Carol Kane is a renowned actress from the United States. She rose to fame for her performance in Hester Street (1975), which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, she gained prominence in movies like Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Annie Hall (1977), When a Stranger Calls (1979), The Princess Bride (1987), Scrooged (1988), and Flashback (1990).
Early Life & Education
Carolyn Laurie Kane was born on June 18, 1952, in Cleveland, and comes from a family of Jewish heritage. Her parents are Joy, a multi-talented jazz performer, teacher, and dancer, and Michael Kane, an architect. Her grandparents originated from Russia, Austria, and Poland.
Kane’s childhood was marked by frequent moves due to her father’s job. At the age of eight, she briefly resided in Paris and began learning French. When she was ten, she also lived in Haiti. However, at the age of 12, her parents divorced.
Until 1965, she was a student at Cherry Lawn School, a boarding school located in Darien, Connecticut. Additionally, she pursued theater at HB Studio and attended the Professional Children’s School in New York City.
At the age of 14, she joined both the Screen Actors Guild and the Actors’ Equity Association. Her first professional theater role was in a 1966 production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which starred Tammy Grimes and marked her debut as an Actors’ Equity member.
Carol Kane’s Career
In 1971, Carol Kane made her debut in film acting, appearing in “Desperate Characters” and “Carnal Knowledge.” She continued to act in “Wedding in White” (1972), “The Last Detail” (1973), “Dog Day Afternoon” (1975), “Harry and Walter Go to New York” (1976), “Valentino” (1977), “The World’s Greatest Lover” (1977), “The Muppet Movie” (1979), and “La Sabina” (1979). She received an Academy Award nomination for her role in “Hester Street” (1975).
In 1977, she appeared in the Woody Allen-directed movie “Annie Hall,” which received an Academy Award for Best Picture. Two years later, she took on the main role of Jill Johnson in the psychological thriller “When a Stranger Calls.”
She revisited her character in the 1993 television adaptation “When a Stranger Calls Back.” In 1974 and 1980, Kane was featured in the made-for-TV movies “We, the Woman” and “The Greatest Man in the World.”
Additionally, she portrayed Simka Dahblitz-Gravas, the eventual spouse of Andy Kaufman’s Latka Gravas, on the sitcom “Taxi” from 1980 to 1983. The show was recognized with three Primetime Emmys for Outstanding Comedy, and Carol received two Emmys for her role.
Furthermore, she starred alongside Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Billy Crystal, and Mandy Patinkin in 1987’s “The Princess Bride,” which was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry in 2016 due to its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.
Kane made several appearances as a guest star on popular sitcoms and dramas such as “Laverne & Shirley” (1982), “Cheers” (1984), “Tales from the Darkside” (1985), “Tales from the Crypt” (1990), “Seinfeld” (1994), “Empty Nest” (1994), “Chicago Hope” (1996), “Ellen” (1996), and “Homicide: Life on the Street” (1997).
During the 1990s, Carol was featured in over 20 movies such as “Flashback” (1990), “My Blue Heaven” (1990), “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” (1993), “Addams Family Values” (1993), “The Pallbearer” (1996), “Jawbreaker” (1999), and “Man on the Moon” (1999), a film about comedian Andy Kaufman.
Carol Kane voiced animated shows like “Family Guy”, “Dora the Explorer”, “Jake and the Never Land Pirates”, “Phineas and Ferb”, “Star vs. the Forces of Evil”, “Vampirina”, “F is for Family”, “Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure”, and “Big Mouth”.
She guest-starred on “Two and a Half Men”, “Monk”, “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”, “Ugly Betty”, “Girls”, and “Halt and Catch Fire”.
She also reunited with her “Scrooged” co-star Bill Murray in the 2019 zombie movie “The Dead Don’t Die.” Between 2014 and 2016, Kane portrayed the character of Gertrud Kapelput, the Penguin’s mother, in the prequel series “Gotham.”
She then went on to play the role of the quirky landlady, Lillian Kaushtupper, in “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” a series created by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, from 2015 to 2020.
In 2020, Carol Kane returned to her role in the interactive film “Kimmy vs the Reverend.” Before that, she played Bianca Nova on HBO’s “Los Espookys” in 2019, where she acted alongside Fred Armisen, who portrayed her character’s love interest and murderer Robert Durst from “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.”
Additionally, Carol started appearing on the Amazon Prime Video show “Hunters” in 2020, sharing the screen with Al Pacino and Logan Lerman.
Net Worth
With a net worth of $3 million, Carol Kane is an accomplished American actress. She gained recognition for her Emmy-winning portrayal of Simka Dahblitz-Gravas on the popular ABC/NBC show “Taxi” (1980-1983) and also appeared as Lillian Kaushtupper on the Netflix series “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” (2015-2020).
