Carol Kane: A Look at the Actress’ Quirky Hollywood Journey, From ‘The Princess Bride’ to ‘Between the Temples’

With her big blue eyes, wild mane of blonde curls and adorably high voice, Carol Kane has always cut a distinctive presence onscreen. Best known for roles in TV shows like Taxi and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and movies like When a Stranger Calls , The Princess Bride and Scrooged , the quirky star has amassed an impressive resume over the years, with nearly 200 credits to her name.

Much of Kane’s work has been in supporting roles, but she’s always a scene-stealer. She currently has a rare but very welcome starring role in the independent comedy film Between the Temples , playing a mature woman who makes the surprising choice to start preparing for her bat mitzvah (a Jewish ceremony typically undertaken when a person turns 13) with the help of a sad sack rabbi who was once her student.

It's great to see Carol Kane back in the spotlight, but she’s never stopped working. Here’s a look back at her long career.

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Carol Kane’s early career

Kane had an auspicious start in the early '70s, when films were becoming bolder and more experimental and a fresh new crop of stars was emerging. She made her debut in Carnal Knowledge , starring Jack Nicholson , in 1971, and worked with the Hollywood icon again in the 1973 film The Last Detail .

Kane’s first starring role was in the 1975 drama Hester Street , where she played a young Eastern European Jewish immigrant acclimating to life in 19th-century New York City. While the black-and-white film had a low budget and a somber tone, it gave the actress her breakout moment, and she was nominated for an Oscar for her role.

Kane then had supporting roles in '70s classics like Dog Day Afternoon and Annie Hall . One of her biggest films of the era was the 1979 horror movie When a Stranger Calls , in which she played a babysitter being harassed by a killer on the phone. The film was highly influential, and famously inspired the opening scene of Scream two decades later.

By the '80s, Kane had already established her reputation as a film actress, and she moved to the small screen from 1980 to 1983, playing Andy Kaufman ’s wife in the beloved sitcom Taxi . Later in the decade, Kane had two of her most popular film roles, playing a witch in The Princess Bride (1987) and the Ghost of Christmas Present in Scrooged (1989).

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What Carol Kane has been up to lately

Kane worked steadily throughout the '90s, appearing in the 1993 sequel to When a Stranger Calls and playing the grandma in Addams Family Values that same year. Unsurprisingly, given her instantly recognizable way of speaking (“ It’s just an odd voice . . . I wish my voice was deep and beautiful and sexy,” she once said), she also did a lot of voiceover work. She then popped up in movies like Jawbreaker (1999), Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004) and The Pacifier (2005).

Kane came back in a big way in 2015, when she was cast as the title character’s eccentric landlord in the Netflix comedy series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt . Kane said the show, which ran until 2019, “really changed my life as an older actress,” as the role introduced a new generation to her comedic prowess.

Since Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt , Kane has continued to do voiceover roles and show up in TV shows, and from 2020 to 2023, she costarred in the series Hunters , playing a Holocaust survivor turned Nazi-hunting weapons expert. The show gave her a full-circle moment, as it starred Al Pacino , who she acted alongside in Dog Day Afternoon decades earlier.

Currently, Kane plays a grandma in the sitcom Dinner With the Parents . Like in many of her earlier roles, she uses an amusingly exaggerated Eastern European accent and cracks plenty of jokes. In 2023, she joined the Star Trek universe with her role as a Starfleet officer in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds .

Kane’s new movie, Between the Temples , is a welcome showcase for the actress. Kane has often been considered a character actress, and reflecting on her latest role, she said, “I haven’t played the quote-unquote ‘leading lady’ in a very long time. At my age, one is largely relegated to playing grandmothers, and then those grandmothers are sort of secondary to the story.”

Kane called her role as a complex older woman deciding to forge a new path in life “ a gift .” We’re glad to see her in a leading role, and hope the actress continues to be gifted with even more parts that show off her humor, intelligence and singular charisma.

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