Madeline Kahn

Cunt.

Most annoying voice in the history of cinema.

Madeline Kahn and Betty White singing

Love her. Stole every scene she was in.

She is GENIUS in Paper Moon.

R4 I was molested!

Miss Trixie Delight.

"Why don't you let Miss Trixie and her big ole titties sit in front?"

I love her academy.

Of course you can't forget this

I LOVE her as Martha Mitchell in Nixon. he only appears in 2-3 scenes in the 3.5 hour movie, but damn you remember her:

In the 1962 New York City Christmas Party scene, she is laughing hysterically and making Nixon (Anthony Hopkins) very uncomfortable. Shell yells at John Mitchell (E.G. Marshall), interrupts Kissinger (Paul Sorvino), and is heard laughing loudly while the others in a different room.

The second is her ranting to reporters about Watergate, the coverup, killing her and her family, how she's terrified of her safety. It is hilarious but extremely sad.

She and the great Charles Ludlam went to Hofstra University together. Ludlam would eventually appear on her short-lived sitcom (in drag).

Getting Married Today from Company

She was FABULOUS as Marwena Deutshwand.

I had clue she died so young and so long ago.

She was great in everything she was in and had a lot of screen charisma

I've loved her in all the films I've seen her in, especially "What's Up Doc."

"Born into a Jewish family." LOL. Who the fuck writes like that anymore?

She stole the movie in What's' Up Doc?

and everyone in that movie was great.

R16 I'm from the American Middle West.

On The Dick Cavett Show

On the Dick Cavett Show

Mahwena

PLEASE

Charlie Rose,

[quote] "Born into a Jewish family." LOL. Who the fuck writes like that anymore?

Wikipedia?

I’m tired!

[quote]Love her. Stole every scene she was in.

Not in MY movie!

OP conveniently left out her last TV series ... "Cosby."

[quote]Not in MY movie!

Dodged a bullet on that one.

The definition of a supporting player. Brilliant as a back up, tiresome as the star.

Madeline Kahn...a national treasure.

Hilarious

Was she a cunt?

R20. Madeline's interview with Dick Cavett was brilliant. Thanks for posting.

Left out her less-than-stalwart performance in ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, only to be outdone by up-and-coming Judy Kaye who stopped the show with her stellar performance of BABETTE.

I always loved Madeline Kahn. She had such fantastic comedic timing.

A big drunk, poor thing.

At times, anyway.

Her scenes in What’s Up, Doc were all pretty masterful. In particular, a scene where Fritz the crooked hotelier tells her character Eunice that a pet snake is missing and may be in her hotel room, she panics with this freakishly perfect timing, then climbs onto the bed and rocks back and forth with her arms folded like a stressed out primate. It’s pretty amazing.

I also admired her phrasing of short, expressive lines, like her sharp and dismissive “Who IS this person?!”. Also, when she hears a female voice in her fiancé’s adjacent hotel room, she crescendos “I’m comING IN!”. My parents said the audience exploded with laughter when they saw the film at the cinema.

R9, did Marlene Dietrich ever comment on this?

I LOVE Madeline. Unfortunately, after the screwball comedy craze of the '70s was over, Hollywood didn't seem to know what to do with her. Molly Ringwald's mother in Betsy's Wedding? I mean REALLY.

Madeline Kahn - Bob Costas Show 1993 Part 1 of 3

R38 Ooooh yeh, just not publicly

She had terrible issues with her early fame because she wanted to be taken seriously as an actress and possibly even as an opera singer, but because of her brilliant comic timing and her knockout figure and big boobs, she kept on getting cast as ditzy bimbos. And finally her film debut as Eunice, in which she had to have all her prettiness masked in an ugly wig.

There's a wonderful bio of her with the terrible title: Madeline Kahn; Being the Music, A Life by William K. Madison that discusses all this, Lots of great interviews with her friends and colleagues.

