Imogene Coca

Imogene Coca

Biography: 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.

Place of Birth: Not available

Birthday: November 18, 1908

Deathday: June 02, 2001

Popularity:

10.654

Known For

National Lampoon's Vacation
National Lampoon's Vacation

1983-07-29

The Sound of Laughter
The Sound of Laughter

1963-12-17

Under the Yum-Yum Tree
Under the Yum-Yum Tree

1963-10-23

The Little Match Girl
The Little Match Girl

1987-12-01

Freddie the Freeloader's Christmas Dinner
Freddie the Freeloader's Christmas Dinner

1981-11-01

Rabbit Test
Rabbit Test

1978-04-09

Papa Was a Preacher
Papa Was a Preacher

1986-09-19

Hans Christian Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes
Hans Christian Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes

1972-02-21

The Return of the Beverly Hillbillies
The Return of the Beverly Hillbillies

1981-10-06

Ten from Your Show of Shows
Ten from Your Show of Shows

1973-02-23

Too Easy to Kill
Too Easy to Kill

1975-10-14

Nothing Lasts Forever
Nothing Lasts Forever

1984-09-06

Buy & Cell
Buy & Cell

1989-01-27

Television: The First Fifty Years
Television: The First Fifty Years

1999-01-01

Mel Brooks: Unwrapped
Mel Brooks: Unwrapped

2018-02-17

Dime a Dance
Dime a Dance

1937-12-23

A Special Sesame Street Christmas
A Special Sesame Street Christmas

1978-12-08

Promises! Promises!
Promises! Promises!

1963-08-01

Hollywood: The Movie
Hollywood: The Movie

1996-01-01

In the Beginning: The Caesar Years
In the Beginning: The Caesar Years

2012-11-13

Bashful Ballerina
Bashful Ballerina

1937-09-17