September 29, 1942– To say that I loved her is to say too little. She left us much too soon. The first time that I took notice of Madeline Kahn was in Peter Bogdanovich‘s What’s Up, Doc? (1972). It is a rather perfect film, with Kahn as the hysterical, overbearing Eunice Burns, fiancée of yummy Ryan O’Neal. I had never seen such an original comic presence since, well, since forever. What an introduction & feature film debut, a fearless performance & Kahn actually took the focus from Barbra Streisand, another funny girl, also at her comic best.
Born Madeline Gail Wolfson in Boston, but raised in NYC, unbelievably, young Kahn had a tough time getting her career off the ground. Her first role was in the musical flop How Now, Dow Jones (1967), but she was written out before the 1967 show reached Broadway, as was her role in the original production of the Burt Bacharach musical Promises, Promises (1968). She finally earned her first break on Broadway with the revue New Faces Of 1968. That same year, Kahn also performed her first professional lead in a special concert performance of the operetta Candide in honor of Leonard Bernstein‘s 50th birthday. In 1970, Kahn had a swell supporting role in another forgotten Broadway musical, Richard Rodgers’ Noah’s Ark-themed Two By Two, opposite Danny Kaye, hitting a High C 9 times a week for the 10 months of show’s run.
Lucille Ball had her fired from the film version of the musical Mame in 1974. I believe this wouldn’t be the last time that Kahn would get the boot.
I was lucky enough to have seen Kahn on Broadway in the brilliant Betty Comden–Adolph Green–Cy Coleman musical On The Twentieth Century opposite Kevin Kline in his first big role. I thought her performance was absolute genius, but after just 2 months, Kahn departed the show under suspicious & still controversial circumstances, with some of my sources saying she was fired, but others suggesting Kahn quit after sparring with director Hal Prince.
I was fortunate enough to see Kahn live in the lovely musical She Loves Me with Barry Bostwick, as a sad go-go girl in David Rabes’ drama In The Boom Boom Room, & Off-Broadway in John Guare’s nutty Marco Polo Sings A Solo with Joel Grey, back in those crazy, zany NYC 1970s.
Kahn’s legacy will always have the triple-crown of the close succession of the comedies: Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), & High Anxiety (1977), all directed by Mel Brooks, who was always able to bring out the best of Kahn’s comic talents. She was nominated for an Oscar for Blazing Saddles & for her amazing turn in my favorite of her screen performances, as the quietly desperate Trixie Delight in Paper Moon (1973), again with Bogdanovich directing. Kahn won a Tony Award for Windy Wasserstein‘s The Sisters Rosensweig.
In the 1990s, Kahn had steady work, giving terrific off-kilter performances on stage film & TV. I especially appreciated her Martha Mitchell in Oliver Stone’s Nixon (1995), a film that I alone seem to really dig.
Kahn took that final curtain call in 1999, taken by the damn cancer. Her diagnosis came in 1998, & while undergoing chemotherapy, Kahn continued to work on the TV series Cosby. It is my fervent prayer that the star of that show kept his grubby paws off of Kahn.
She is one of those great comic actors who never seem to work too hard to get a laugh. Kahn is funny because her characters are deadly serious. In real life Kahn was reserved & somewhat prudish. But, her comic instinct brought laughs simply by walking on stage or her first shot in a film. Her creations were neurotic, cerebral, but sexy. Kahn steals scenes by being minimal in her inventive details. It was her idea to loftily rest her hand on nothing but the air in the endlessly re-watchable I’m Tired number from Blazing Saddles. It was her suggestion that her character, Elizabeth, break into Victor Herbert’s operetta chestnut Ah! Sweet Mystery Of Life as the monster makes love to her in Young Frankenstein. She never seems to be trying to be funny. Her friend Lily Tomlin says of Kahn:
“She was someone who said things funny, not someone who said funny things.”
My life has never been the same since her passing. Kahn was that loved by me. I truly felt the loss. She was deeply loved by both The Husband & me. Just a few nights ago, we stumbled upon Brook’s High Anxiety while channel hopping & we commented on her very special genius & we shed a tear of laughter & sadness. Madeline Kahn is truly missed. She would have been, should have been, 73 years old today, September 29th.
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