The first time I saw her was in the late 60s Boston try out of the Richard Rodgers musical Two by Two starring Danny Kaye as Noah and Madeline as the blonde bimbo on his Ark.

IIRC in the bio it talks about Madeline taking the role on the Cosby show just to insure she'd have the money for medical treatments for the cancer that would soon kill her.

Madeline Kahn - Bob Costas 1993 Part 2 of 3

Madeline Kahn - Bob Costas 1993 Part 3 of 3

Both Paper Moon, with Madeline Kahn, and Hitler: The Last Ten Days, with Eric Porter, were released on May 9th, 1973. Months

Watching Madeline is like drinking Grand Marnier, a little goes a long way.

Madeline Kahn - Rosie O'Donnell Show, 1996

Madeline Kahn wins the 1993 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play

Have any of you ever seen this? Kahn singing an Irving Berlin ditty titled, "You'd be Surprised".

She's a delight. Period, end of subject.

[quote] I had clue she died so young and so long ago.

I loved her work so much.

I was at work when I learned she'd died....it was at the end of a break and it took every bit of strength for me not to cry about it.

I saw Madeline and John Callum in "On the 20th Century" when it played the Colonial Theatre in Boston. That same night, I met the two of them walking through Boston Common heading back to Ritz Hotel then located on the corner of Arlington and Newbury Streets in Back Bay (across from Boston's Public Garden). We chatted for a bit, talked about the show, and they both signed my Playbill.

Both Kahn and Callum were utterly delightful. Always remember that the night I got to meet the great Madeline Kahn.

Cullum not Callum. But otherwise, lovely post.

Kahn was nominated for a Tony for Best Actress for David Rabe's In The Boom Boom Room. Rabe was involved with Jill Clayburgh at the time and she said that losing the role was her motivation for going to Hollywood and trying to become a name. The play also had Julie Newmar in it and she was fired before they previewed and was replaced by Mary Woronov.

Madeline Kahn in 𝐃𝐞 𝐃𝐮̈𝐯𝐚 (1968):

"Phalliken zymbol?"

[quote] IIRC in the bio it talks about Madeline taking the role on the Cosby show just to insure she'd have the money for medical treatments for the cancer that would soon kill her.

You may have slightly misread or misunderstood because she joined Cosby when it launched in 1995; she apparently did not receive a diagnosis of cancer until 1998 and died relatively soon after the diagnosis. I do remember her looking quite terrible in her last season (and if *I* remember right the show did not continue for long after her passing).

[quote] She WAS the great American comedienne, singer, and tragic actress Madeline Kahn.

[quote]IIRC in the bio it talks about Madeline taking the role on the Cosby show just to insure she'd have the money for medical treatments for the cancer that would soon kill her.

You remember incorrectly. Cosby started in 1996. Madeline was diagnosed with advanced, aggressive cancer in summer 1998 and died in December 1999.

This article mentions why she took the role. (Also, it was a Carsey-Werner production, and they wanted to do her a solid after producing her flop sitcom Oh Madeline.)

R57 aside from the year Cosby started, I was otherwise correct. I know when she died and it was a little more than a year after diagnosis.

That still DOES NOT match with R42's previous statement that she took the Cosby role - a role she would have signed up for in mid 1996 or sho - to have insurance for a cancer she didn't receive a diagnosis for until two years later.

Just need to correct two immortal quotes, mentioned earlier:

From What's Up, Doc? Eunice: They tried to molest me. Judge: That's ... unbelievable.

From Paper Moon Trixie: So, how 'bout it, honey? Just for a little while, let ol' Trixie sit up front with her big tits.

Oops ignore my post at R58, r57! You were arguing the same point. Sorry.

Loved her. She married only a few years before her death. She and her husband were a perfect match and at least they had some time together.

Sorry, I did misremember about Madeline's history with The Cosby Show, which I never watched, though I was a long time fan of Madeline. I thought she didn't join the show until it was on for several seasons, lining up with the last year or two before she died.

In any case, that bio I mentioned is a great read and very accurate (which I was not, lol).

