Madeline Kahn

"They tried to molest me."

"That's......... unbelievable."

poo poo undies

She really was a national treasure.

Flames, on the side of my face...

I am not “a” Eunice Burns, I am “the” Eunice Burns!

Her Trixie Delight in Paper Moon was truly a classic.

Mel Brooks said she was the funniest woman who ever lived.

My favorite part of "Young Frankenstein" is when Gene Wilder is stressing out about the monster and she says off-handedly, "Oh darling... you mustn't worry so." as if she's completely bored out of her mind and only barely paying attention.

R8 Please don't kiss or hug me, you'll mess up my lipstick.

Kahn is up there with Ball, Burnett, and Gilda Radner.

And Jan Hooks. All great.

Everyone always forgets Jan Hooks

Kahn is up there with Radner but not Ball or Burnett. She was a supporting player. She could steal any scene in any project. But as a leading actress, she was somewhat tiresome.

R13 maybe

Taffeta darling, Taffeta

No tongues

Let Trixie with her big tits sit up front with your Daddy.

“In our circles, in our circles…”

I used to mix her up with Bernadette Peters.

R12 I read an interview with Madeline some years back, early to mid 90s, and she said Jan was one of her favorite working actresses.

I hope they met.

“This little baby doll has to go winky tinky.”

She WAS Madeline Kahn!

R18 Madeline hosted SNL when she was a cast member I think

She was fabulous as Dr. Gorgeous Teitelbaum in The Sisters Rosensweig.

Talking to her sister, Pfeni, about her bisexual (but gay-leaning) boyfriend: “I know you can’t judge a book by its cover, but you’re in the wrong library all together.”

Was watching Shanghai Express 1932 and all I could think about was Madeline Kahn.

She was also a great singer.

Mel Brooks told a sweet story about how he asked to see her legs when he was casting Blazing Saddles. She refused, and said you’re just going to have to trust me, I have great legs! He did, and they were.

R16, I adore Eunice Burns but I came here for your post.

They really, really weren't, R25. Take another look.

Her legs look just fine to me. Let's see yours, butch.

*bitch

Madeline Kahn was sublime.

Off topic but my mother did not care for Cloris Leachman on tv - did not think she was funny at all but in Mel Brooks movies she thought Cloris was hilarious- Young Frankenstein and as Nurse Diesel in High Anxiety.

She was also an opera lover. She even won Opera Quiz against Charles Nelson Reilly and Kitty Carlisle.

Please see Part I below.

Opera Quiz Part II

Here's a short clip from 'Who Done It: The CLUE Documentary' (2022), with Michael McKean (who played Mr. Green to Kahn's Miss Scarlet) describing Madeline Kahn and her endearing awareness and embrace of her absent-mindedness.

2025 is the 40th Anniversary of the original release of the movie CLUE. Cinemark theaters had screenings of it earlier this week, each night with one of the three alternate endings.

R20, you’re fucking boring

[Quote] Madeline Kahn Nude Collection Scandal Planet The Best Porn Website 70620 | Hot Sex Picture

What a lovely scholarly source you consulted, r28

My mother had never seen Madeline Kahn. She discovered her on Cosby. One day she told how great this actress was on Cosby. I said, That's Madeline Kahn. She said, Oh my God, she's fantastic.

My cousin was good friends with her...he even used her in some of his “Woody Allen” wannabe movies.....

Madeline played my aunt in one (as the nut job she was) and my aunt was very insulted when you pointed that out to her...

[quote] Kahn was cast in the role of Agnes Gooch in the 1974 film Mame, but star Lucille Ball fired Kahn due to artistic differences. (Several of Ball's biographies say Kahn was eager to be released from the role so that she could join the cast of Blazing Saddles, a film about to go into production. Kahn stated in a 1996 interview with Charlie Rose that she was fired. Ball's version was that Kahn had already been offered Blazing Saddles and thus deliberately got herself fired by acting badly in the first few days of shooting for Mame.

