE (Madeline Gail Wolfson; 1942–1999), U.S. actress. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Kahn began acting in school productions during high school, first at a boarding school in Pennsylvania and then at Martin Van Buren High School in Queens, New York, where she earned a drama scholarship to Hofstra University. She graduated from Hofstra in 1964 and began auditioning for professional roles, landing her first part as a chorus girl in a City Center revival of Kiss Me Kate (1965). Kahn's first starring role on Broadway came three years later playing Cunegonde, the female lead in Leonard Bernstein's Candide (1968). Kahn made her film debut the same year in the comic mock-Swedish short film The Dove, but her first major film appearance was four years later, playing Ryan O'Neal's uptight fiancé in Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up, Doc? (1972). In 1973, Kahn received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for another role opposite Ryan O'Neal in a second Bogdanovich film, Paper Moon, but the award eventually went to her fellow co-star in the film, Ryan O'Neal's 11-year-old daughter Tatum. The following year, Kahn delivered her unforgettable performance as saloon singer Lili Von Shtupp in Mel Brooks' irreverent comedy Blazing Saddles, for which she received her second Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress in two years. Kahn continued to work with Brooks in two subsequent films that further cemented her reputation as one of Hollywood's best   comedic actresses, Young Frankenstein (1974) and High Anxiety (1977). On the stage, Kahn was nominated for three Tony Awards before winning the Best Actress Tony in 1993 for the role of Gorgeous in Wendy Wasserstein's The Sisters Rosenzweig, the tale of three sisters, all accomplished assimilated Jewish women approaching middle-age, who gather to celebrate a birthday. Later Kahn played a major role on the television show Cosby (1996–99) and provided the voice of the Gypsy Moth in the animated Pixar film A Bug's Life (1998), before succumbing to ovarian cancer in 1999 at the age of 57. (Walter Driver (2nd ed.)