Imogene Coca

Imogene Coca

Born: November 18, 1908
Died: June 2, 2001
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
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.

Movies for Imogene Coca...

In the Beginning: The Caesar Years
Title: In the Beginning: The Caesar Years
Character: Self
Released: November 13, 2012
Type: Movie
New interviews with Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner, footage from the reunion of Caesar's Writers (1996), and sketches from Your Show of Shows (1950) and Caesar's Hour (1954).
bee
Television: The First Fifty Years
Title: Television: The First Fifty Years
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: January 1, 1999
Type: Movie
Trace the history of television and its impact on American culture with clips, newsreels, and exclusive interviews from television greats like Walter Cronkite, Carol Burnett, and Jay Leno.
bee
Hollywood: The Movie
Title: Hollywood: The Movie
Character: Roxy
Released: January 1, 1996
Type: Movie
An ambitious filmmaker sets out to make an avant-garde film but soon learns the only way he can secure financing is if he shows Jessica Hahn's breasts. Also, two old women are magically transformed into young starlets.
bee
Title: Bobby's World
Released: September 8, 1990
Type: TV
Bobby Generic lives in a typical suburban neighborhood and uses his overactive imagination to discover a world of daring adventure, incredible wonder and lots of laughs — all in pint-sized perspective.
bee
Buy & Cell
Title: Buy & Cell
Character: Reggie's Mother
Released: January 27, 1989
Type: Movie
Herbie Altman is framed for Stock fraud by his boss when the SEC starts investigating his company. Sent to prison, he helps a fellow inmate successfully invest his money. Soon all the inmates want his help. To manage all the money, he forms CON INC. and runs it from the prison under the noses of the warden and the guards. But when the IRS and SEC begin to investigate this successful company, it looks like he may be in trouble again
bee
Title: Monsters
Released: October 22, 1988
Type: TV
Monsters is a syndicated horror anthology series which originally ran from 1988 to 1991 and reran on the Sci-Fi Channel during the 1990s. As of 2011, Monsters airs on NBC Universal's horror/suspense-themed cable channel Chiller in sporadic weekday marathons. In a similar vein to Tales from the Darkside, Monsters shared the same producer, and in some ways succeeded the show. It differed in some respects nonetheless. While Tales sometimes dabbled in stories of science fiction and fantasy, this series was more strictly horror. As the name implies, each episode of Monsters featured a different monster which the story concerned, from the animatronic puppet of a fictional children's television program to mutated, weapon-wielding lab rats. Similar to Tales, however, the stories in Monsters were rarely very straightforward action plots and often contained some ironic twist in which a character's conceit or greed would do him in, often with gruesome results. Adding to this was a sense of comedy often lost on horror productions which might in some instances lighten the audience's mood but in many cases added to the overall eeriness of the production.
bee
The Little Match Girl
Title: The Little Match Girl
Character: Self - Host
Released: December 1, 1987
Type: Movie
Adaptation of a Hans Christian Andersen story about a poor dying child who dreams of different uses of a lighted match - the same pack she'd attempted to sell on the street.
bee
Papa Was a Preacher
Title: Papa Was a Preacher
Character: Missy B
Released: September 19, 1986
Type: Movie
Edwin Porter, a Methodist minister, is sent to a little church in the small town of Sterling, Texas, to try to save it from financial insolvency. The move is sudden and is complicated by the fact that Porter’s wife and eight children are all very comfortable in the large, successful church they have been serving in Dallas.
bee
Title: Alice in Wonderland
Character: Cook
Released: December 9, 1985
Type: TV
Sometimes she's too big. Or much too small. Sometimes things are backwards. And there's always too much pepper in the soup! Nothing is quite right since Alice chased a very unusual White Rabbit and stumbled into an adventure that grows curiouser and curiouser. One of the greatest childhood fantasies is captured in Irwin Allen's colorful production adapted from Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." Originally aired over two nights in 1985 on CBS.
bee
Title: Moonlighting
Character: Clara DiPesto
Released: March 3, 1985
Type: TV
After being duped and going bankrupt, model Maddie is convinced by David to become a partner in a detective agency. Together they solve various cases, while getting comfortable with each other.
