THE INCREDIBLE MRS. LIMP
Actress Carole Cook has died on the cusp of her 99th birthday. Recognisable by her fiery red hair, Cook was trained by another carrot-top funnylady – none other than Lucille Ball. Lucy repaid in kind, with Cook a regular on latter-day Ball sitcoms The Lucy Show and Here’s Lucy, rarely playing the same character. Those appearances proved a springboard to a steady career. On the stage, she succeeded Carol Channing as the second Dolly in Hello, Dolly! and was one of several to play Mack the Knife squeeze Mrs. Peachum in the 1950s Broadway run of The Threepenny Opera. Though you won’t hear that character’s name out of Bobby Darin’s mouth given she made way for Miss Lotte Lenya!
Notable film roles included the wife of Don Knotts’s titular man-turned-fish in The Incredible Mr. Limpet and Molly Ringwald’s grandmother in Sixteen Candles. In 2018, aged 94 and with no fucks to give, she quipped a longing for John Wilkes Booth when asked by the paparazzi about Trump. The Secret Service somehow found it necessary to interview her afterwards. Maybe they thought her ties to Macheath posed a serious threat to the Donald’s life. Oh the line forms on the right, babe, and in this queue are Colnbrook Corner, Janes antique wrinklies, Over The Rainbow, and The Spanners.
Carole Cook
14 January 1924 – 11 January 2023, aged 98
4 TEAMS (💀💀💀💀💀 5 POINTS)