Imogene Coca

Imogene Coca(bornEmogeane Coca; November 18, 1908 – June 2, 2001) was an American comic actress best known for her role oppositeSid CaesaronYour Show of Shows. Starting out invaudevilleas a child acrobat, she studied ballet and pursued a serious career in music and dance, graduating to decades of stage musical revues, cabaret, and summer stock. In her 40s, she began a celebrated career as a comedian on television, starring in six series and guest-starring on successful television programs from the 1940s to the 1990s.
She was nominated for fiveEmmy AwardsforYour Show of Shows, winning Best Actress in 1951 and singled out for aPeabody Awardfor excellence in broadcasting in 1953. Coca was also nominated for aTony Awardin 1978 forOn the Twentieth Centuryand received a sixth Emmy nomination at the age of 80 for an episode ofMoonlighting.
She possessed a "rubbery" face capable of the broadest expressions —Lifemagazine compared her toBeatrice LillieandCharlie Chaplinand 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."Aside from vaudeville, cabaret, film, theater, and television, she voiced children'scartoonsand was even featured in the 1984MTVmusic video "Bag Lady" by the bandEBN-OZN, ultimately working well into her 80s.  In a 1999 interview,Robert Oznsaid that during the shoot, she was required to sit on the sidewalk in snow for hours during a blizzard with 15-degree (F) temperatures. "While the rest of us 20-somethings were moaning about the weather, warming ourselves by a heater, this little 75-year-old lady never once complained — put us all to shame. She was the most professional artist I've ever worked with."
Born Emogeane CocainPhiladelphiain 1908 of Spanish and Irish descent, the only child of Joseph F. Coca, Jr. (the family surname was originally Fernández y Coca), a violinist and vaudeville orchestra conductor, and Sarah "Sadie" Brady, a dancer and magician's assistant,she 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. In 1925, still aged 16, she landed her first job in the chorus of the Broadway musicalWhen You Smile. She became a headliner in Manhattan nightclubs with music arranged by her first husband, Bob Burton.
She gained prominence when she combined music with comedy; her first critical success was inNew Faces of 1934. A well-received part of her act was a comic striptease, during which Coca made sultry faces and gestures but would manage to remove only one glove. She committed this routine to film in theEducational Picturescomedy shortThe Bashful Ballerina(1937). She received excellent notices for her Educational shortDime a Dance.In a review headlined "Swell Comic Scores,"Film Dailywrote: "A real comedienne who will wow the cash customers with her zany antics, Imogene Coca is in a class all by herself, and her style of comedy does not suggest that of any other funster on the screen."Three other newcomers to films —Danny Kaye,June Allyson, andBarry Sullivan— were featured in the short, filmed at Educational's New York studio.
Imogene Coca was one of network television's first comics. She starred in an earlyABCseries,Buzzy Wuzzy, which lasted four episodes in 1948.She played oppositeSid CaesaronThe Admiral Broadway Revue(January to June 1949), and then in the sketch comedy programYour Show of Shows(1950 to 1954), which was immensely popular, winning the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Series in 1952 and 1953. The 90-minute show was aired live on NBC every Saturday night in prime time. In addition to performing with Caesar on this program, she frequently starred in parodies of classic ballets opposite dancer and choreographerJames Starbuck.She won the second-everPrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Seriesin 1951 and was nominated for four other Emmys for her work in the show. She won a 1953Peabody Awardfor excellence in broadcasting.The Caesar-Coca partnership might have continued, but the network tried to generate more revenue by spinning off Coca into her own series.The Imogene Coca Showran for one year (1954 to 1955).
In the 1963–64 TV season, Coca portrayed a comic temporary helper in the NBC sitcomGrindl. It competed with the second half ofThe Ed Sullivan Showand lasted only one season. Coca later starred as a cavewoman withJoe E. Rossin the 1966–67 time-travel satire sitcomIt's About Time.
She continued to appear on comedy and variety series from the 1950s through the 1980s, including several appearances each onThe Carol Burnett Show,The George Gobel Show,The Hollywood Palace,Ed Sullivan'sToast of the Town, andBob Hopespecials. She appeared on other shows and specials byDean Martin,Jackie Gleason,Jerry Lewis,Dick Clark,Danny Kaye, andAndy Williams.The Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, and Howard Morris Specialwon a 1967 Emmy for Outstanding Variety Special.She made memorable guest appearances on sitcoms, including appearances onBewitched,The Brady Bunch, andMama's Family. She appeared withMilton BerleandYour Show of Showsco-starHoward Morrisin "Curtain Call", a 1983 episode ofFantasy Island.
