Imogene Coca (born Emogeane Coca; November 18, 1908 â€" 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. 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 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 â€" 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." Aside
from vaudeville, cabaret, film, theater and television, she voiced
children's cartoons and was even featured in the 1984 MTV music video
"Bag Lady" by the band EBN-OZN, ultimately working well into her 80s.
In a 1999 interview, Robert Ozn said during the shoot she was required
to sit on the sidewalk in snow for hours during a blizzard with 15
degree 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 Coca
in Philadelphia, Coca was the daughter of Joseph Fernandez Coca, a
violinist and vaudeville orchestra conductor and Sadie Brady, a dancer
and magician's assistant. Coca's father was of Spanish descent (the
family surname was originally Fernández y Coca), the son of Joseph F.
Coca, Sr. and his wife, Laura.
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. 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 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 â€" 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." Aside
from vaudeville, cabaret, film, theater and television, she voiced
children's cartoons and was even featured in the 1984 MTV music video
"Bag Lady" by the band EBN-OZN, ultimately working well into her 80s.
In a 1999 interview, Robert Ozn said during the shoot she was required
to sit on the sidewalk in snow for hours during a blizzard with 15
degree 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 Coca
in Philadelphia, Coca was the daughter of Joseph Fernandez Coca, a
violinist and vaudeville orchestra conductor and Sadie Brady, a dancer
and magician's assistant. Coca's father was of Spanish descent (the
family surname was originally Fernández y Coca), the son of Joseph F.
Coca, Sr. and his wife, Laura.
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