Carole Cook

Actress Carole Cook worked closely with comedy great Lucille Ball during the 1960s and 1970s, including appearances on a pair of Ball's post-"I Love Lucy" television shows. Their friendship reached beyond television work, as the legendary redhead supposedly gave Cook the stage name Carole and later served as Cook's matron of honor at her wedding to actor Tom Troupe. Cook appeared on several episodes of the television comedy "The Lucy Show" as the character Thelma Green. Airing from 1963 through 1967, the program focused on the often funny situations that Lucy Carmichael, a widowed mother of two, finds herself in the middle of. Shortly thereafter, Cook secured another Ball-related television comedy role, on the program "Here's Lucy," playing the character Cynthia Duncan. The show featured Ball as Lucy Carter, who works for an employment agency run by her brother-in-law. Although "Here's Lucy" ran from 1968 through 1974, it was not until the 1970 season that Cook joined the cast. In addition to her association with Ball, Cook is best known to fans of 1980s-era teen comedies, via her humorous role as Grandma Helen in the movie "Sixteen Candles," thanks to a hilarious scene in which she admires how Molly Ringwald's character has grown up. Cook has continued acting during the early 21st century, and has kept her Ball connection intact, by being interviewed for a 2010 DVD release of "The Lucy Show."