Carol Kane was born on June 18, 1952 in Cleveland, Ohio, and named, by her parents, Carolyn Laurie Kane, . Her dad was an architect and her mom was a jazz singer, dancer and pianist. Her parents are both Jewish, and Carol's grandparents came from Russia, when they fled the Czar's pograms. Her dad got a Fulbright scholarship and worked for the World Bank and traveled a great deal, to Nigeria and Egypt. The family spent one year in Paris, where she learned fluent French at the Ecole du Pere Castor, and she also lived in Haiti. The family moved to New York City when Carol was eight, but her parents had started to split up by then, and there she went to the The Professional Children's School in Manhattan, because she had always wanted to act since the age of six. She landed her first part by the age of seven, and by the age of fourteen, she was acting professionally and went on to act in theaters all over the Northeast, including Lincoln Center where she costarred in Macbeth with Christopher Lloyd, and they would act together later in Taxi, the TV series. Her first stage role, at 14, was as Jenny in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie with Tammy Grimes. During that time she worked as an extra in New York to make ends meet, and she landed important parts with Joseph Papp's Public Theater and the Charles Street Playhouse in Boston. She later appeared in The Enchanted at the Kennedy Center for the Arts, and Ring around the Bathtub, and Arturo-Ui on Broadway. She appeared as Miranda in the 1974 Joseph Papp production of Shakespeare's The Tempest, along with Christopher Walken and Sam Waterston and appeared as a witch in Macbeth at Lincoln Center..

When Carol's parents split up when she was only 12, it greatly disturbed her. She went from an A+ student to nearly flunking out of school. Carol and her older sister remained with her mother Joy, but Carol began going to a therapist. She went to the same New York psychiatrist for more than 11 years. Carol has been a vegetarian from the age of 15, but she doesn't resent other people's preference for meat.

Carol first appeared on Taxi as a guest star in the episode (#40) Guess Who's Coming for Brenfish? She later appeared in Episode (#81) Simka Returns, and she won two Emmys for her part as Simka Dahblitz, the sweetheart and wife of Latka, played by Andy Kaufman. She later reprised the role in 1997 on the Tony Danza TV Show.

Carol got her first break in pictures, at the age of 17, because the casting director had remembered her walk-on in "Little Murders." She was cast as a prostitute in "Carnal Knowledge", where she got to know and became fast friends with Jack Nicholson. She later appeared, again as a prostitute, in his film "The Last Detail". She starred in "Wedding in White" which won the Canadian "Best Picture" award in 1973. She got the part of the bank clerk Squirrel in "Dog Day Afternoon. She studied Yiddish at a neighborhood Hebrew school in order to get the part of Gitl in Joan Micklin Silver's "Hester Street." Carol was nominated for an Oscar for that role in the 1975 film. She has appeared in over 70 films, from her first unbilled appearance as one of the married Gnomes in the Gnome-Mobile in 1967 to her appearance as herself in the recently released film about Andy Kaufman called "Man on the Moon" in 1999. She has a recurring role as Lydia Luddin in the Showtime TV series "Beggars and Choosers". Her acting skills have shown brightly in comedy and dramatic roles, with this latest film listing of her movie and television appearances

Carol's distinct features are her diminuitive size, pale skin, blond hair and her uniquely beautiful face and high voice. Although she has the appearance of being fragile, she is a very strong person by nature and intellectually. She holds out for what she believes is right in her film roles. The early divorce of her parents and loss of a father figure did cause her some feelings of insecurity, and she used psychiatric analysis as an aid for many years. Her comic and dramatic skills have landed her many film roles, such as the lead role in 1997's Office Killer, Grandma Addams in !993's Addams Family Values, the ghost of Christmas Present in Scrooged, and Jill the babysitter in When a Stranger Calls, in which the opening 12 minute scene remains one of the most memorable in the history of film. Since 1996, Carol has appeared in five plays by Beth Henley, most recently in Family Week, in April, 2000. Carol has remained single all of her life and lives with her two pug dogs. Carol most recently has been playing Madame Morrible in the hit musical Wicked on Broadway.

Here is a poem by Carol which appeared in the Magazine 'After Dark', September, 1973:
"gentle endings
the world has given me
with candlelight
weave
past me, sleep
with me
i weave them by
my hair, the cares
i choose to give you

gentle endings
where the child i hold
where the poem
i build, where
the womb
of silk
i mold as i let go
of all
to flow through another
gentle ending."

Carol Kane