Jane Alexander on working with Kahn in "The Sisters Rosenweig": "I don't think I've ever enjoyed being with anybody on stage as much as with Madeine."

Madeline Kahn was not born into a Jewish family in New York, she's from Massachusetts. The wiki says Boston, but I heard Madeline herself say she was born on Revere Beach Boulevard in Revere, Mass.

Revere is a suburb of Boston, R64.

Funny. My problem with her is that she is ice cold onscreen, and seems oblivious to her fellow actors.

[quote]Loved her. She married only a few years before her death. She and her husband were a perfect match and at least they had some time together.

R61. Actually, she married in the summer of 1999--and then died in December 1999.

From Wiki:

Kahn was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1998. She underwent treatment, continued to work on Cosby, and married John Hansbury in summer 1999. However, the disease spread rapidly, and she died on December 3, 1999, at age 57.

I was standing next to her in line for a movie on the upper east side circa 1980. during cold weather. everyone in coats, hats, etxc.

She was alone, very quiet , barely noticeable .

I always remember how petite she was,

She was 5′ 3″

"Nixon, A Bug's Life, Cosby, and Judy Berlin."

R27

She wanted to die a Sadie.

[quote] which I was not, lol

LoL! :)

Madeline Kahn - Johnny Carson The Tonight Show

Madeline does not like balls coming toward her...

Correcto, R64 and R65. Revere's a suburban city just north of Boston. I think actually her family then moved to New York shortly after? Anyway, agree with so many about loving her perfect comic timing and iconic, scene-stealing supportive roles brilliance.

*Below the Belt* with Lily and Dixie

R42- You saw her in the late 60's?

How old are you?

110

Opera Quiz With Madeline Kahn, Charles Nelson Reilly and Kitty Carlisle Hart PART 1

R59- For you

When I was your age I had NO bone structa

Opera Quiz With Madeline Kahn, Charles Nelson Reilly, and Kitty Carlisle Hart PART 2

[quote]Revere is a suburb of Boston...

Yes, I know. I'm from Lynn the next town north. It still isn't New York City, or Boston, is it?

Madeline Kahn - What's Up Doc

I am from Boston. Yes, within the city proper., born and reared Let's just say Madeline is from Boston as Wkipedia states, and let's not talk about the "suburbs" Revere or Lynn.

I love watching her on the Carol Burnett Show.

Did she grow up in New York City or Boston?

She was born in Boston. When she was two, her mother divorced and moved her to New York City. She went to a boarding school in Pennsylvania for some time but graduated from high school and college in NYC and nearby—high school in Queens, and college was Hofstra on Long Island.

Betty White and Madeline Kahn duet...

R85, are you also R3?

But was it Boston Boston?

No. Didn't know Betty and Madeline had been posted.

I love her so much.

Madeline Kahn 3-29-86 "I'm Tired" live concert version

[quote]I had clue she died so young

Sucks, but at least she didn't see 9/11. Or worse, experience it by being in one of the towers at the time, or even on one of the planes.

[quote]Sorry, I did misremember about Madeline's history with The Cosby Show, which I never watched, though I was a long time fan of Madeline. I thought she didn't join the show until it was on for several seasons, lining up with the last year or two before she died.

She was not on "The Cosby Show," she was on "Cosby."

So much Kahn-related confusion on DL. And you dare to call yourselves gay? Fucking shameful.

I was going to type out her career highlights, but fuck it, here's the link to her IMDB page. Be taught!

She's giving flashes of Little Edie at R20—Little Edie as played by Elaine May.

Don't forget me, R93!

I don't care what "family she was born into." Where she was born, when she was on "Cosby" and when she was diagnosed with (whispers) "the cancer". Some of you bitches really do get nit-picky about stupid stuff

She was a fucking hoot! I LOVED her in "Paper Moon". In fact, I LOVE the entire movie.

I like her. A lot. But she is the same thing in just about everything she does. Plus I would have liked to have bought her for what she was worth and sold her for what she thought she was worth.

