Carole Cook, the comedic actress who rose to fame with the help and mentorship of Lucille Ball, died Jan. 11. She was three days shy of her 99th birthday. Born Mildred Frances Cook in Abilene, Tex. on Jan. 14, 1924, Cook changed her first name to Carole on the suggestion of Ball, after Carole Lombard. Ball, after reading a review of Cook’s performance in Annie Get Your Gun, invited the young actress to audition for her Desilu Workshop. After signing with Ball’s production company, Cook even lived with the legendary comedian after her divorce from Desi Arnaz. Cook went on to appear in a number of films and TV shows, working with Ball on The Lucy Show and Here Comes Lucy, playing Don Knotts’ wife in The Incredible Mr. Limpet, and notching memorable roles in American Gigolo and Sixteen Candles. A prolific guest actress, she made appearances on everything from That Girl and Maude, to Charlie’s Angels and Kojak, Starsky & Hutch and Laverne & Shirley, to Dynasty and, of course, The Love Boat. In 2018, Cook was the subject of some unintended controversy when she suggested the best way to deal with then-President Donald Trump was assassination, asking, “Where’s John Wilkes Booth when you need him?” As a result, Cook was paid a visit by the Secret Service, whom she said “couldn’t have been nicer.” Of the incident she quipped, “I said, ‘I can’t go to prison, the stripes are horizontal, they don’t look good on me.'”
