Madeline Kahn's Real Name: Madeline Kahn

Quick answer: The actor was known professionally as Madeline Kahn. Women in World History, via Encyclopedia.com, lists the full name Madeline Gail Kahn, the birth date September 29, 1942, in Boston, Massachusetts, and the death date December 3, 1999, in New York, of ovarian cancer. A Los Angeles Times obituary independently says she was born in Boston, was raised in New York City, and died on that Friday of ovarian cancer at 57, but does not record a longer legal name or a calendar birth date. Because the longer name appears in only one of the sources used here, it is not used as an agreed title.

Real name and early life

The Encyclopedia.com entry records that she was born Madeline Gail Kahn on September 29, 1942, in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of Bernard B. Wolfson, a dress manufacturer, and Paula Kahn, and that she later graduated from Martin Van Buren High School in Queens and earned a B.A. at Hofstra University in 1964. The Los Angeles Times independently says she was born in Boston and raised in New York City, and that her mother encouraged her early interest in performing, but it does not give a birth date or the name Wolfson. Those additional name and date details appear only in Encyclopedia.com.

Career highlights

Both accounts discuss her 1970s film work with especial attention to Mel Brooks's Blazing Saddles (1974) and Young Frankenstein (1974). The Times also names Paper Moon among those successes; Encyclopedia.com independently lists Paper Moon as well, along with High Anxiety (1977). Both describe later stage work and a Tony Award; the Times frames her as an Oscar-nominated, Tony- and Emmy-winning actress, and Encyclopedia.com discusses earlier Tony-nominated stage performances, including Boom Boom Room (1973). The two sources overlap on those film titles, and each records its own list of honors.

Death

The Los Angeles Times, in a report dated December 4, 1999, said she died the previous Friday of ovarian cancer at age 57, after a year of illness. Encyclopedia.com independently gives the death date December 3, 1999, in New York, New York, of ovarian cancer, which matches that Friday.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Madeline Kahn or Madeline Gail Kahn are looking for the same actor known from Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles. The longer name is documented in one of the sources used here, not independently confirmed by the other.