Madeline Kahn Dies Of Cancer

Madeline Kahn, an Oscar-nominated actress and comedian who was often called the funniest woman in America after a string of movie successes in the 1970s, including roles in "Blazing Saddles," "Paper Moon" and "Young Frankenstein," died yesterday of ovarian cancer. She was 57.

Kahn had been battling the disease for the past year but acknowledged it publicly last month in an effort to heighten awareness of its dangers.

Although best remembered for her madcap heroines, Kahn had a broad-ranging career that spanned Broadway to Hollywood, musicals to straight drama to roll-on-the-floor comedy.

She earned two Oscar nominations for best supporting actress for her portrayal of a tramp named Trixie Delight in the 1973 film "Paper Moon" and for her role as a Marlene Dietrich parody in "Blazing Saddles," in 1974.

She won a Tony Award for best actress in 1993 with her performance as a Jewish bimbo named Gorgeous Teitelbaum in "The Sisters Rosensweig."

Her other honors included Tony nominations for her work in "In the Boom Boom Room" in 1973; "On the 20th Century" in 1978; and "Born Yesterday" in 1989, and an Emmy for her role in an ABC Afterschool Special in 1987.

Most recently, she was featured as Bill Cosby's neighbor Pauline in the CBS sitcom "Cosby."

Kahn was born in Boston and raised in New York City.She obtained a drama scholarship to Hofstra University, where she trained as a speech therapist. She also did classical singing in Hofstra productions and joined an opera workshop.

In 1972, she made her film debut in Peter Bogdanovich's "What's Up, Doc?"

A chance meeting with Mel Brooks at the Warner Bros. commissary launched Kahn in the roles most associated with her career - from the fussy, primping fiancee of Dr. Frankenstein, played by Gene Wilder in "Young Frankenstein" to the Teutonic vixen in "Blazing Saddles."

But Kahn did not perceive herself as a funny person. In contrast to her vampy, campy screen roles, she was a reserved, polite woman who lived in a book-strewn Park Avenue apartment and often thought she should have become a psychotherapist. But, she once mused, that contrast probably contributed to her success.

She leaves her husband, attorney John Hansbury, whom she wed in October, and a brother, Jeffrey Kahn.