Katherine Helmond - # 205

Katherine Helmond, TV actress known for her comic characters, dies at 89

She was number 205 on the list.


Katherine Helmond, who received seven Emmy Award nominations for her varied roles in television comedies, including playing endearingly naive yet lusty women in “Soap” and “Who’s the Boss?,” died Feb. 23 at her home in Los Angeles. She was 89.

She had complications from Alzheimer’s disease, her talent agency, APA, said in a statement.

After beginning her career in theater, Ms. Helmond found greater success later in television, playing comic characters who were alternately naive, sexually aggressive, greedy or stiffly proper.

On the cult-favorite comedy “Soap,” a spoof of daytime soap operas that aired on ABC from 1977 to 1981, she played Jessica Tate, a sheltered wife blind to her husband’s infidelities.

With a girlish voice and revealing blouses, Ms. Helmond brought an unusual blend of earnestness, innocence and sexual frankness to her role. She was nominated four times for an Emmy but did not win.

Her nephew in “Soap,” Jodie Dallas (played by Billy Crystal), was among the first openly gay characters in a prime-time sitcom. When trying to understand her nephew, Ms. Helmond’s character was caught somewhere between shock and befuddlement.

“You know, Jodie, when we young, there were no such thing as homosexuals,” she said in one episode.

“Yes, there were, Aunt Jessica,” Crystal’s character replied. “Homosexuals go way back in history.”

Ms. Helmond: “Who?”

Crystal: “Alexander the Great was gay; Plato was gay.”

Ms. Helmond: “Plato?”

As Crystal nodded, Ms. Helmond said, in an alarmed voice: “Mickey Mouse’s dog was gay?”

Throughout its four-year run, “Soap” was the frequent target of moral outrage and religious condemnation.

“It was ahead of its time, with issues that had never been on TV before,” Ms. Helmond told the San Francisco Chronicle in 1990. “One of the biggest objections was having a homosexual as a major role and showing him in a good light, with a family that totally accepted him.”

Ms. Helmond’s next major starring role came on “Who’s the Boss?,” a top-rated sitcom on ABC. She was originally scheduled to have a limited part, but her character proved so irresistible that she appeared in all 196 episodes of the show, which ran from 1984 to 1992.

Her character, Mona Robinson, was a free-spirited, sexually adventurous middle-aged woman who lived near her daughter, a divorced, uptight advertising executive played by Judith Light. The show’s other central character was a onetime baseball player (Tony Danza) working as a housekeeper for Light’s character.

It wasn’t exactly Shakespeare or Eugene O’Neill — whose works Ms. Helmond had performed onstage — but “Who’s the Boss?” allowed her to be carefree, adventurous and bawdy. (She also had ample opportunity to show off her shapely figure in skimpy outfits, as she fell in and out of the arms of countless men.)

“Mother, you’re wearing a bathing suit,” Light’s character says in one episode. “I mean, isn’t it a little revealing?”

Ms. Helmond: “I certainly hope so.”

She received two Emmy nominations for “Who’s the Boss?,” which was among the first sitcoms to feature an overtly flirtatious, sexually active middle-aged woman — a grandmother, no less.

“I think with Mona, I get a chance to be more open to what’s happening in the world today,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 1989. “I can be serious and I can be funny and vulnerable and blunt and brutal and loving. Yeah, a contemporary woman.”

Ms. Helmond later played a money-grubbing owner of a professional football team on the ABC sitcom “Coach.” From 1996 to 2004, she had a recurring role on “Everybody Loves Raymond,” as the pretentious mother of Debra Barone (Patricia Heaton), the wife of the show’s title character, played by Ray Romano.Her screen husband was Robert Culp. She received another Emmy nomination for “Everybody Loves Raymond” in 2002.

Katherine Marie Helmond was born July 5, 1929, in Galveston, Tex. Her parents divorced when she was young, and she was raised by her mother and grandmother.

While attending Catholic schools, she enjoyed taking part in theatrical productions.

“When I was a teenager, I just wanted to be the best actor I could be,” she told the Boston Globe in 1998, “to keep working all of my life and to work until the end of my life.”

She never formally studied acting, but she joined community theater companies in Houston and Dallas, working the lights and curtains and “everything I could to be in the theater,” she told the St. Petersburg Times.