Will we ever know?

And will those parentheses ever be closed?

Lucy Ball pulled a Helen Lawson.

"BOB! OH BOB!"

I think she said Madeline wouldn't show her how she was going to play the character. Madeline was working it out. Apparently this was something she did (and it occasionally caused problems on other projects). It could be true, I used to be an actor and some actors do this. But this would not have been Lucy's style. I can't picture her waiting while a supporting actress worked out how she was going to say the lines to her.

Or she didn't laugh

Madeline didn’t TRY to be funny. She WAS funny!

How come she was fired from On The Twentieth Century? (or did she quit?)

As for Lucy having Madeline fired for being too good or too funny, that doesn't seem in character. I mean, she could sometimes be a bitch, but not in that particular way.

I like the story where Prince saw a performance of 20th Century. She was totally brilliant. He ran backstage afterwards and told her 'That's it! That's the performance!' She said to him, 'You expect me to do that 8 times a week?'

Bogdonovich tells the story where he told Kahn to see What's Up Doc at Radio City where it had its premiere NY engagement. She went. I don't know how long she lasted but she came out distraught. She said 'They were laughing at me!' She ended up in therapy. Well that's the story Bogdonovich tells.

At the first reading Streisand said something like I'm having my own film stolen from me.

Streisand didn't acknowledge Kahn on set after Madeline got bigger laughs than she did during rehearsals.

Lucy wanted everyone around her to be on top of their game, even in rehearsals. She famously bitched Richard Burton out in rehearsals because she thought he was throwing away good lines with his delivery. If Madeline was just starting to develop a character, I could see why that would annoy her. I can only imagine how that conversation went down because Lucy was not one to mince words.

What I can't believe is why she wanted Jane Connell as a replacement instead. Connell was 49 playing a young maid who gets knocked up at the end.

I lived in the NYC area in the 90s when i was a big opera fan, and I often saw her in the lobby during intermissions.

I love her so much I never went up to tell her, because I was sure she wanted to be left alone. But I loved seeing her.

I momentarily thought Madleen Kane and Madeline Kahn were the same.

I was telling my friend I’d seen a Madeline Kahn disco album at the record store and he was like, “???”

Madeline singing. Without moving from her spot, but with vocal inflection, facial expression, and hand gestures, she is an absolute delight, she's funny, just endearing.

The song's lovely and amusing Irving Berlin's "You'd be Surprised!"

“It’s twu. It’s weally twu!”

[quote] Kahn is up there with Radner but not Ball or Burnett. She was a supporting player. She could steal any scene in any project. But as a leading actress, she was somewhat tiresome.

Lucille Ball was a star only in the lesser medium of the television sitcom after years of failing to develop as a film actress (no matter how many times her fans claim that she was good in The Big Street). Kahn may have been a supporting player in most of her film roles, but her artistry and excellence in multiple mediums far exceed Ball's limited career.

R55

“far exceed Ball's limited career”

How do you say that with a straight face?

If you walk down the street in Indianapolis 10/10 people will know who Lucille Ball is. You will be lucky to have 2/10 that knows Madeline Kahn.

I recently rewatched episodes of her comedy series, and I was surprised by how mediocre it was. I don't place the blame on her, because the stories were average at best, but she didn't have that sparkle that she has in her movie roles. Basically, it was a generic 80's sitcom.

Lucy could carry a show based on her personality. Madeline shines when she is part of an ensemble. They have different strengths.

[quote] How do you say that with a straight face?

You're talking about fame. I was talking accomplishment.

Kim Kardashian is more famous than both of them.

Also, "If you walk down the street in Indianapolis" is such a DataLounge thing to say.

A few days ago, the YouTube channel The Awards Contender released this video, making the case that Madeline Kahn deserved a Best Supporting Actress nomination for CLUE (1985).

I don't know if I'd go that far, R60, but 1985 is a weak field of Supporting Actress nominees and contenders.

