Lainie Kazan went from understudy to star — and it wasn't by accident.

Kazan was the understudy five decades ago for Barbra Streisand in her well-known Broadway role as Ziegfeld Follies star Fanny Brice in “Funny Girl.” Though she had a part in the musical as a Ziegfeld showgirl, Kazan waited 18 months to play the lead.

“Barbra didn't want me to go on,” Kazan recalled. “I can't blame her. It was her part, her everything.”

While she was waiting for her opportunity, Kazan collected names and phone numbers of press and other people of “import.” So when Streisand was felled by strep throat, Kazan's mother called everyone on the list to come see the show.

“Most of them came,” said Kazan, 75, in a recent interview in Studio City. A free-spirited Earth-mother type, Kazan possesses a delicious laugh and infectious sense of humor. She's a show business survivor and speaks of it all with wonderful candor.

Kazan ended up getting a record deal after her two performances as Fanny.

“I got two weeks at Basin Street East, two weeks at the Plaza Hotel. I went to the Hungry I in San Francisco. I opened for the Smothers Brothers,” she said. “It just hit me all at once.”

These days, the grandmother of two is best known for her ultimate mother roles in 1982's “My Favorite Year” — she also appeared in the Broadway musical version — and 1988's “Beaches” and most notably as the larger-than-life Greek mother Maria Portokalos in the 2002 blockbuster indie comedy “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”

Kazan and the entire cast, including star Nia Vardalos, who plays daughter Toula, reunite for “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.”

Kazan said she believes the first film became an international hit because “it spoke to everyone. It had a universal theme.” And Maria, she noted, “was loved by everyone who has a mother like that — ‘Eat, honey. Educate yourself.' There are basic things that every mother — most mothers — try to impart. I did that. My mother did that.”

In an email interview, Vardalos noted Kazan excels in playing “warm and wonderful” characters such as Maria because “she's exactly that in real life. Lainie is a lot of fun on the set.”

The cast members, said Vardalos, have remained friends. “We have all seen each other for many long lunches and dinners over these years between the films. We are genuinely a family.”

That's why, Kazan said, the entire cast and even the extras “ran back” to do the sequel. “I would have gone back for nothing,” Kazan said. “It was like we just worked yesterday.”

Kazan has added college professor to her resume. She's taught acting for singers at UCLA for the past five years.

“It's incredible,” she said. “I love teaching almost as much as I love performing.”

Susan King is a freelance writer.