Imogene Coca

Imogene Coca was an American comic actress who began in vaudeville as a child acrobat, then studied ballet and worked in stage revues, cabaret, and summer stock. Born in Philadelphia in 1908, she moved to New York as a teenager and at 16 found her first Broadway work in the chorus of When You Smile. She became one of network television's earliest comics, working with Sid Caesar on The Admiral Broadway Revue and Your Show of Shows, for which she won a Primetime Emmy for best actress and a Peabody Award. Her series included The Imogene Coca Show and Grindl, and she earned a sixth Emmy nomination for a guest role on Moonlighting. Her films included Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963), National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) as Aunt Edna, and Nothing Lasts Forever (1984). At 70 she returned to Broadway in On the Twentieth Century, a role that brought a Tony nomination. She died in 2001.