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.

Filmography

• 1996Hollywood: The Movie — Roxy
• Bobby's World
• 1989Buy & Cell — Reggie's Mother
• Monsters — The Old Woman
• 1986Papa Was a Preacher — Missy B
• Alice in Wonderland — Cook
• Moonlighting — Clara DiPesto
• 1984Nothing Lasts Forever — Daisy Schackman
• Mama's Family
• 1983National Lampoon's Vacation — Aunt Edna
• 1981Freddie the Freeloader's Christmas Dinner — Molly - Bag Lady
• 1981The Return of the Beverly Hillbillies — Granny's Maw
• Trapper John, M.D.
• 1978Rabbit Test — Madam Marie
• 1975Too Easy to Kill — Mrs. Bradshaw
• 1973Ten from Your Show of Shows
• 1972The Emperor's New Clothes — Princess Jane Klockenlocher (voice)
• Night Gallery — Wife (segment "The Merciful")
• Love, American Style — Doctor's wife
• The Brady Bunch
• It's About Time — Shad
• Bewitched
• Grindl — Grindl
• 1963Promises! Promises! — Woman Under Hair Dryer (uncredited)
• 1963The Sound of Laughter — Miss Klutz (Ballerina)
• 1963Under the Yum Yum Tree — Dorkus Murphy
• Shirley Temple's Storybook — Miss Clavel
• 1956Made in Heaven — Elsa Meredith
• The Imogene Coca Show — Host
• General Electric Theater — Virginia Odell
• Danger
• The Admiral Broadway Revue
• Buzzy Wuzzy
• 1937Bashful Ballerina — Miss Klutz
• 1937Dime a Dance — Esmeralda
• 1936Imogene Coca Screen Test

Appearances as themselves (22)

• 2018Mel Brooks: Unwrapped — Self (archive footage)
• 2012In the Beginning: The Caesar Years — Self
• 1999Television: The First Fifty Years — Self (archive footage)
• 1996Caesar's Writers — Self (archive footage)
• 1987The Little Match Girl — Self - Host
• Reading Rainbow — Self - Narrator (voice)
• The Big Show — Self
• 1978A Special Sesame Street Christmas — Self
• The Carol Burnett Show — Self - Guest
• The Hollywood Palace — Self
• The Danny Kaye Show — Self
• The Merv Griffin Show — Self
• The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson — Self
• The Mike Douglas Show — Self
• The Steve Allen Show — Self - Guest Performer
• Tony Awards — Self - Nominee / Performer
• This Is Your Life — Self
• The Bob Hope Show — Self
• The Colgate Comedy Hour — Self
• What's My Line? — Self
• Your Show of Shows — Self - Regular Performer
• The Ed Sullivan Show — Self