Imogene Coca

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.

Acting

1990

1989

Buy & Cell

Reggie's Mother

1988

Monsters

Unknown

1985

1985

Moonlighting

Clara DiPesto

1984

Nothing Lasts Forever

Daisy Schackman

1983

1983

Reading Rainbow

Self - Narrator (voice)

1983

1980

1979

1978

1978

Rabbit Test

Madam Marie

1973

1972

The Emperor's New Clothes

Princess Jane Klockenlocher (voice)

1970

Night Gallery

Wife (segment "The Merciful")

1969

1969

1967

1966

1964

Bewitched

Unknown

1964

1963

1963

1963

Grindl

Grindl

1963

Promises! Promises!

Woman Under Hair Dryer (uncredited)

1962

1962

1961

1956

Made in Heaven

Elsa Meredith

1956

The Steve Allen Show

Self - Guest Performer

1956

Tony Awards

Self - Nominee/Performer

1953

1952

1950

1950

1950

Your Show of Shows

Self - Regular Performer

1950

What's My Line?

Self - Mystery Guest

1948

Infos

Full Name
Imogene Coca
Gender
Female
Date of Birth
11/18/1908
Date of Death
6/2/2001
Also Known As

Emogeane Coca