Except she wasn't. Her Eunice Burns, Trixie Delight, Lili von Shtupp, Dr. Cynthia Mallory, Martha Mitchell, Alice Gold, Chrissy, and Gorgeous Teitelbaum are far from the same.

And you'd lose money.

Her big break was being plucked from obscurity to sing "Glitter and be Gay" from Candide at Leonard Bernstein's 50th birthday celebration at Avery Fisher Hall.

There's no video, but her comic skills are so apparent that you don't feel like you're missing anything.

Not to mention, she hits all the notes.

Yeah R97 is all wet. Madeline was multi-talented and her characters were not all the same. Compare Trixie to Mrs. White! And her self-esteem was not high. In fact, she thought she was unattractive, which is why it was upsetting to her that she made her film debut as Eunice Burns - it exacerbated her feelings about not being good enough. Regardless of that, she knocked it out of the park.

I'm sure there are valid criticism one could make about Madeline, but R97 said none of them.

I know John Cameron Mitchell wanted her as the agent in the film version of Hedwig & the Angry Inch. They made the offer, she was too sick to accept, and it went to Andrea Martin.

If Madeline had lived, she could have done a number of parts Andrea got (and better, frankly) — Berthe in the Pippin revival, Julie Klausner's mother in Difficult People. I'm sure Tina Fey would rather have had Madeline play her mom on 30 Rock than Anita Gillette.

Hey r75, I'm 74 and saw Madeline in the musical Two by Two when I was in college in Boston. Thanks for asking.

And Cosby? The Cosby Show? Whatever, r92. I loved Madeline, that is all.

Kahn bluntly said “Sign him, lose me. In a million years, I would never work with Danny.” That's because she did in late 1970 and most of 1971 when Kaye starred in Two by Two and Kahn had a small role...

Please stop besmirching this lighthearted woman's legacy with your nasty fan-olympics bullshit.

I loved just about everything she did.

I do think she was best as the garnish, so to speak, and not as the main dish. Or in quirkier character roles.

Did anyone happen to see Madeline with Ed Asner in the 1989 Broadway revival of BORN YESTERDAY? I missed it but would have thought that casting was perfect but it didn't last long.

I didn't see Born Yesterday because they BOTH seemed a little long in the tooth for those roles.

review of bio mentioned upthread

When someone says "they don't make them like they used to", I see Madeline Kahn in my mind's eye. Can't give a higher compliment than that.

If she'd lived she would be 81. She probably would have shown up on Grace & Frankie as a quirky visitor.

Don't forget the ultra high maintenance Elizabeth in Young Frankenstein

"Taffeta, Darling..."

I don't know her.

[quote] It has been well debated she stole the film.

What?

Kahn in At Long Last Love the 3rd time she worked with Bogdanovich.

R115 was an excellent showcase for Mildred Natwick, who next portrayed a dying grandmother on Family.

Cybill looks so stupid in that turban.

r117=Celeste Talbert

[Quote] Cybill looks so stupid in that turban.

Many women I'm sure wish they could look that stupid.

That entire costume on Cybill is stupid.

I'm sure it would be simply stunning on you Polly

R115 Wow that clip is pretty awful. As a singer, Shepherd really is 100% certifiably talent-free. I listened to the TCM Podcast on Peter Bogdanovich. It sounds like that film was a huge flop. I didn’t know Madeline Kahn was in it.

Even Madeline and Eileen Brennan are subpar in that film.

R123 Both excellent character actors but that film looks like a real shit show. Unwatchable. I wonder if it was some sort of coked out passion project.

Oh yeah, r124, it certainly wasn't their fault. Bogdanovich got all gimmicky with it. Because early filmed musicals filmed the musical numbers live, that's what he did. As if the soundtrack doesn't suffer enough.

I never miss a Burt Reynolds musical.

His way with a song might have gotten him by, r126, but Burt was totally devoid of sophistication as was Cybill.