Coca appeared in a number of literary adaptations for children. In 1960, she was Miss Clavel in Sol Saks' adaptation ofLudwig Bemelmans'MadelineforShirley Temple's Storybook. In 1972, she voiced the character of Princess Jane Klockenlocher inThe Enchanted World of Danny Kaye, aRankin/Bassversion ofHans Christian Andersen'sThe Emperor's New Clothes. In 1978, she appeared inA Special Sesame Street Christmas. In 1985, she played The Cook inAlice in Wonderland, an all-star TV miniseries adaptation of the book byLewis Carroll. Among her final roles was voicing characters inGarfield and Friends.
In 1988, Coca appeared as the mother ofAllyce Beasley's Agnes in theMoonlightingepisode "Los Dos Dipestos", written byDavid Steinberg. She received her sixth Emmy nomination, as Outstanding Guest Performer in a Drama Series, for the role. The same year she was the female recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award in Comedy at the second annualAmerican Comedy Awards, alongside male recipientGeorge Burns.
Coca appeared only sporadically in films such asThe Incredible Incident at Independence Square, filmed in her hometown of Philadelphia, as well asUnder the Yum Yum Tree(1963),Nothing Lasts Forever,Papa Was a Preacher,Buy & Cell, andNational Lampoon's Vacation(1983), as "Aunt Edna".
After having appeared in several Broadway musical comedy revues and plays between the 1930s and the 1950s, Coca returned to Broadway at the age of 70 with aTony Award-nominated performance as religious zealot Letitia Primrose inOn the Twentieth Century, a 1978 stage musical adapted from the filmTwentieth Century(1934). Her role, that of a religious fanatic who plasters decals onto every available surface, had been a male in both the film and the original stage production, and was rewritten specifically as a vehicle for Coca.She appeared in the Broadway run withKevin KlineandMadeline Kahn, continued with the national tour starringRock HudsonandJudy Kaye, and returned for a later tour revival in the mid-1980s with Kaye andFrank Gorshin. She also co-starred with singerMaxine SullivaninMy Old Friendsand touring productions, including musicals such asOnce Upon a MattressandBells Are Ringingand plays such asThe Prisoner of Second AvenueandLuv.She rejoinedSid Caesarin 1961–62, 1977, and 1990–91 for a traveling stage revue and made an appearance with Caesar andHoward MorrisatComic Relief VIin 1994.
One of Coca's early stock characters on the Caesar series blended comedy with socially conscious pathos as abag ladyand she was frequently asked to reprise the role, including byCarol Burnettfor her '60s series and byRed Skeltonas love interest to one of his own familiar characters in the 1981 TV specialFreddie the Freeloader's Christmas Dinner.New wavegroupĒbn-Ōznfeatured Coca as the title character in the music video to their song "Bag Lady (I Wonder)", which was a top-40 dance hit in 1984.
Coca had no children, but was married twice: for 20 years to Bob Burton, from 1935 until his death in 1955, and later for 27 years toKing Donovan, from 1960 until his death in 1987. Burton's death came only one month after her mother had died. Coca was a practicingRoman Catholic.
Coca was aDemocratwho supported the campaign ofAdlai Stevensonin the1952 presidential election.
Hours after Coca and Donovan completed their New Year's Eve 1972 performance of  "Fourposter" at the Showboat Dinner Theater inSt. Petersburg, Florida, they were involved in a serious auto accident.They had been driving in foggy weather to their home inClearwater, Florida, when Donovan collided with another car driven by 19-year-old Cheryl Lynn Rice. Rice was unharmed, but Donovan sustained a slight leg injury, and the rear-view mirror entered Coca's right eye, smashing her cheekbone. Transported to the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, Coca underwent plastic surgery and a cosmetic lens covered her now-blind eye for the rest of her career, which resumed with her long stint in Broadway'sOn the Twentieth Centurybeginning in 1978.
Performers citing Coca as an influence includeCarol Burnett,Lily Tomlin,Whoopi Goldberg, andTracey Ullman.Your Show of Showsis considered a television classic and was the basis for a well-received 1982 film,My Favorite Year. A 1992 musical version of the film made its way to Broadway, in which comedic actressAndrea Martinwon aTony Awardfor her portrayal of Alice Miller.
In 1995, Coca was honored with the second annualWomen in FilmLucy Award,honoring women's achievements in television and named afterLucille Ball.
On June 2, 2001, Coca died at her home inWestport, Connecticut, aged 92, from natural causes incidental toAlzheimer's disease.She wascrematedand her ashes scattered.