Imogene Coca

Infobox actor
name = Imogene Coca


birthname = Imogene Fernandez de Coca
birthdate = birth date|1908|11|18
birthplace = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
deathdate = death date and age|2001|6|10|1908|11|18
deathplace = Westport, Connecticut, USA
yearsactive = 1937-1996
spouse = King Donovan (1960-1987)
Robert Burton (1935-1955)
emmyawards = Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series
1952 "Your Show of Shows"
awards = Hollywood Walk of Fame
6256 Hollywood Boulevard

Imogene Fernandez de Coca (November 181908 – June 22001) was an American Emmy-winning comic actress best known for her role opposite Sid Caesar on "Your Show of Shows".

Biography

Early life

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Coca's parents were veterans of the entertainment industry; her father, José Fernandez de Coca, was a well-known violinist and orchestra conductor, and her mother, Sadie Brady, was a dancer and magician's assistant.

Coca took lessons in piano, dance, and voice as a child and while still a teenager moved from Philadelphia to New York City to become a dancer. She got her first job in the chorus of the Broadway musical "When You Smile", and became a headliner in Manhattan nightclubs with music arranged by her first husband, Robert Burton. She gained prominence when she began to combine music with comedy; her first critical success was in "New Faces of 1934".

Career

In the early days of live television, she played opposite Sid Caesar in a sketch comedy program, "Your Show of Shows" which was immensely popular from 1950 to 1954. She also had her own series, "The Imogene Coca Show".

She was nominated for a Tony Award for her final Broadway performance as religious zealot "Letitia Primrose" in "On the Twentieth Century", a stage musical adapted from the 1934 film "Twentieth Century". Coca's role – a religious fanatic who plasters decals onto every available surface – was a male in the original film (played by actor Etienne Girardot; for the stage adaptation, the role was rewritten specifically as a vehicle for Coca.

In the 1963 TV season, Coca portrayed a comic temporary helper in the NBC sitcom "Grindl." It played opposite "The Ed Sullivan Show" and lasted a season.

Coca starred as a cave woman with Joe E. Ross in the 1966-67 TV time travel satire sitcom It's About Time. She made memorable guest appearances on the sitcoms "Bewitched" as "Mary the Tooth Fairy", "The Brady Bunch" as "Aunt Jenny", and on "Mama's Family" as Gert in the episode "Gert Rides Again". Her later years were spent in relative solitude with only occasional TV guest appearances on "Moonlighting" and in small movie roles, including her memorable role as "Aunt Edna" in "National Lampoon's Vacation".

Death

On June 2, 2001, Coca died at her home in Westport, Connecticut, of natural causes incidental to Alzheimer's Disease. She was 92 years old. Coca had no children, but had been married twice; first to Bob Burton from 1934 until his death in 1953 and from 1960 until his death in 1987, she was married to King Donovan.

Filmography

Television

* "Buzzy Wuzzy" (1948) (canceled after 4 weeks)
* "The Admiral Broadway Revue" (1949-1950)
* "Your Show of Shows" (1950-1954)
* "The Imogene Coca Show" (1954-1955)
* "Sid Caesar Invites You" (1958) (U.S. version)
* "Sid Caesar Invites You" (1958) (UK version)
* "Grindl" (1963-1964)
* "It's About Time" (1966-1967)
* "The Emperor's New Clothes" (1972)
* "Freddy the Freeloader's Christmas Dinner" (1981)
* "The Return of the Beverly Hillbillies" (1981)
* "One Life to Live" (cast member from 1983-1984)
* "As the World Turns" (cast member in 1983)
* "Alice in Wonderland" (1985)
* "Monsters:" "The Face" (1989)

Film

* "Bashful Ballerina" (1937)
* "Dime a Dance" (1937)
* "They Meet Again" (1941)
* "Promises! Promises!" (1963)
* "Under the Yum Yum Tree" (1963)
* "10 from Your Show of Shows" (1973)
* "Rabbit Test" (1978)
* 'On The Twentieth Century' (1978) as Letitia Primrose
* "National Lampoon's Vacation" (1983)
* "Nothing Lasts Forever" (1984)
* "Papa Was a Preacher" (1985)
* "Buy & Cell" (1989)
* "Hollywood: The Movie" (1996)

External links

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* [http://archives.cnn.com/2001/SHOWBIZ/News/06/02/obit.coca.02/ Actress Imogene Coca dead at 92]
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