Carole Cook has died. wShe was best known for her roles in “Sixteen Candles” and “The Incredible Mr. Limpet.” She turned 98.
A representative for the veteran actress confirmed the news, saying, “On behalf of her husband, Tom Troupe, and the family who was with her at the end, I have been asked to report that the legendary actress of stage and screen (both big and small), Carole Cook, has died.”
Who is Carole Cook?
Mildred Frances Cook was born in Abilene, Texas, on January 14, 1924. She got her big break in the entertainment business when Hollywood star Lucille Ball became her mentor and helped her move from acting on stage to acting on screen.
In 1959, Ball invited Cook to join The Desilu Workshop, her group of actors. Ball persuaded Mildred to change her name to Carole in honour of Carole Lombard.
Ball said that her student had “the same healthy disrespect for everything in general” as Lombard, who was a screwball comedy star who died in the 1930s and was in movies like “My Man Godfrey” and “Twentieth Century.”
The actor and producer from “I Love Lucy” was even the maid of honour at the wedding of fellow actor Cook Troupe in 1964.
Taking “the good things” led Cook, over more than 60 years in the entertainment business, to build a resume full of different and memorable dramatic, comedic, and musical roles.
Cook Career
On the stage, Cook played the lead in “Hello, Dolly!” in 1965 and 1966, “Steel Magnolias” in 1988 and 1989, and “The Lion in Winter” in 1994. Cook made her mark on the big screen with roles in “The Incredible Mr Limpet” (1964), with Don Knotts, and in John Hughes’ coming-of-age comedy “Sixteen Candles.” She also stood out in movies like “American Gigolo” (1980) with Richard Gere and “Lost & Found,” with David Spade (1999).
But she also kept busy on TV, with guest roles in some of the most popular shows of the 1970s and 1980s, such as “Maude,” “Charlies Angels,” and “Kojak” in the 1970s and “Murder, She Wrote” and “Dynasty” in the 1980s. And in the “Grey’s Anatomy” episode “Tell Me Sweet Lies” from 2006, she played a patient.
Cook and her husband worked hard to fight HIV and AIDS when they weren’t acting, even though medical progress meant that getting HIV was no longer seen as a death sentence. The star promised to keep fighting.
Read Also: Well-known Gogo Manzini Suffered Death