Bowing Out

Madeline KAHN born 1942

Not since Carole Lombard and Judy Holliday had anyone made sexy as funny as Madeline Kahn. Even her character names attest to it: exotic dancer Trixie Delight in Paper Moon, saloon singer Lili Von Shtupp in Blazing Saddles, ditsy matron Dr. Gorgeous Teitelbaum in Broadway's The Sisters Rosensweig. And so do the cluster of classics (including Young Frankenstein and What's Up, Doc?) in which she batted her eyes, tossed her hair, and cracked us up. When she died Dec. 3 at 57 from ovarian cancer, Kahn was a kook emeritus, a trouper who, after an education in speech therapy and training as an opera singer, cut her teeth on Broadway, then hit the movies in 1972 with Doc. She often imbued her campy vamps with nasally squeals, girlish lisps, and tigress-like growls. Kahn earned Best Supporting Actress nominations two years in a row, for Moon (1973) and Saddles (1974)--the latter highlighted by her hilariously silly Marlene Dietrich send-up "I'm Tired." A 1983 sitcom, Oh Madeline, failed, but 1993's Sisters Rosensweig nabbed her a Tony for Best Actress. Of late, she had appeared on CBS' Cosby, and her final role is in the indie flick Judy Berlin (due in February). Kahn didn't speak about her illness until just before her death, hoping her voice would raise awareness of the disease. "Laughter is [strange]. I mean, what is it?" she once mused. "It's some sort of explosive reaction." And one that always seemed to follow her. --JN

Allen FUNT born 1914

He was such an inveterate prankster that even his death took a moment to sink in. When Candid Camera host Allen Funt, 84, passed away from natural causes Sept. 5 at his home in Pebble Beach, Calif., he left behind a television tradition of catching people "in the act of being themselves," plus an infamous catchphrase--"Smile! You're on Candid Camera!"--that may well outlive us all. Born in Brooklyn, Funt broke into radio advertising after graduating from Cornell University. In 1947, after a stint in Armed Forces Radio during World War II, he took a radio program he had created called Candid Microphone to ABC, where it ran for less than a year before moving to NBC and being transformed into Candid Camera. In 1949 the program moved to CBS. In no time, Candid Camera became one of the most popular shows on TV: It would air for more than 40 years with a range of cohosts including Phyllis George and Loni Anderson. And well before his own death, Funt created a charity called the Laughter Therapy Foundation, which distributes Candid Camera tapes to critically ill patients. Obviously, he truly believed that laughter is the best medicine. --AE