Everything about Imogene Coca totally explained
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.
Coca starred as a cavewoman with
Joe E. Ross in the 1966-67 TV sitcom
It's About Time and 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
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)
Further Information
Get more info on 'Imogene Coca'.
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