Imogene Coca
Imogene Fernandez de Coca (November 18, 1908 – June 2, 2001) was an American comic actress best known for her role opposite Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows. Starting out in vaudeville as a child acrobat, she studied ballet and wished to have a serious career in music and dance, graduating to decades of stage musical revues, cabaret and summer stock. Finally in her 40s she began a celebrated career as a comedienne in television, starring in six series and guesting on successful television programs from the 1940s to the 1990s. She was nominated for five Emmy awards for Your Show of Shows, winning Best Actress in 1951 and singled out for a Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting in 1953. Coca was also nominated for a Tony Award in 1978 for On the Twentieth Century and received a sixth Emmy nomination at the age of 80 for an episode of Moonlighting. She possessed a rubbery face capable of the broadest expressions—Life magazine compared her to Beatrice Lillie and Charlie Chaplin, and described her characterizations as taking "people or situations suspended in their own precarious balance between dignity and absurdity, and push(ing) them over the cliff with one single, pointed gesture"—the magazine noted a "particularly high-brow critic" as observing, "The trouble with most comedians who try to do satire is that they are essentially brash, noisy and indelicate people who have to use a sledge hammer to smash a butterfly. Miss Coca, on the other hand, is the timid woman who, when aroused, can beat a tiger to death with a feather." In addition to vaudeville, cabaret, theater and television, she appeared in film, voiced children's cartoons and was even featured in an MTV video by a New Wave band. Though her fame began late, she worked well into her 80s. Twice a widow, Coca died in 2001. Description above from the Wikipedia article Imogene Coca, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known for
ActingBirthday
November 18, 1908Deathday
June 2, 2001Gender
FemaleKnown Movie Credits
19Place of birth
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USAAlso known as
Emogeane CocaCast credits
National Lampoon's Vacation
Aunt EdnaUnder the Yum-Yum Tree
Dorkus MurphyRabbit Test
Madam MariePapa Was a Preacher
Missy BThe Enchanted World of Danny Kaye: The Emperor's New Clothes
Princess Jane KlockenlocherThe Return of the Beverly Hillbillies
Granny's MawTen from Your Show of Shows
Nothing Lasts Forever
Daisy SchackmanA Special Sesame Street Christmas
HerselfPromises! Promises!
Woman Under Hair Dryer (uncredited)Hollywood: The Movie
RoxyIn the Beginning: The Caesar Years
SelfThe Little Match Girl
Self - HostToo Easy to Kill
Mrs. BradshawThe Sound of Laughter
Miss Klutz (Ballerina)Buy & Cell
Reggie's Mother