To say that I loved her is to say too little. She left us too soon. The 1st time that I took notice of Madeline Kahn was in Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up Doc? (one of my favorite films of all time) as the hysterical fiancée of Ryan O'Neal. What a feature film debut!
I was lucky enough to have seen her on Broadway in On The Twentieth Century with Kevin Kline, She Loves Me with Barry Bostwick, In The Boom Boom Room, & off-Broadway in Marco Polo Sings A Solo, back in those crazy 1970s. Her legacy will always have the triple crown of the close succession of Kahn comedies: Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), & High Anxiety (1977), all were directed by Mel Brooks, who many Hollywood observers claimed was 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 Paper Moon, again with Bogdanovich directing. Kahn won a Tony for Windy Wassersein's The Sisters Rosenweig.
She died of ovarian cancer in 1999, & my life has never been the same. She was truly loved by the Husband & Me. Just a few nights ago, we stumbled on High Anxiety while channel hopping & we commented on her genius. Madeline Kahn, you are missed. She would have been 68 years old today.
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