She briefly studied at Bob Jones University in South Carolina before moving to New York in 1955. Her first stage role came in a production of Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.”

She held secretarial jobs, ran a theater in the Catskill Mountains and taught acting while building her career. Appearing in the original 1971 off-Broadway production of “House of Blue Leaves” by John Guare, Ms. Helmond won a Drama Desk Award for her portrayal of the mentally unstable wife of a would-be songwriter.

She received a Tony Award nomination in 1973 for her role as a woman caught in a love triangle in a Broadway revival of Eugene O’Neill’s “The Great God Brown.”

When she went to Hollywood in the 1970s, Ms. Helmond had a hard time finding work.

“I couldn’t even get a reading for a comedy,” she told the Boston Globe in 1998. “They all thought I played classics, queens and things like that. Now the opposite is true, now that I’ve had three comedic parts in long-running sitcoms. The casting directors say, ‘Well, she can’t do serious parts.’ ”

In addition to television, Ms. Helmond appeared in several films, including Terry Gilliam’s “Time Bandits” (1981), “Brazil” (1985) and “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” (1998). She continued to work onstage, including a one-person play about the life of actress Sarah Bernhardt. In later years, Ms. Helmond was the voice of Lizzie, a Model T in the 2006 animated feature “Cars” and its 2011 and 2017 sequels.

Her marriage to George N. Martin ended in divorce. Survivors include her husband of nearly 50 years, David Christian of Los Angeles.

During the years that Ms. Helmond and several friends ran a theater in a converted barn in Upstate New York, she appeared in plays by Arthur Miller, Henrik Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw and Tennessee Williams. When they mounted a production of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” she invited her grandmother from Texas.

“We had a bagpipe player and dogs barking and chickens onstage,” Ms. Helmond recalled to the Globe. “My grandmother said, ‘Why would you want to do a play like that?’ I said, ‘Grandma, it’s one of the greatest plays in the English language,’ and she said, ‘That’s no excuse, kid.’ ”

Filmography

 

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1955      Wine of Morning              Irene    

1971      Believe in Me     Saleslady             

The Hospital       Mrs. Marilyn Mead         

1975      The Hindenburg                Mrs. Mildred Breslau     

1976      Family Plot          Mrs. Maloney   

Baby Blue Marine             Mrs. Hudkins     

1981      Time Bandits      Mrs. Ogre           

1985      Brazil     Mrs. Ida Lowry

Shadey Lady Constance Landau British film

1987      Overboard          Edith Mintz        

1988      Lady in White     Amanda Harper                Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress (1990)

1992      Inside Monkey Zetterland            Honor Zetterland            

1993      Amore!                 Mildred Schwartz            

1995      The Flight of the Dove    Dr. Pamela Schilling         a.k.a. The Spy Within

1998      Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas   Desk Clerk at Mint Hotel              

2000      The Perfect Nanny           Mrs. McBride    

2002      Black Hole           Martha Truesdale           

2003      Beethoven's 5th               Crazy Cora Wilkens          Direct-to-video film

2006      Cars       Lizzie     Voice

2007      The Strand          Isabelle                 Direct-to-video film

2011      Cars 2    Lizzie     Voice

Collaborator       Irene Longfellow             

2017      Cars 3    Lizzie     Voice

2018      Frank and Ava    Betty Burns         Final film role

Television

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1962      Car 54, Where Are You?                Betty Lou Creco                1 episode

Uncredited

1972      Gunsmoke          Ena Spratt           Season 18, Episode 4: "The Judgement"

The F.B.I.             Terry     Season 8, Episode 13: "The Jug-Marker"

1973      Adam's Rib          Martha Layne    1 episode

The Bob Newhart Show Dr. Webster        1 episode

The ABC Afternoon Playbreak     Liz Cunningham                1 episode

1974      The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman               Lady at House    TV film

The Snoop Sisters             Cissy Prine           1 episode

Dr. Max                Libby Oppel        TV film

Hec Ramsey        Emily     1 episode

Larry      Maureen Whitten            TV film

Mannix                 Sylvia Jarrud / Martha Cole          2 episodes

Locusts Claire Fletcher   TV film

Medical Center Rachel   1 episode

1974–75               The Rookies        Joyce Lanson / Molly Phillips       2 episodes