bee
Nothing Lasts Forever
Title: Nothing Lasts Forever
Character: Daisy Schackman
Released: September 6, 1984
Type: Movie
An artist fails a test and is required to direct traffic in New York City's Holland Tunnel. He winds up falling in love with a beautiful woman, who takes him to the moon on a Lunar Cruiser.
bee
National Lampoon's Vacation
Title: National Lampoon's Vacation
Character: Aunt Edna
Released: July 29, 1983
Type: Movie
Clark Griswold is on a quest to take his family to the Walley World theme park for a vacation, but things don't go exactly as planned.
bee
Title: Reading Rainbow
Character: Herself - Narrator (voice)
Released: June 6, 1983
Type: TV
Journey to exciting places and build a lasting connection with your favorite books. Each episode centers on a theme from a book, or other children's literature, which is explored through a number of segments or stories.
bee
Title: Mama's Family
Released: January 22, 1983
Type: TV
Thelma Harper and her spinster sister Fran open their home to Thelma's recently divorced son Vinton and his teenage son and daughter. It's quite an adjustment for everyone, especially the cranky, argumentative Thelma.
bee
Freddie the Freeloader's Christmas Dinner
Title: Freddie the Freeloader's Christmas Dinner
Character: Molly - Bag Lady
Released: November 1, 1981
Type: Movie
Freddie the Freeloader sets out to have Xmas dinner in a very expensive New York restaurant with his good friend, the Professor. Along the way he stops in a hospital to entertain some children on Xmas. Red Skelton does a couple of songs on his own & a duet with Vincent Price.
bee
The Return of the Beverly Hillbillies
Title: The Return of the Beverly Hillbillies
Character: Granny's Maw
Released: October 6, 1981
Type: Movie
Jed Clamplett and his backwoods family help solve an energy crisis in their own rustic ways for their Beverly Hills neighborhood they still cannot adjust to.
bee
Title: The Big Show
Character: Self
Released: March 4, 1980
Type: TV
The Big Show is an American comedy-variety-musical television series produced and broadcast by NBC for several months in 1980. The series aimed to revitalize the moribund variety television genre, which had been in a downward spiral since the cancellations of The Ed Sullivan Show and The Carol Burnett Show a few years earlier. The Big Show took its title seriously, using a huge stage set and filling a 90-minute time-slot, with at least one two-hour installment broadcast. Although the first broadcast received high ratings, poor reviews and low ratings of succeeding episodes resulted in the program being cancelled after only a few months. The series nonetheless was nominated for six Emmy Awards, winning for Outstanding Costume Design. Regular performers included Joe Baker, Graham Chapman, Mimi Kennedy, Shabba-Doo and Pamela Myers. Guest hosts included Steve Allen, Nell Carter, David Copperfield, Geoffrey Holder, Gary Coleman, and Sid Caesar. Skaters who performed in the show included Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, John Curry, and Toller Cranston.
bee
Title: Trapper John, M.D.
Released: September 23, 1979
Type: TV
Trapper John, M.D. is an American television medical drama and spin-off of the film MASH, concerning a lovable doctor who became a mentor and father figure in San Francisco, California. The show ran on CBS from September 23, 1979, to September 4, 1986.
bee
A Special Sesame Street Christmas
Title: A Special Sesame Street Christmas
Character: Herself
Released: December 8, 1978
Type: Movie
Leslie Uggams hosts this take on A Christmas Carol, where she and fellow guest stars, Anne Murray, Imogene Coca, and Dickie Smothers try to get Oscar to stop being such a Grouch on Christmas.
bee
Rabbit Test
Title: Rabbit Test
Character: Madam Marie
Released: April 9, 1978
Type: Movie
Lionel's life turns around after a one-night stand on top of a pinball table... he becomes the world's first pregnant man!
bee
Too Easy to Kill
Title: Too Easy to Kill
Character: Mrs. Bradshaw
Released: October 14, 1975
Type: Movie
A nurse deeply involved in the occult is hired to care for a wounded policeman who is secretly setting a trap for a cop-killer.
