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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
November 18, 1908
Died
June 2, 2001
Place of Birth
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Also Known As
- Emogeane Coca
Imogene Coca
0.9 Popularity
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
6.4
Self (archive footage)
Mel Brooks: Unwrapped
2018
0.0
Self
In the Beginning: The Caesar Years
2012
🎬
0.0
Self (archive footage)
Television: The First Fifty Years
1999
3.3
Roxy
Hollywood: The Movie
1996
7.0
Bobby's World
1990
5.1
Reggie's Mother
Buy & Cell
1989
7.1
Monsters
1988
0.0
Self - Host
The Little Match Girl
1987
1.0
Missy B
Papa Was a Preacher
1986
6.8
Cook
Alice in Wonderland
1985
Credits
Mel Brooks: Unwrapped
as Self (archive footage)
2018
6.4
In the Beginning: The Caesar Years
as Self
2012
0.0
🎬
Television: The First Fifty Years
as Self (archive footage)
1999
0.0
Hollywood: The Movie
as Roxy
1996
3.3
Bobby's World
1990
7.0
Buy & Cell
as Reggie's Mother
1989
5.1
Monsters
1988
7.1
The Little Match Girl
as Self - Host
1987
0.0
Papa Was a Preacher
as Missy B
1986
1.0
Alice in Wonderland
as Cook
1985
6.8
Moonlighting
as Clara DiPesto
1985
7.5
Nothing Lasts Forever
as Daisy Schackman
1984
6.3
National Lampoon's Vacation
as Aunt Edna
1983
7.1
Reading Rainbow
as Self - Narrator (voice)
1983
8.3
Mama's Family
1983
7.6
🎬
Freddie the Freeloader's Christmas Dinner
as Molly - Bag Lady
1981
4.8
The Return of the Beverly Hillbillies
as Granny's Maw
1981
4.8
The Big Show
as Self
1980
0.0
Trapper John, M.D.
1979
6.5
A Special Sesame Street Christmas
as Self
1978
6.0
Rabbit Test
as Madam Marie
1978
4.2
Too Easy to Kill
as Mrs. Bradshaw
1975
0.0
Ten from Your Show of Shows
1973
7.5
The Emperor's New Clothes
as Princess Jane Klockenlocher (voice)
1972
5.0
Night Gallery
as Wife (segment "The Merciful")
1970
7.8
Love, American Style
as Doctor's wife
1969
6.1
The Brady Bunch
1969
6.7
The Carol Burnett Show
as Self - Guest
1967
7.7
It's About Time
as Shad
1966
6.0
Bewitched
1964
7.9
The Hollywood Palace
as Self
1964
4.5
The Sound of Laughter
as Miss Klutz (Ballerina)
1963
2.0
Under the Yum-Yum Tree
as Dorkus Murphy
1963
5.9
The Danny Kaye Show
as Self
1963
6.3
🎬
Grindl
as Grindl
1963
5.5
Promises! Promises!
as Woman Under Hair Dryer (uncredited)
1963
4.4
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
as Self
1962
7.5
The Merv Griffin Show
as Self
1962
6.2
The Mike Douglas Show
as Self
1961
5.4
Shirley Temple's Storybook
as Miss Clavel
1958
6.2
Made in Heaven
as Elsa Meredith
1956
0.0
The Steve Allen Show
as Self - Guest Performer
1956
5.6
Tony Awards
as Self - Nominee/Performer
1956
5.9
🎬
The Imogene Coca Show
as Host
1954
0.0
General Electric Theater
as Virginia Odell
1953
6.4
This Is Your Life
as Self
1952
6.4
The Colgate Comedy Hour
as Self
1950
6.8
The Bob Hope Show
as Self
1950
7.0
Your Show of Shows
as Self - Regular Performer
1950
6.3
What's My Line?
as Self - Mystery Guest
1950
6.9
🎬
The Admiral Broadway Revue
1949
0.0
🎬
Buzzy Wuzzy
1948
0.0
The Ed Sullivan Show
as Self
1948
6.8
🎬
Dime a Dance
as Esmeralda
1937
3.0
🎬
Bashful Ballerina
as Miss Klutz
1937
0.0