Kahn was innate inside Boston, Massachusetts, as Madeline Gail Wolfson to a Jewish family. Her mother, Paula, was Xvii once Kahn was innate. Although Kahn's parents were high-high sweethearts, it divorced while she was Deuce. Fallowing a divorcement was finalized, Kahn & her mother moved to New York City. 2 or three years late, her mother remarried & this union gave Kahn two half-siblings (Jeffrey & Robyn). Inside 1948, Kahn was sent to a progressive boarding school around Pennsylvania and stayed there until 1952. In the period of that instance, her mother pursued her ambition as an actress. Ironically, Kahn before long began acting herself & performed within the total of school productions. Around 1960, she graduated from either a Martinside Van Buren High School in Queens, NY where she earned a drama scholarship to Hofstra University. At Hofstra, she exposed music, drama, & speech therapy & as well performed around many campus productions. Fallowing changing her major the total of days, Kahn graduated around 1964 by having the degree around speech therapy.

Kahn began auditioning for agency acting roles shortly fallowing her graduation from either Hofstra; unofficially, she briefly taught public school within Levittown, NY. Good prior to adopting a sales person title of Madeline Kahn (Kahn was her stepfather's family name), she processed her stage debut as the showgirl within a revival of Kiss Me, Kate which led her to join the Actors' Equity. Inside 1968, she earned her first break in Broadway by using New Faces of 1968 and then performed her first lead role in the musical Candide. She debuted within the film that equivalent season by having the role in De Düva: A Dove. Her best known roles followed in the 1970s: she appeared in ''What's Up, Doc? (1972), Paper Moon (1973), Young Frankenstein (1974), Blazing Saddles (1974), and High Anxiety'' (1977). A final threesome films were 100% directed by Mel Brooks, who numbers of Hollywood observers claimed was a cappella to bring out a right of Kahn's funny talents. For her function inside Paper Moon & Blazing Saddles, a immature comedienne received nominations for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Kahn's roles were primarily comedic like than striking. When her profits inside Brooks's films, she played within the total of less successful films in the Eighties. At the prevent of her career, she returned to the stage & won a Tony Award for her role in The Sisters Rosensweig, a play by Wendy Wasserstein. In the final years of her life, she played the major role on the sitcom Cosby and voiced Gypsy a moth inside ''A Bug's Life, before succumbing to ovarian cancer on December 3, 1999. She was just 57 years old.

She was survived by her hubby (John Hansbury), mother (Paula Kahn), brother (Jeffrey Kahn), & niece (Eliza Kahn).

In the early 1990s, Kahn recorded a voice for the animated movie The Magic 7; along with John Candy, she will be one of 2 at peace actors sustaining voices therein motion-picture show.

Theater

Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1968 - 1968 Two By Two - 1970 Boom Boom Room - 1973 On the Twentieth Century - 1978 Born Yesterday - 1989 The Sisters Rosensweig'' - 1993 As well inside 1981 she was back by having Brooks inside "Mel Brooks' History of the World: Part 1"

Movies
De Duva: The Dove (1968) (short subject) ''What's Up, Doc? (1972) Paper Moon (1973) From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1973) Blazing Saddles (1974) Young Frankenstein (1974) At Long Last Love (1975) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975) Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976) High Anxiety (1977) The Cheap Detective (1978) The Muppet Movie (1979) (Cameo) Happy Birthday, Gemini (1980) Simon (1980) Wholly Moses (1980) First Family (1980) History of the World: Part I (1981) Slapstick (Of Another Kind) (1982) Scrambled Feet (1983) Group Madness (1983) (documentary) Yellowbeard (1983) City Heat (1984) Clue (1985) My Little Pony: The Movie (1986) (voice) An American Tail (1986) (voice) Betsy's Wedding (1990) For Richer, for Poorer (1992) Mixed Nuts (1994) Nixon (1995) The Volunteers (1997) A Bug's Life (1998) (voice) Judy Berlin (1999) The Magic 7 (2005) (voice)

Television
Comedy Tonight - 1970 Harvey - 1972 Oh Madeline - 1983 Wanted: The Perfect Guy - 1986 Mr. President - 1987 Welcome to the Monkey House - 1991 Lucky Luke - 1991 For Richer, for Poorer - 1992 New York News - 1995 London Suite - 1996 Cosby'' - 1996