bee
Ten from Your Show of Shows
Title: Ten from Your Show of Shows
Released: February 23, 1973
Type: Movie
Ten comedy sketches compiled from the 1950s TV series, "Your Show of Shows."
bee
The Enchanted World of Danny Kaye: The Emperor's New Clothes
Title: The Enchanted World of Danny Kaye: The Emperor's New Clothes
Character: Princess Jane Klockenlocher
Released: February 21, 1972
Type: Movie
This is one of the 'Animagical' titles from the children's film archive of Rankin/Bass. The story line is reminiscent of an earlier 1966 R/B Animagic film, 'The Daydreamer', both of which chronicles the fairy tales of Danish author, Hans Christian Andersen.
bee
Title: Night Gallery
Character: Wife (segment "The Merciful")
Released: December 16, 1970
Type: TV
Rod Serling narrates an anthology of fantasy, horror and sci-fi stories from a set resembling a macabre museum. A chilling work of art serves as the connective link between the stories.
bee
Title: The Brady Bunch
Released: September 26, 1969
Type: TV
When widower Mike Brady marries a lovely lady widow Carol Ann, their two families become one. These are the misadventures of this new couple, their six children, a dog named Tiger, and quirky housekeeper Alice.
bee
Title: The Carol Burnett Show
Character: Self - Guest
Released: September 11, 1967
Type: TV
The Carol Burnett Show is an American variety/sketch comedy television show starring Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and Tim Conway. It originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 278 episodes and originated from CBS Television City's Studio 33. The series won 25 prime time Emmy Awards, was ranked No. 16 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time in 2002 and in 2007 was listed as one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All Time."
bee
Title: It's About Time
Character: Shad
Released: September 11, 1966
Type: TV
It's About Time is an American fantasy/science-fiction comedy TV series that aired on CBS for one season of 26 episodes in 1966–1967. The series was created by Sherwood Schwartz, and used sets, props and incidental music from Schwartz's other television series in production at the time, Gilligan's Island.
bee
Title: Bewitched
Released: September 17, 1964
Type: TV
Samantha Stephens is a seemingly normal suburban housewife who also happens to be a genuine witch, with all the requisite magical powers. Her husband Darrin insists that Samantha keep her witchcraft under wraps, but situations invariably require her to indulge her powers while keeping her bothersome mother Endora at bay.
bee
Title: The Hollywood Palace
Character: Self - Host
Released: January 4, 1964
Type: TV
The Hollywood Palace is an hour-long American television variety show that was broadcast weekly on ABC from January 4, 1964 to February 7, 1970. Originally titled The Saturday Night Hollywood Palace, it began as a mid-season replacement for The Jerry Lewis Show, another variety show which had lasted only three months. It was staged in Hollywood at the former Hollywood Playhouse on Vine Street, which was renamed The Hollywood Palace during the show's duration and is today known as Avalon Hollywood. A little-known starlet named Raquel Welch was cast during the first season as the "Billboard Girl", who placed the names of the acts on a placard.
bee
Title: The Hollywood Palace
Character: Self - Sketch Actor
Released: January 4, 1964
Type: TV
The Hollywood Palace is an hour-long American television variety show that was broadcast weekly on ABC from January 4, 1964 to February 7, 1970. Originally titled The Saturday Night Hollywood Palace, it began as a mid-season replacement for The Jerry Lewis Show, another variety show which had lasted only three months. It was staged in Hollywood at the former Hollywood Playhouse on Vine Street, which was renamed The Hollywood Palace during the show's duration and is today known as Avalon Hollywood. A little-known starlet named Raquel Welch was cast during the first season as the "Billboard Girl", who placed the names of the acts on a placard.
bee
The Sound of Laughter
Title: The Sound of Laughter
Character: Miss Klutz (Ballerina)
Released: December 17, 1963
Type: Movie
A compilation of film clips of comedies from 1930's.
bee
Under the Yum-Yum Tree
Title: Under the Yum-Yum Tree
Character: Dorkus Murphy
Released: October 23, 1963
Type: Movie
A love-struck landlord tries to convince a pretty tenant to dump her fiancé and give him a chance.
