TV series Taxi. Despite her signature bouncy
curls and girlish voice, Kane swears she’s rare-
ly recognized on the subway, which she takes
almost every day. “I wear a strange-looking hat,”
she says with a laugh. “I feel very safe in that.”
She talked about what she’s learned over five
decades on stage and screen.
An act of kindness—especially from Jack Nichol-
son—goes a long way.
For Kane, being nominated for a Best Actress
Oscar for 1975’s Hester Street at just 23 years
old—“I was still collecting unemployment,” she
says—was “very overwhelming.” She says she
was unprepared: “When you get nominated
you become extremely popular.” Kane lost the
award to One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’s Lou-
ise Fletcher, and the next morning, she recalls
being alone in her hotel room, “picking up the
phone to make sure there’s a dial tone, because
it was so quiet.” When her friend and former
costar Jack Nicholson, who had won Best Actor
for Cuckoo’s Nest, called, she was deeply moved.
“Jack knows what it’s like to win—and not to
win,” she says. “He knows what the next day’s
like.” Nicholson invited Kane to lunch and drove
to pick her up. “It makes me want to cry because
it was so kind,” Kane remembers, tearing up.
Revel in your beauty while you’re young.
Asked what advice she’d give her younger self,
Kane says, “To try and enjoy my beauty that I
had when I was young. I thought I wasn’t pretty
enough. I look back and I think, ‘Boy, I wast-
ed those 15 years.’ ” But she’s still on the fence
about her distinctive voice, saying she feels
“shame” about it: “It’s just an odd voice.” (She
lowered it to play villain Madam Morrible in
the musical Wicked when she starred in various
productions from 2005 to 2014.) Kane says it
especially embarrasses her when phone oper-
ators—“American Airlines!”—can discern who
she is just by hearing her speak: “I wish my voice
was deep and beautiful and sexy.”The Young Star
“I became successful very
young,” says Kane (in 1976)
of skipping college. “But
I never thought, ‘Oh I’m
going to be a star.’ ”Annie Hall
“I can look back at that film and
be proud of what I did,” Kane
says of playing Allison Portchnik,
Alvy’s (Woody Allen) first wife,
in the 1977 classic.Taxi
From 1980 to 1983 she played
Simka Dahblitz-Gravas, wife of
Latka Gravas (Andy Kaufman)
on the sitcom, for which she
won an Emmy (left) in 1982.Close Bond
Kane lives in the
same building as her
“remarkable” mom,
Joy, a composer who
is still teaching at 93.Puppy Love
Kane rescued her beloved
dog Johnny six years
ago. “He was in such bad
shape,” but she nursed
him back to health.Carol in her Teens
“I was in love with
acting,” says Kane
(above at 17,
attending the
Professional Children’s
School in New York
City). She landed
her first theater role
in The Prime of Miss
Jean Brodie at age 14.
“It was a lucky way to
start,” she says.Queen ofQuirkAlmost 50 years of
memorable rolesHer NewYork WorldIssueDate