Carole Cook obit

Carole Cook, Lucille Ball Protégé and ‘Sixteen Candles’ Actress, Dies at 98

She also appeared three times on Broadway, followed Carol Channing in 'Hello, Dolly!' and played Don Knotts' wife in 'The Incredible Mr. Limpet.'

 

 She was not on the list.

Carole Cook, who used a career boost from Lucille Ball to build a career that included three turns on Broadway and roles in Sixteen Candles and The Incredible Mr. Limpet, has died. She was 98.

Cook died of heart failure on Wednesday, three days shy of her birthday, in Beverly Hills, her husband, actor Tom Troupe, announced.

On television, Cook showed up as the ex-wife of Walter Findlay (Bill Macy) on Maude, as the bar owner of the cop hangout Stella’s on Kojak, as madam Cora Van Husen on Dynasty and as Donna La Mar, the girlfriend of Charlie Cagney (Dick O’Neill), on Cagney & Lacey.

The fun-loving Texan came to Hollywood at Ball’s behest and appeared on a 1959 episode of the comedienne’s Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse. Ball convinced her to change her first name from Mildred to Carole in honor of the actress she most admired, Carole Lombard.

Cook then worked alongside Ball on 18 episodes of The Lucy Show from 1963-68 — often playing Lucy Carmichael’s pal Thelma Green — and five installments of CBS’ Here’s Lucy from 1969-74. They even played a game of Password together in 1965. She wore her hair red, as did her mentor.

Cook also portrayed the wife of Don Knotts’ character and watched him swim out of her life in The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964) and was Molly Ringwald’s touchy-feely Grandma Helen in John Hughes’ Sixteen Candles (1984). With Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall.

In 1965, she followed the legendary Carol Channing as the second actress to portray Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! — this was for a lengthy gig in Australia — and then appeared in the original Broadway productions of Romantic Comedy and 42nd Street, which bowed in 1979 and ’80, respectively.

In September 2018, Cook and her husband were interviewed by TMZ outside Craig’s in West Hollywood, and she got into a spot of trouble when she suggested that President Trump should be assassinated. “Where is John Wilkes Booth when you need him, right?” she asked.

The Secret Service paid her a visit, and she pointed out “they couldn’t have been nicer. I said, ‘I can’t go to prison, the stripes are horizontal, they don’t look good on me.'”

One of four children, Mildred Frances Cook was born in Abilene, Texas, on Jan. 14, 1924.

“Abilene isn’t exactly the hub of Broadway — you’re up to your ass in mesquite trees — but I saw my first show when I was four, knew I wanted to do that, and I never deviated,” she said in a July interview. “I started out in the basement of the First Baptist Church and worked my way up to Broadway, to movies.”

After graduating in 1945 from Baylor University, where she studied Greek drama, the green-eyed Cook worked in regional theater and made it to Broadway in 1954 in a revival of Threepenny Opera, replacing Charlotte Rae as Mrs. Peachum in the cast.

She was appearing in Kismet in Warren, Ohio, when she received a call from Ball, who had read a review of her performance in Annie Get Your Gun and asked her to come to California to audition for her Desilu Workshop company of young actors. (Future Untouchables actor Nicholas Georgiade also got his start there.)

She signed with Desilu and even lived in Ball’s home after her divorce from Desi Arnaz.

On Christmas night in 1959, Cook appeared on CBS’ Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse as one of the young performers getting coached by Desilu co-founder Ball for a musical revue. Three weeks later, she made her onscreen debut on a Robert Altman-directed episode of the Desilu series U.S. Marshal.

In her first film, she flirted with a basketball coach (Jack Weston) in Palm Springs Weekend (1963), starring Connie Stevens and Troy Donahue.

Cook’s résumé also included episodes of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, That Girl, McMillan & Wife, Chico and the Man, Magnum, P.I., Dynasty, Hart to Hart and Grey’s Anatomy — where she sang “Stormy Weather” — and such films as The Gauntlet (1977), American Gigolo (1980), Summer Lovers (1982) and Home on the Range (2004).

She and Troupe married in March 1964, when Ball was their matron of honor and future THR columnist and TCM host Robert Osborne (another Desilu player) their best man. They acted together in such plays as The Lion in Winter and Father’s Day and raised money for those living with HIV/AIDS.

In addition to her husband, survivors include her stepson, Christopher, and his wife, Becky; sister Regina; and nieces and nephews.

Donations in her memory can be made to the Entertainment Community Fund (formerly The Actors Fund).

In 2018, Cook sang and shared memories in a one-woman show at the intimate Feinstein’s/54 Below club in New York. “At my age, playing [here] is not a career move,” she said. “I have jewelry bigger than this room.”

