Cosette Lee (10 July 1910 – 19 September 1976) was a Canadian stage, radio, television and film actress.
Though she was a stalwart character doyenne, prominent in every arena of the theatre arts in Canada, she is best remembered for her roles as Raxl, Daughter of the Priestess of the Serpent on Strange Paradise (1969–70), and as Ma Cobb in Deranged (1975).
Cosette Lee began acting at a very young age; she grew up in the midst of a decided theatrical atmosphere at home.
Born Mabel Cosette LeGassicke, she stated in a 1966 interview that her ancestors were of Normandy French stock.
She further stated: "My first professional appearance was with the Von Glazer Players, a Toronto stock company, in Peter Pan.
Besides plays, she also had a career as a "character elocutionist," performing mostly comic monologues in a style that in some ways anticipates the stand-up comedy boom of the present era.
In a 1963 interview, she gave a less rosy-coloured image of her early life: "Born Cosette Le Gassicke, the oldest of five daughters, Miss Lee had no encouragement from her parents in her acting aspirations.
"From 16 to 22 she put in an apprenticeship in the U. S., learning 'the craft' with people like Wallace Ford, Leo Carillo, Walter Kingsford, Spring Byington.
"[Cosette continued:]'Then, in 1932, I got a telegram as I was reading for a part in New York to say that the clothing business my father had worked for had gone under, and I was needed back home.
Depression was sinking showbusiness in Toronto; the stock companies like the Grand Opera, the Empire, the Vaughan Glaser and the Cameron Mathews, were folding.
Cosette remembered: "... we all sat around a squat little microphone placed in the centre of a table in a very small room, and each in turn would speak into the object.
Favorite roles she mentioned frequently in interviews included Madam Arcati in Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit (she played in at least four different productions of it), Madam Alvarez in Gigi, Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, and the Bernard Shaw drama, Arms and the Man[6] Cosette created a one woman show in the early 1950s.
"[7] In 1960, Cosette appeared opposite future Strange Paradise co-stars Jack Creley and Dawn Greenhalgh in a play, Tunnel of Love, performed at the Lansdowne Theatre in Toronto.
")[8] Her scrapbooks, as preserved in the Cosette Lee Collection in the Toronto Public Library, reveal active television work beginning in 1955 and continuing down until the mid 1970s.
A prominent television role for her was on 2 March 1965 in an episode of CBC-TV's "Eye Opener", "The Trial of Joseph Brodsky".
In this series, she played opposite Sylvia Feigel, a young Canadian actress who went on to portray Holly on Strange Paradise.
Unlike her other television work, Strange Paradise was syndicated in the US and in subsequent repeat markets throughout the 1970s-1980s and beyond, with episodes available on YouTube since around 2009.
"[12] Despite the difficulties, Cosette claimed to have happy memories when she spoke of working on the serial a couple of years later.
Toronto Public Library holds a Cosette Lee Collection 1911; 1920–1976,[15] which contains programs, press clippings, photographs, correspondence, scripts, business papers, documents from professional organizations, memorabilia, all in 3 boxes and 812 items.