Obituaries.(Imogene Coca, Arlene Francis)(Brief Article)(Obituary)

Broadcasting & Cable, June, 2001 by Williams-Rude, Beatrice

Imogene Coca, the tiny saucer-eyed actress--don't call her a comedienne, she wanted to play St. Joan--died in Westport, Conn. She was 92. Coca came to comedy accidentally, while clowning in the theater during rehearsals of Leonard Sillman's Broadway revue New Faces of 1934. Producer Max Liebman, who had worked with Coca and Caesar in the Catskills, paired them in The Admiral Broadway Revue in 1949--which was simultaneously on NBC and Dumont--and again in the groundbreaking Your Show of Shows, for which all three are best-known.

The versatile seemingly rubber-faced Coca appeared in satires of movies, including avant-garde foreign films, performed sketch comedy and was part of a regular skit with Caesar, The Hickenloopers. The show ran from February...

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