bee
Title: The Danny Kaye Show
Character: Self
Released: September 25, 1963
Type: TV
The Danny Kaye Show is an American variety show hosted by Danny Kaye that aired on CBS from 1963 to 1967 on Wednesday nights. Directed by Robert Scheerer, the show premiered in black-and-white, but later switched to color broadcasts. At the time, Kaye was at the height of his popularity, having starred in a string of successful films in the 1940s and '50's, made successful personal appearances at such venues as the London Palladium, and appeared many times on television. His most recent films had been considered disappointing, but the television specials he starred in were triumphant, leading to this series. Prior to his television and film career, Kaye had made a name for himself with his own radio show, and numerous other guest appearances on other shows.
bee
Title: Grindl
Character: Grindl
Released: September 15, 1963
Type: TV
Grindl is an American situation comedy that began in the fall of 1963 on NBC, originally sponsored by Procter & Gamble. The show, starring Imogene Coca in the title role, lasted for one season.
bee
Promises! Promises!
Title: Promises! Promises!
Character: Woman Under Hair Dryer (uncredited)
Released: August 1, 1963
Type: Movie
After a drunken spree on a cruise ship, two women discover that they're pregnant, and set out to find who the fathers are.
bee
Title: The Merv Griffin Show
Character: Self
Released: October 1, 1962
Type: TV
The Merv Griffin Show is an American television talk show, starring Merv Griffin. The series ran from October 1, 1962 to March 29, 1963 on NBC, September 20, 1965 to August 15, 1969 in first-run syndication, from August 18, 1969 to February 11, 1972 at 11:30 PM ET weeknights on CBS and again in first-run syndication from February 14, 1972 to September 5, 1986.
bee
Title: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Character: Self
Released: October 1, 1962
Type: TV
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under The Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night. For its first ten years, Carson's Tonight Show was based in New York City with occasional trips to Burbank, California; in May 1972, the show moved permanently to Burbank, California. In 2002, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was ranked #12 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
bee
Title: The Mike Douglas Show
Character: Self
Released: December 11, 1961
Type: TV
The Mike Douglas Show is an American daytime television talk show hosted by Mike Douglas that originally aired only in the Cleveland area during much of its first two years on the air. It then went into syndication in 1963 and remained on television until 1982. It was distributed by Westinghouse Broadcasting and for much of its run, originated from studios of two of the company's TV stations in Cleveland and Philadelphia.
bee
Title: The Steve Allen Show
Character: Self - Guest Performer
Released: June 24, 1956
Type: TV
bee
Title: Tony Awards
Character: Self - Nominee/Performer
Released: April 1, 1956
Type: TV
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances, and an award is given for regional theatre.
bee
Title: The Imogene Coca Show
Character: Host
Released: October 2, 1954
Type: TV
The Imogene Coca Show is a half-hour NBC television series starring Imogene Coca in both situation comedy and variety show formats. The program debuted on October 2, 1954, after the ending of Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows, on which Coca had been a popular regular performer. The first two episodes of The Imogene Coca Show center upon the difficulties of a television star starting a new series. Her co-stars were Billy DeWolfe and Ruth Donnelly. The program became a variety show in its third episode, with standard songs, comedy sketches, and weekly guest stars. Then in February 1955, Coca was cast as a newlywed with a husband and two lively neighbors, Helen and Harry Milliken, portrayed, respectively, by Bibi Osterwald and David Burns. Eight years thereafter in the 1963-1964 season, Coca was cast in another NBC situation comedy, Grindl, about the wacky life of a maid working for an employment agency. The Imogene Coca Show aired on Saturday evenings at 9 p.m. EST preceding The Jimmy Durante Show and opposite Two for the Money on CBS. ABC aired Saturday evening boxing at the time. The program was telecast from New York City. It ended after a single season.
bee
Title: General Electric Theater
Character: Virginia Odell
Released: February 1, 1953
Type: TV
General Electric Theater is an American anthology series hosted by Ronald Reagan that was broadcast on CBS radio and television. The series was sponsored by General Electric's Department of Public Relations.
