KANE, CAROL

KANE, CAROL (1952– ), U.S. actress. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Kane traveled extensively as a child, living with her parents in Paris and Haiti before settling with them in New York. She attended the Professional Children's School in New York City until the age of 14, when she began acting professionally in theater roles in New York and around the Northeast. Kane's first significant film roles were in Carnal Knowledge (1971) and The Last Detail (1973), and she played a memorable role as a bank teller-hostage in Dog Day Afternoon (1975). Later that year, Kane received an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Gitl, a young Jewish bride in Joan Micklin Silver's Hester Street, a tale of immigrant life on New York's lower East Side circa 1896. In 1977, Kane played the role of Woody Allen's first wife in Annie Hall and Gene Wilder's girlfriend in The World's Greatest Lover. Two years later, she received acclaim for her role as babysitter Jill Johnson in When A Stranger Calls (1979). Despite her success in film, however, Kane is perhaps best known for her role as the ditzy nonsense-speaking immigrant Simka on the television show Taxi. Kane's performance as Simka, who eventually married andy kaufman 's character on the show, Latka, won her Emmy Awards in 1982 and 1983. Subsequently, Kane appeared in a myriad of films and television shows while continuing to perform in the theater. Among these appearances, Kane's other notable credits include the TV series Brooklyn Bridge (1991) and the films Racing with the Moon (1984), The Princess Bride (1987), Ishtar (1987), Scrooged (1988), The Lemon Sisters (1990), Addams Family Values (1993), Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1994), Office Killer (1997), Jaw-breaker (1999), My First Mister (2001), and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004). (Walter Driver (2nd ed.)