Madeline is a Queens girl. Went to public school in Jackson Heights and graduated from Martin Van Buren High School in Bayside.

[quote]Many women I'm sure wish they could look that stupid.

With that hairstyle, they would.

Miss Trixie, tell ‘‘em bout that time you almost got thowed in jail.

I tried to push her out a window in Little Rock.

Madeline was a good ol' broad.

I don't think she was, r132. She had a fragility about her.

Cullum on Kahn

I'm really old and I remember Eunice Burns. I remember her look, sound, walk, everything. I even remember some of her lines. Kahn was PERFECT as Eunice Burns and that performance will live on for a long, long time (it already has). Babs and O'Neal were both fucking great in that film as were the rest of the cast but Madeline Kahn STOLE every scene she was in and, ultimately, the entire film.

Fabulous, brilliant actress.

Madeline's biggest fear/issue was that often people took her for a "good old broad" and yet she was not that kind of woman at all. Much more fragile, as r133 wisely posted.

She was elegant and classy, but could get down and have fun. She was known as "fun Madeline" and not "real Madeline."

That was what upset her.

She played up the wacky Madeline on The Carson Show and Carson loved her. She was considerably more subdued on other talk shows like Dinah. I still remember when she was on with Elizabeth Ashley and someone in the audience asked about her leaving On The Twentieth Century and she said something like it was either leave or permanently lose her voice. It was uncomfortable because everyone knew that wasn't true. The real Madeline, sadly, was not very interesting as a guest.

Okay, R138, I'll bite. What was the "real reason" why Madeline left On the Twentieth Century?

Madeline had trapped herself in a bigger vocal role than she was prepared for and her performances could be inconsistent.

OTTC director Hal Prince used to say he hired Kahn because he got her mixed-up with Bernadette Peters. Ouch! At any rate, they started off on the wrong foot because Prince wanted Danny Kaye and Kahn refused to work with him because of past incidents. Because she was the bigger name, she stayed, Kaye didn't and John Cullum came in. Prince said that the one time he was really happy with her performance was on opening night and after he congratulated her, she said something to the effect, "you don't think I'm going to do that every night, do you?" She began missing performances and she would want to know how Judy Kaye was. Cullum would say things like "she wasn't you", until a few performances in, something clicked and she was brilliant. When Kahn asked again how Kaye was, Cullum simply told her she shouldn't miss any more performances.

In what universe was Madeline Kahn a bigger name than Danny Kaye?

She was a current Academy Award nominated movie star, r142 and Kaye's star was descending. I worked several times with the costume designer on Two By Two. I wish I had asked about it because apparently he had LOTS of stories.

Hello Dolly!

Madeline was hilarious and heartbreaking as Dr. Gorgeous Teitelbaum in "The Sisters Rosenzweig" and made the show a very hot ticket. Her role wasn't even the lead but a large supporting role, but she was billed above the title, therefore a "Leading Actress in a Play", winning the Tony in a stroll, I imagine.

Jeanette

[quote]Prince said that the one time he was really happy with her performance was on opening night and after he congratulated her, she said something to the effect, "you don't think I'm going to do that every night, do you?"

Exactly!

So, some other Eldergay can correct me... regarding OTTC, I was told that Kahn's inconsistency, especially during the rehearsal and out of town tryout period was due to her cocaine use.

Hal Prince did indeed push her for a certain performance and yes, there's the backstage tale that on opening night in NYC, when all of the critics were in the house, Prince told Kahn that her performance was what he was looking for; she told him she hit that level, that evening, because critics were present and that she could not do it every night moving forward.

Has Kevin Kline ever commented on working with Kahn during OTTC? Did he confirm or deny the tales of what went on between Kahn and Prince?

Oh yeah! I think I remember her.

r148 - The cocaine rumors have been around forever, but I've never read anything that substantiates it.

I saw her in Born Yesterday. She was fabulous but the production felt very 'Kenley Players.'. Imagine if Lucy hadn't had her fired? What a Gooch she would have been!