Filmography

Film

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1963      Palm Springs Weekend Naomi Yates      

1964      The Incredible Mr. Limpet            Bessie Limpet   

1977      The Gauntlet      Waitress             

1980      American Gigolo               Mrs. Dobrun      

1982      Summer Lovers Barbara Foster  

1984      Sixteen Candles                Helen   

Grandview, U.S.A.           Betty Welles      

1996      Fast Money        Ester     

1999      Lost & Found      Sylvia    

2004      Home on the Range        Pearl Gesner      Voice

2017      A Very Sordid Wedding Hortense            

2018      Waiting in the Wings: Still Waiting            Erika Ericson      

Television

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1959–1960          U.S. Marshal       Mrs. Parker / Nurse         2 episodes

1963      The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis   Fifi LaVerne / Molly O'Day

1963–1968          The Lucy Show Thelma Green / Woman in Station (uncredited) / Hotel Guest / Mrs. Valance / Lady at the Health Club / Mrs. Baldwin / Lady Cynthia (voice) / Carrie / Effie Higgins / Piano Bar Patron (uncredited) / Gladys                 18 episodes

1964      The New Phil Silvers Show            Gertrude / Mrs. Kerrigan               2 episodes

Kentucky Jones Dodie Wipple     Episode: "The Dread Disease"

1966      Vacation Playhouse         Nurse    Episode: "The Hoofer"

Daniel Boone     Annie Boyd         Episode: "The Symbol"

1969      My World and Welcome to It      Aunt Kate            Episode: "The Disenchanted"

That Girl               Dorothy Desmond           Episode: "My Part Belongs to Daddy"

1969–1974          Here's Lucy         Second Woman / Mrs. Sheila Casten / Lillian Rylander / Ma Parker / Cynthia Duncan                 5 episodes

1971      Sarge     Cass       Episode: "Identity Crisis"

1972–1974          McMillan & Wife              Marnie / Carole Crenshaw            4 episodes

1973      Lady Luck             Fran       Television film

1974      Maude Marta    Episode: "Walter's Ex"

1975      Baretta Mrs. Marriott     Episode: "Woman in the Harbor"

1975–1976          Chico and the Man          Flora      3 episodes

1976      Ellery Queen      Gossip Columnist              Episode: "The Adventure of the Sinister Scenario"

Emergency!        Nurse    Episode: "The Nuisance"

Bronk    Beatrice               Episode: "The Vigilante"

1976–1977          Charlie's Angels                 Madam Dorian / Hildy Slater       2 episodes

1977      Starsky & Hutch                Scorchy                Episode: "Huggy Bear and the Turkey"

In the Glitter Palace        Daisy Dolon        Television film

Kojak     Marie Stella        4 episodes

1979      Rendezvous Hotel            Lucille Greenwood          Television film

1980      Make Me an Offer           Pru Babcock

1981      Darkroom            Sally Anne           Episode: "The Partnership"

1982      Laverne & Shirley             Mrs. Harmon      Episode: "I Do, I Don't"

Strike Force        Mitzi      Episode: "The John Killer"

Trapper John, M.D.          Natasha                Episode: "The Object of My Affliction"

Knight Rider       Sen. Maggie Flynn            Episode: "Just My Bill"

Hart to Hart        Christine              Episode: "One Hart Too Many"

Something So Right         Cahuenga            Television film

Hart to Hart        Christine Garrick               Episode: "One Hart Too Many"

CBS Children's Mystery Theatre Florence Dumont             Episode: "The Zertigo Diamond Caper"

1983      The Love Boat    Phyllis Faraday Episode: "Paroled to Love / First Impressions / Love Finds Florence Nightingale"

Quincy, M.E.       Winslow               2 episodes

Now We're Cookin'          Marge   Television film

1983–1984          Capitol Sugar Laine        

1985, 1988          Murder, She Wrote         Christine Carpenter / Shayna Grant          2 episodes

1986      The A-Team        Mrs. Prescott     Episode: "Members Only"

Magnum, P.I.     Sarah Tate           Episode: "All Thieves on Deck"

1986–1988          Cagney & Lacey                 Donna LaMarr   5 episodes

1986–1987          Dynasty                Cora Van Husen                4 episodes

1987      Carly's Web        Myrtle   Television film

1990      A Family for Joe                Medium               Episode: "The Medium"

1993      Gloria Vane         Mona Lewis        Television film

2000      Strip Mall             Doreen Krudup Episode: "Burbank Bigfoot"

2006      Grey's Anatomy                Sophie Larson    Episode: "Tell Me Sweet Little Lies"

2014      Major Crimes     Marcella Brewster           Episode: "Frozen Assets"

2015, 2018          Break a Hip         Pearl Goodfish 3 episodes

Theatre

Year       Play        Role       Venue   Ref.

1956      The Threepenny Opera Mrs. Peacham    Off-Broadway, New York City     

1960      Kismet Lalume The Melody Tent, Pittsburgh

1965–1966          Hello, Dolly!        Dolly Levi             Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney; Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne; His Majesty's Theatre, Auckland      

1964      Stop the World – I Want to Get Off           Evie                       

1974, 1978          Father's Day       Louise   Huntington Hartford Theatre, Los Angeles (1974); Total Theatre, Melbourne; Mayfair Theatre, Sydney              

1979–1980          Romantic Comedy           Blanche Dailey   Broadway, New York      

1980–1989          42nd Street        Maggie Jones     Broadway; US Tour (1984)

1982      The Supporting Cast                        Huntington Hartford Theatre, Los Angeles           

1988–1989          Steel Magnolias                Ouiser Boudreaux            Pasadena Playhouse, Pasadena; John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C.             

1992; 2007          Dress Up              Herself Pasadena Playhouse, Pasadena (1992); New Conservatory Theatre Center, San Francisco (2007)              

1994      The Lion in Winter           Eleanor                 Pasadena Playhouse, Pasadena

1995      Ladies in Retirement       Leonora Fiske     Coconut Grove Playhouse, Miami             

1996      Radio Gals           Hazel C. Hunt     John Houseman Theatre, New York         

2002      Follies   Hattie Walker    Wadsworth Theatre, Los Angeles             

2006      70, Girls 70          Gert Appleby     New York City Center, New York