American actress, comedian, voice actress, and singer, known for her fey and magical delivery of comedy roles. Her memorable, madcap turns in “Blazing Saddles” and “Young Frankenstein” were punctuated with flouncy gestures, wriggling hips and a lisping, nasal voice that made every line distinctive. She was one-of-a-kind, a lady who set her own agendas.
Khan grew up in New York with a singer-actress mother, divorced from her dad. After graduation from drama school, Kahn showed a knack for stealing scenes from her first movie, 1972’s “What’s Up, Doc?” She won supporting actress nods with two classic performances two years in a row, in “Paper Moon,” 1973 and “Blazing Saddles,” 1974.
A couple with John Hansbury for a decade, they wed in October 1999, her only marriage. They lived in a book-crammed Manhattan apartment.
Cancer was diagnosed in September 1998. On 4 November 1999, the intensely private actress went public with her illness. She was so weakened that she had to leave the sitcom on which she was so popular, “Cosby,” in which she played Phylicia Rashad’s best friend, Pauline. After three rounds of chemotherapy, three surgeries and experimental treatments, she died of ovarian cancer on 3 December 1999, Manhattan, NY. At her side were her husband, John Hansbury, her brother Jeffrey and his 13-year-old daughter Eliza, who “meant everything” to the childless Kahn.
Link to Wikipedia biography