Kline said he didn't think Kahn was erratic in OTTC: "I would say fun, spontaneous, in the moment. All the things I love about actors. She seemed consummately professional." He did say both he and Kahn found Cy Coleman's score a challenge: Kahn described it as "so rangy," while Kline said, "It's fucking impossible." The show's conductor Paul Gemignani compared Kahn to a jazz musician, saying, "Improv was her comfort zone." Maris Clement, who sang in the ensemble, said Kahn "listened to a line from another actor and interpreted it differently all the time. That's why she was so brilliant, so incredibly funny."

I always tend to take Madeline Kahn's side in the OTTC story. Hal Prince was an ingenious director and he could cast actors brilliantly but then left them to their own devices and didn't support them.

With rare exception, critics stopped coming to opening nights on Broadway in the 1960s. They started attending the last few previews before opening in order to have more time to process their reviews. I've never understood the story about Madeline Kahn finally delivering the performance Hal Prince had wanted on opening night. Something about it doesn't entirely make sense.

The '70s, r154...

Chicago Song

Perhaps this tangent belongs on the Theatre thread but I thought plays/musicals have to "lock in" a performance. We understand Madeline struggled to do so in OTTC, but was she able to do so in a straight play like The Sisters Rosensweig?

[quote] The '70s, [R154]...

He's wrong. It change started with Stanley Kauffman when he was the theatre critic for the NY Times in 1966.

And *everybody* followed suit in 1966, r158?

That is when the process began to change, yes. Before that point, shows used to play just one or two previews and open. Even major musicals. But the mid 1960s is when the preview period started to extend and when critics, following Kauffman's lead, started to come to one of the final previews.

So in 1978, r160, there were *no* critics there on opening night?

Some producers still tried to force critics to come to opening. David Merrick did so on 42nd Street, and in recent years, Rudin did it once or twice on his shows. But largely it has not been the case for a very long time.

As a kid, I remember her on Saturday Night Live, singing the Frogman’s “Ain’t Got No Home”. It was pretty amazing. She appeared in a recurring skit called “Leg Up” as an eccentric Russian ballerina, and in another where she was captured by a huge bird of prey. I remember she was very attractive and funny. She seemed like a hot shit.

One of SNL's finest musical moments...

*KauffmanN*

Madeline as "an amphibious creature"...

When she sang that on her second SNL episode it was, as the kids would say, LIT as FUCK.

I used to love this, I still do.

Yes...he will.

r153 Tell me about it!

R37, a teacher once told me comedy is ALL about the commitment; I knew the snake story was a lie (especially their mortal fear of tile) but I sure believed Eunice thought it was in the room.

R37

Yes! Her delivery was absolutely perfect.

She was the best villain in Star Trek.

She really brought the wrath, r173.

R164 is one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard.

Paper Moon could have had a sequel. The producers only used a little more than half of the book, Addie Pray from which PM was based. Like Delores Claiborne, it is "first person narrative".

You're gonna ruin it, aren't you?

She was so great in Clue

"I am not 'a' Eunice Burns. I am THE Eunice Burns."

That line cracks me up every time, R179.

R180, she stole the movie and everyone from Higgins to Boss Hogg to Mother Stephens to Hugh/You were all fantastic.

I can watch this movie over and over and over again.

Bumping this thread because I was thinking about her

For years I swore she was in a Law and Order episode where she played a wealthy woman who killed her husband's mistress because the mistress was going to reveal the husband was half-black (he looked white though).

The actress sort of looks like Kahn, and Kahn would have been great at it.

She was a complete reason for seeing any movie, play, show or TV gig she participated in. One of the greatest comic actors ever.

R184 I agree with that

The song at 164 is called "Lost in the Stars" not "Big Stars, Little Stars."

She had Oscar noms for Blazing Saddles and Paper Moon, but she should have had the win for playing THE Eunice Burns in What's Up Doc