Madeline should have been nominated for Clue, she was terrific and her "I hate her sooo much..." scene is iconic (at least in the circles I frequent)

I recently rewatched "Son of Frankenstein" and was struck by how much the actress playing the Baroness Frankenstein facially resembled Madeline Kahn. I can imagine Gene Wilder watching it on TV one night and thinking, okay, we've gotta do a Tijuana Bible version of this with me and Madeline.

Madeline was talented but a suggestion that she was more accomplished than Lucy verges on Liza Loons territory.

Madeline Kahn and Lucille Ball were completely different kinds of comic actresses. Lucy excelled at slapstick, and Kahn excelled at verbal comedy and surprising line inflections. I don't think Kahn could have been as funny as Lucy on the candy assembly line or wearing the heavy Ziegfeld headdress, but then again Ball could never have imitated Marlene Dietrich (in Blazing Saddles) and been funny, nor could she have done the great obscene phone call routine Kahn did in High Anxiety.

They were both hilarious in very different ways--why not enjoy them both for what they each did so well?. I do not understand this obsession Dataloungers ahve with making everything a contest between beloved women stars.

Loved her Tony Award acceptance speech for The Sisters Rosensweig. One had the feeling that she felt so grateful and honored to be appreciated and taken seriously as an actress. Lovely performance.

[quote] I like the story where Prince saw a performance of 20th Century. She was totally brilliant. He ran backstage afterwards and told her 'That's it! That's the performance!' She said to him, 'You expect me to do that 8 times a week?'

First time I read this, I thought, "Okay...interesting...I didn't know Prince knew Madeline Kahn but I guess he might have..."

r67, I would die 4 U.

I'll get away

to St. Tropez,

in gin and bitters drown my jitters!

"The lesser medium of television." "Ball's limited career." Oh, my God. Hold me back!

And comparing Lucy's fame (which was earned, because people loved her acting) and the Kardashians. Oh my. Just cease.

Marlene Dietrich allegedly did not care for Madeline's impersonation of her in Blazing Saddles.

[quote] Marlene Dietrich allegedly did not care for Madeline's impersonation of her in Blazing Saddles.

Not a woman known for having a sense of humor about herself.

One can hardly bwame Marwena for that.

Getting Married Today from Sondheim's Company.

Kahn thought the audience was laughing at her. No, they were laughing WITH her.

The JUDGE was laughing at ("That's unbelievable.")

Streisand thought Kahn was getting more laughs? She was!

But Judy got the guy in the end.

R67 thank you for posting that. I didn't even think of Harold until I read your comment.

Glad to know I wasn't the only one confused by those worlds potentially colliding

Love her

A beautiful spirit who went to heaven too soon...

I wonder if she was a fan of any other contemporary actress. It would be interesting to learn who she liked to watch.

Madeline had that great weird energy. You look at all the kooky stuff people are making now and it’s a goddamn shame she’s not around to be in it.

she died so young

I just missed seeing her in Two by Two. Is it discussed in her biography why she left the show early?

Here's delightful Madeline serenading delighted Rosie O'Donnell and her studio audience with "Singing in the Bathtub". Even the way she raises her eyebrows is hilarious.

.... and, during a Sondheim tribute, performing "Not Getting Married Today."

Wasn't she in the Law & Order episode where she killed her husband because he was genetically black?

And then she performed Not Getting Married Today.

In high school I was very into art deco and stagecraft - the first time I saw On The 20th Century's commercial I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

Kahn had left the show by the time my parents took us, but I listened to the Cast Album so many times every idiosyncratic syllable of her performance still rattles around in my brain.

Chauffeur, Butler, Cook - they're foreign and they're old!!

For R16 and the rest...

Stay for the finale.

Madeline would have been great doing a show like Mrs. Maisel.

I think the reason Oh Madeline wasn't very good, was because she was playing an ordinary housewife. She works best when in some kind of character.