James Coco
| James Coco | |
|---|---|
Coco in 1973.
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| Born |
March 21, 1930 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | February 25, 1987 (aged 56) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Heart attack |
| Resting place | Saint Gertrude Cemetery & Mausoleum, Colonia, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor, singer |
| Years active | 1940s–1987 |
James Coco (March 21, 1930 – February 25, 1987) was an American character actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Only When I Laugh (1981).
Born James Emil Coco in New York City, son of Felice Coco, a shoemaker, and Ida Detestes Coco, James began acting straight out of high school. As an overweight and prematurely balding adult, he found himself relegated to character roles. He made his Broadway debut in Hotel Paradiso in 1957, but his first major recognition was for Off-Broadway's The Moon in Yellow River, for which he won an Obie Award.
Coco's first modern collaboration with playwright Terrence McNally was a 1968 off Broadway double-bill of the one-act plays Sweet Eros and Witness, followed by Here's Where I Belong, a disastrous Broadway musical adaptation of East of Eden that closed on opening night. They had far greater success with their next project, Next, a two-character play with Elaine Shore, which ran for more than 700 performances and won Coco the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance. Sixteen years later, the two would reunite for the Manhattan Theatre Club production of It's Only a Play.
Coco also achieved success with Neil Simon, who wrote The Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1969) specifically for him. It earned him a Tony Award nomination as Best Actor in a Play. The two later joined forces for a Broadway revival of the musical Little Me and the films Murder by Death (1976), The Cheap Detective (1978), and Only When I Laugh (1981), for which he was both Oscar-nominated and Razzie-nominated.
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