Katherine Helmond

Katherine Helmond
Helmond at the 41st Emmy Awards, 1989
Born	Katherine Marie Helmond (1929-07-05) July 5, 1929 (age 87) Galveston, Texas, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, director
Years active	1955–present
Known for	Soap Who's the Boss?
Spouse(s)	George N. Martin (m. 1957; div. 1962) David Christian (m. 1962)

Katherine Marie Helmond (born July 5, 1929) is an American film, theater and television actress and director. In her five decades of television acting, she is known her starring role as the ditzy matriarch, Jessica Tate, on the ABC prime time soap opera sitcom, Soap (1977–1981) and her co-starring role as feisty mother, Mona Robinson on Who's the Boss? (1984–1992). She also played Doris Sherman on Coach and Lois Whelan on Everybody Loves Raymond. She has also appeared as a guest on several talk and variety shows.

After her stage debut in As You Like It, she began working in New York in 1955. She later ran a summer theatre in the Catskills for three seasons and taught acting in university theatre programs. She made her television debut in 1962, but would not achieve fame until the 1970s. She also acted on stage, earning a Tony nomination for her performance on Broadway in Eugene O'Neill's The Great God Brown (1973). Other Broadway productions include Private Lives, Don Juan and Mixed Emotions.

Helmond appeared in such feature films as Family Plot (1976) and Brazil (1985), playing the mother of Jonathan Pryce's character. In 1983, she studied at the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop, and went on to direct four episodes of the television series Benson, as well as one episode of Who's the Boss? (1984). She picked up Emmy nominations for her role as Mona Robinson in Who's the Boss, and as Lois Whelan in Everybody Loves Raymond. She has continued working, receiving acclaim for her stage performance in Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues. (2001)