Imogene Coca 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.
24 Facts About Imogene Coca
2.
Imogene Coca was the most professional artist I've ever worked with.
3.
Imogene 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.
4.
Imogene Coca became a headliner in Manhattan nightclubs with music arranged by her husband, Bob Burton.
5.
Imogene Coca gained prominence when she combined music with comedy; her first critical success was in New Faces of 1934.
6.
Imogene Coca committed this routine to film in the Educational Pictures comedy short The Bashful Ballerina.
7.
Imogene Coca received excellent notices for her Educational short Dime a Dance.
8.
Imogene Coca starred in an early ABC series, Buzzy Wuzzy, which lasted four episodes in 1948.
9.
Imogene Coca played opposite Sid Caesar on The Admiral Broadway Revue, and then in the sketch comedy program Your Show of Shows, which was immensely popular, winning the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Series in 1952 and 1953.
10.
Imogene Coca won the second-ever Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1951 and was nominated for four other Emmys for her work in the show.
11.
Imogene Coca won a 1953 Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting.
12.
Imogene Coca has appeared on comedy and variety series throughout the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s including several appearances each on The Carol Burnett Show, The George Gobel Show, The Hollywood Palace and Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town and Bob Hope specials.
13.
Imogene Coca made memorable guest appearances on sitcoms including two appearances on Bewitched, The Brady Bunch and Mama's Family.
14.
Imogene Coca appeared with Milton Berle and Your Show of Shows co-star Howard Morris in "Curtain Call", a 1983 episode of Fantasy Island.
15.
Imogene Coca appeared in a number of literary adaptations for children.
16.
In 1988, Imogene Coca appeared as the mother of Allyce Beasley's Agnes in the Moonlighting episode "Los Dos Dipestos", written by David Steinberg.
17.
Imogene Coca received her sixth Emmy nomination, as Outstanding Guest Performer in a Drama Series, for the role.
18.
Imogene Coca appeared in the Broadway run with Kevin Kline and Madeline Kahn, continued with the national tour starring Rock Hudson and Judy Kaye and returned for a later tour revival in the mid-1980s with Kaye and Frank Gorshin.
19.
Imogene Coca co-starred with singer Maxine Sullivan in My Old Friends and touring productions including musicals such as Once Upon a Mattress and Bells Are Ringing and plays such as The Prisoner of Second Avenue and Luv.
20.
New wave group Ebn-Ozn featured Imogene Coca as the title character in the music video to their song "Bag Lady ", which was a top-40 dance hit in 1984.
21.
Imogene Coca had no children, but was married twice: for 20 years to Bob Burton, from 1935 until his death in 1955, and later for 27 years to King Donovan, from 1960 until his death in 1987.
22.
Imogene Coca was a Democrat who supported the campaign of Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 presidential election.
23.
In 1995, Imogene Coca was honored with the second annual Women in Film Lucy Award, honoring women's achievement in television and named after Lucille Ball.
24.
On June 2,2001, Imogene Coca died at her home in Westport, Connecticut, aged 92, from natural causes incidental to Alzheimer's disease.