Carol Kane
Biography
Carol Kane is an American actress and comedian who was born in Cleveland and began appearing on screen while still a teenager, with small roles in Carnal Knowledge (1971) and The Last Detail (1973). Her leading performance in Hester Street (1975) brought an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, and she went on to appear in Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Annie Hall (1977), When a Stranger Calls (1979), and The Princess Bride (1987). She won two Emmy Awards for playing Simka Gravas on Taxi in the early 1980s, a role that helped shift her toward comedy, including Scrooged (1988) and My Blue Heaven (1990). On stage, she portrayed Madame Morrible in Wicked in touring and Broadway productions during the 2000s and 2010s. She was a main cast member on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt as Lillian Kaushtupper, and her performance in Between the Temples (2024) won a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress.
74years old
Turns 75 on June 18in 249 days
- Born Cleveland
- Star sign: GeminiThe sign runs May 21 to June 20
- Carolyn Laurie Kane (birth name)
Movie Career
- Films
- 60
- Career span
- 55 years1971 to 2026
First and latest
Photos
Share
Did you know?!
First role
Carol Kane's first professional theater role came in 1966, when she appeared in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie alongside Tammy Grimes. It was also her first job with Actors' Equity.
Big break
Kane theorized she was cast as Simka on Taxi partly because much of her dialogue in Hester Street was in Yiddish, since Simka speaks a fictional vaguely Eastern European language.
A first
At age 14, Kane joined both the Screen Actors Guild and the Actors' Equity Association, becoming a member of each organization.
Languages
When she was eight years old, Kane briefly lived in Paris, and it was in that city that she began learning to speak French.
A first
In January 2011, Kane debuted in London's West End, appearing at the Comedy Theatre in a revival of Lillian Hellman's drama The Children's Hour with Keira Knightley, Elisabeth Moss and Ellen Burstyn.
Big break
Before she was cast as Chief Engineer Pelia in season two of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Kane had not watched any episode of the original Star Trek series, and she has said the writers felt that improved her performance.
Carol Kane movies on Netflix
Best known for
The films on Netflix they are best known for, with the part played in each.
Most often with
Fred Walton directed two of these films, Richard Benjamin two. Charles Durning appears in six of them, more than any other actor. Pick a number on the chart or a name in the list to see the films they share.
Films together
Charles Durning's page
Steve Buscemi's page
Michael McKean's page
Seymour Cassel's page
Rutanya Alda's page
Eileen Brennan's page
All films by Fred Walton
All films by Richard Benjamin
Box office
What Carol Kane's films earned in cinemas worldwide.
Combined worldwide box office
$1.4 billion
33 of the 60 films have a worldwide figure.
Of the 60 films: 33 worldwide figure; 8 us gross only; 9 never in cinemas; 10 figure not found.
- 33Worldwide figure
- 8US gross only
- 9Never in cinemas
- 10Figure not found
Top grosser
Highest grossing
The eight biggest films earned 76% of the total. The bars are drawn to scale.
- 1$299M21.7% of the total
- 2$199M14.5% of the total
- 3$164M11.9% of the total
- 4$136M9.9% of the total
- 5$76M5.6% of the total
- 6$60M4.4% of the total
- 7$57M4.1% of the total
- 8$49M3.6% of the total
$334 millionfrom the other 25 films with a worldwide figure, 24% of the total
Awards
Three awards and honors from 1982 to 1988, two of them major.
| Year | Award | Film | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emmy Awards | |||
| 1983 | Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series | Taxi | Won |
| 1982 | Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series | Taxi | Won |
| Other honors | |||
| 1988 | Ohio Women's Hall of Fame | Won | |
Online
Official profiles and reference pages.