1975      The Legend of Lizzie Borden        Emma Borden    TV film

The Family Nobody Wanted        Mrs. Bittner        TV film

Cage Without a Key         Mrs. Little            TV film

The First 36 Hours of Dr. Durant                 Nurse Katherine Gunther             TV pilot

Barnaby Jones   Edna Morrison   1 episode

Harry O                 Anne Kershaw   1 episode

The Six Million Dollar Man            Middy   1 episode

1976      The Blue Knight                 Mrs. Stryker        1 episode

James Dean        Claire Folger       TV film

Petrocelli             Nancy Berwick   1 episode

Joe Forrester                      1 episode

Wanted: The Sundance Woman                 Mattie Riley        TV film

a.k.a. Mrs. Sundance Rides Again

Visions Aunt Sara             1 episode

Spencer's Pilots                 Elly         1 episode

1977      Little Ladies of the Night               Miss Colby           TV film

a.k.a. Diamond Alley

The Bionic Woman          Dr. Harkens         2 episodes

Meeting of Minds            Emily Dickinson                 2 episodes

1977–1979          The Mike Douglas Show                Herself 6 episodes

1977–81               Soap      Jessica Tate         85 episodes

Won — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy (1980)

Nominated — Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (1978–1981)

1978      Getting Married                Vera Lesser         TV film

Pearl      Mrs. Sally Colton, Madam             TV miniseries

1979      $weepstake$     Lynn      1 episode

Diary of a Teenage Hitchhiker     Elaine Thurston                 TV film

1979–83               Benson Jessica Tate         2 episodes

also as director[2]

1980      Scout's Honor    Pearl Bartlett     TV film

1981–86               The Love Boat    Vivian / Harriet Darnell Stevens 3 episodes

1982      World War III     Dorothy Longworth         TV miniseries

For Lovers Only Bea Winchell      TV film

Rosie: The Rosemary Clooney Story          Frances Clooney               TV film

1983      Faerie Tale Theatre          Jack's mother     1 episode[2]

Fantasy Island    Laura Walters / George Walters                 1 episode

1984      Not in Front of the Kids Millie Rosen       TV film

1984–92               Who's the Boss?               Mona Robinson                 196 episodes

Won — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (1989)

Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (1986)

Nominated — Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (1988–1989)

Nominated — TV Land Award for Favorite Mother-in-Law (2005)

1985      Comedy Factory                Mildred Deegan                1 episode

1986      Charmed Lives   Mona Robinson                 1 episode

Girls on Top        Goldie DuPont   1 episode

Christmas Snow                Widow Mutterance         TV film

1986–1991          The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson             Herself 2 episodes

1988      Save the Dog!                    TV film

a.k.a. Go for Broke

1990      When Will I Be Loved?   Barbara Patterson            TV film

1991      The Perfect Tribute         Farm Woman     TV film

Deception: A Mother's Secret     Geena Milner     TV film

a.k.a. Tell Me No Lies

1992      Grass Roots        Emma Carr          TV film

Batman: The Animated Series     Connie Stromwell             1 episode  Voice role

1993      The Elvira Show                Aunt Minerva     Unaired pilot

The Upper Hand               Madame Alexandra         1 episode

1995      Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story     Hedda Hopper   TV film

1995–97               Coach    Doris Sherman   19 episodes

1996–2004          Everybody Loves Raymond          Lois Whelan        14 episodes

Nominated — Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series (2002)

1997      Ms. Scrooge        Maude Marley   TV film

1999      The Wild Thornberrys     Dugong                 1 episode Voice role

Providence         Rose Bidwell       2 episodes

2000      Strong Medicine               Cicely Nordeco 1 episode

How to Marry a Billionaire: A Christmas Tale        Shatzie TV film

2001      Living in Fear      Mrs. Ford             TV film

2002      Mr. St. Nick         Queen Carlotta TV film

2004–2005          The Tony Danza Show    Herself / Mona Robinson              3 episodes

2007      A Grandpa for Christmas               Roxie Famosa     TV film

2010      The Glades          Evelyn   1 episode

Melissa & Joey Mrs. Geller          1 episode

2011      True Blood          Caroline Bellefleur           1 episode

Harry's Law         Mrs. Gold            1 episode

2012      Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales     Lizzie     Episode: "Time Travel Mater"

Voice