Carole Cook, Veteran Actor And Protégé Of Lucille Ball, Passes Away At Age 98
Image Source: Turner Classic Movies
Carole Cook, veteran actor of stage and screen, and protégé of Lucille Ball succumbed to heart failure just 3 days shy of her 99th birthday. She was 98.
Born Mildred Cook in Abilene, Texas in 1924, Cook saw her first show when she was just 4 years old, and knew immediately that acting would be her life course. After graduating from Baylor University in 1945, she worked her way through regional productions until she landed a part in the revival of Threepenny Opera on Broadway.
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She received a call from Ball after she 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. Cook first appeared on TV screens in 1960 on the Desilu-produced U.S. Marshal and made her feature debut in 1963’s Palm Springs Weekend.
Image Source: CNN
After appearing beside Don Knotts in Disney’s The Incredible Mr. Limpet, Cook had a string of success through the late 1960s and well into the 1980s. She starred in two of Lucille Ball’s hit shows, The Lucy Show and Here’s Lucy.
Her small screen credits include guest-starring roles on That Girl, Starsky and Hutch, Kojak, Murder She Wrote, and Grey’s Anatomy. She also starred in numerous films, with her most notorious role as touchy-feely Grandma Helen in Sixteen Candles.
She had a brief brush with the law in 2018 when she suggested that then-president Donald Trump should be assassinated by saying, “where’s John Wilkes Booth when you need him.” She was paid a visit by the FBI, saying, “they couldn’t have been nicer.”
She is survived by her husband Tom, stepson Christopher Troupe and his wife Becky, sister Regina Cocanougher and several nieces and nephews.
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Sources: Variety, IMDb, Hollywood Reporter
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