Known For
Acting
Born
Nov 18, 1908
Died
Jun 02, 2001
Place of Birth
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Credits
58 titles
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.
Known For
Filmography
Mel Brooks: Unwrapped
Self (archive footage)
In the Beginning: The Caesar Years
Self
Television: The First Fifty Years
Self (archive footage)
Caesar's Writers
Self (archive footage)
Hollywood: The Movie
Roxy
Bobby's World
Buy & Cell
Reggie's Mother
Monsters
The Old Woman
The Little Match Girl
Self - Host
Papa Was a Preacher
Missy B
Alice in Wonderland
Cook
Moonlighting
Clara DiPesto
Nothing Lasts Forever
Daisy Schackman
National Lampoon's Vacation
Aunt Edna
Reading Rainbow
Self - Narrator (voice)
Mama's Family
Freddie the Freeloader's Christmas Dinner
Molly - Bag Lady
The Return of the Beverly Hillbillies
Granny's Maw
The Big Show
Self
Trapper John, M.D.
A Special Sesame Street Christmas
Self
Rabbit Test
Madam Marie
Too Easy to Kill
Mrs. Bradshaw
Ten from Your Show of Shows
The Emperor's New Clothes
Princess Jane Klockenlocher (voice)
Night Gallery
Wife (segment "The Merciful")
Love, American Style
Doctor's wife
The Brady Bunch
The Carol Burnett Show
Self - Guest
It's About Time
Shad
Bewitched
The Hollywood Palace
Self
The Sound of Laughter
Miss Klutz (Ballerina)
Under the Yum Yum Tree
Dorkus Murphy
The Danny Kaye Show
Self
Grindl
Grindl
Promises! Promises!
Woman Under Hair Dryer (uncredited)
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Self
The Merv Griffin Show
Self
The Mike Douglas Show
Self
Shirley Temple's Storybook
Miss Clavel
Made in Heaven
Elsa Meredith
The Steve Allen Show
Self - Guest Performer
Tony Awards
Self - Nominee / Performer
The Imogene Coca Show
Host
General Electric Theater
Virginia Odell
This Is Your Life
Self
Danger
The Colgate Comedy Hour
Self
The Bob Hope Show
Self