bee
Title: This Is Your Life
Character: Self
Released: October 1, 1952
Type: TV
This Is Your Life is an American television documentary series broadcast on NBC, originally hosted by its producer, Ralph Edwards from 1952 to 1961. In the show, the host surprises a guest, and proceeds to take them through their life in front of an audience, including special guest appearances by colleagues, friends and family. Edwards revived the show in 1971-72, while Joseph Campanella hosted a version in 1983. Edwards returned for some specials in the late 1980s, before his death in 2005. The show originated as a radio show on NBC Radio airing from 1948 to 1952.
bee
Title: The Colgate Comedy Hour
Character: Self
Released: September 10, 1950
Type: TV
The Colgate Comedy Hour is an American comedy-musical variety series that aired live on the NBC network from 1950 to 1955. The show starred many notable comedians and entertainers of the era, including Eddie Cantor, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Fred Allen, Donald O'Connor, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante, Ray Bolger, Gordon MacRae, Ben Blue, Robert Paige, Tony Curtis, Burt Lancaster, Broadway dancer Wayne Lamb and Spike Jones and His City Slickers.
bee
Title: The Bob Hope Show
Character: Self
Released: April 9, 1950
Type: TV
The Bob Hope Show hosted by Bob Hope, debuted on April 9, 1950. During the 1952-1953 season, NBC rotated with other variety shows in a Sunday night block known as "The Colgate Comedy Hour" (Sept. 1950 to Dec. 1955). Also known as, "The Chevy Show with Bob Hope." When the first special debuted in October of 1950 it was the most expensive television program made up to that point - costing an astronomical $1,500 a minute to produce. Bob Hope had his own television show and radio show at the same time. For the next three seasons, The Bob Hope Show was broadcast once a month on Tuesday nights, giving Milton Berle a week off. Bob ended his radio show in April, 1956. Bob Hope also had another show by a similar name, "The Bob Hope Show (All Star Revue)". In addition, he performed in "Specials" for many years. It is the longest running variety program in television's history with a record of 45 years of televised entertainment.
bee
Title: Your Show of Shows
Character: Herself
Released: February 25, 1950
Type: TV
Your Show of Shows was a live 90-minute variety show that was broadcast weekly in the United States on NBC, from February 25, 1950, until June 5, 1954, featuring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. Other featured performers were Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, Bill Hayes, Judy Johnson, The Hamilton Trio and the soprano Marguerite Piazza. José Ferrer made several guest appearances on the series. The series was telecast from the now-demolished International Theatre at 5 Columbus Circle and the Century Theater, now demolished, in New York. During 2002, Your Show of Shows was ranked #30 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
bee
Title: What's My Line?
Character: Self - Mystery Guest
Released: February 2, 1950
Type: TV
Four panelists must determine guests' occupations - and, in the case of famous guests, while blindfolded, their identity - by asking only "yes" or "no" questions.
bee
Title: The Admiral Broadway Revue
Released: January 28, 1949
Type: TV
The Admiral Broadway Revue is an American variety show that ran from January 28 to June 3, 1949. The show was broadcast live on Fridays, 8-9 pm Eastern Time. and was broadcast simultaneously on both NBC and the DuMont networks.
bee
Title: Buzzy Wuzzy
Released: November 17, 1948
Type: TV
bee
Title: The Ed Sullivan Show
Character: Self
Released: June 20, 1948
Type: TV
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the CBS Sunday Night Movie, which ran only one season and was eventually replaced by other shows. In 2002, The Ed Sullivan Show was ranked #15 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
bee
Dime a Dance
Title: Dime a Dance
Character: Esmeralda
Released: December 23, 1937
Type: Movie
June Allyson is a cashier in a dance hall and her friend Imogene Coca wants to get a job there as a dance hostess. June advises her she needs to first make herself attractive to men,and gives her a book on the subject. But Imogene, by mistake, picks up the wrong book and reads one on the art of jiu-jitsu. Imogene's first customer is a bashful sailor who gets turned every which way but loose. Hank Henry also appears as a sailor. All four performers had better things ahead of them although,in the case of comedian Hank Henry, not by much.