Anecdotes

Mr. Coco was memorialized in an episode of the hit sitcom "Who's the Boss?"S4, E7, A Farewell to Nick (1987). The series had featured him in a recurring role, his last, as "Grandpa Nick".

Lived for quite some time in his Greenwich apartment near friends playwrights Terrence McNally, Paddy Chayefsky, and Israel Horovitz; and actor Robert Drivas, where they all would often get together for a weekly game of poker.

Following his sudden death, he was interred at Saint Gertrude's Roman Catholic Cemetery in Colonia, Middlesex County, New Jersey.

Resuming press interviews in connection with a Diet Coke commercial he filmed in 1986 (after being out of work for a while), he said he was proud of having lost 42 pounds for the job.

He, Glenn Close and Maria Bakalova are the only three actors to receive Oscar, Golden Globe and Razzie nominations for the same film role. These honors came to Coco for Du rire aux larmes (1981), Close's for Une ode américaine (2020), and Bakalova's for Borat, nouvelle mission filmée : Livraison bakchich prodigieux pour régime de l'Amérique au profit autrefois glorieuse nation Kazakhstan (2020). Amy Irving was nominated for an Oscar and a Razzie for Yentl (1983), but not a Golden Globe. Bakalova's Razzie nomination, however, was in the Worst Screen Combo category alongside Rudy Giuliani, her name ultimately removed from the final ballot to be replaced by "[Giuliani's] pants zipper". Coco, Close, Irving and Bakalova would not win from any of these nominations, although Giuliani and his pants zipper would prevail in that category.

Was nominated for Broadway's 1970 Tony Award as Best Actor (Dramatic) for "Last of the Red Hot Lovers."

He studied drama at HB Studio in Greenwich Village in New York City.

Made his Broadway debut opposite Bert Lahr and Angela Lansbury (also her Broadway debut) in playwright George Faydeau's "Hotel Paradiso" (1957). 27 years later James and Angela reunited on "Murder, She Wrote" S1, E7: "We're Off to Kill the Wizard".