Katherine Marie Helmond (July 5, 1929 – February 23, 2019) was an American actress. Over an acting career spanning six decades, she was best known for her starring role as Jessica Tate on the sitcom Soap (1977–1981) and her co-starring role as Mona Robinson on Who's the Boss? (1984–1992). Helmond also played Doris Sherman on Coach (1995–1997) and Lois Whelan (the mother of Debra Barone) on Everybody Loves Raymond (1996–2004). She also appeared as a guest on several talk and variety shows.
Helmond had featured roles in a number of films including Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot (1976), Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits (1981) and Brazil (1985), and Garry Marshall's Overboard (1987). She also voiced Lizzie in the Cars film franchise by Disney/Pixar between 2006 and 2017.
Early life
Helmond was born on July 5, 1929, in Galveston, Texas, to Thelma Louise (née Walker) and Patrick Joseph Helmond, a firefighter. Her name on her birth certificate was misspelled as "Catherine". She had a younger sister, Jo Ann, born three years later, who died in infancy. Helmond experienced economic hardship during her childhood: ‘we were very poor...from as early as I can remember I had to work to help support the family. I had to learn to stand on my own two feet’. She was raised by her mother and grandmother, both devout Catholics. Her father left the family and her mother eventually remarried in 1937, to Marshall Phillips. She attended a Catholic primary school and appeared in school plays.
<!-- For a semester, she attended Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina, and appeared in its film (Unusual Films Production) Wine of Morning. UNSOURCED AND DOUBTFUL -->
Career
After graduating from high school, she moved to Houston, Dallas and New York. She was not professionally trained, but learned her craft through experience: ‘My training was all practical and on the job'. She also acted on stage, earning a Tony Award nomination for her performance on Broadway in Eugene O'Neill's The Great God Brown (1973).
Helmond appeared in such feature films as Family Plot, Time Bandits, Brazil, in which she played the mother of Jonathan Pryce's character, and Overboard. In 1983, she studied at the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop.<!-- COMMENT UNTIL BETTER SOURCES ADDED-- She 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 also received acclaim for her stage performance in Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues.
thumb|upright|Helmond in 1979
Helmond appeared in The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975) as Emma Borden, the title character's sister. She won two Golden Globe awards for Who's the Boss? and Soap.
Personal life
In 1959, Helmond married George N. Martin in New York; they divorced in 1962.
She met her second husband, David Richard Christian, in 1962, when he was 19. They married in 1969, in New York, after dating for 7 years. They remained married until her death, residing in Los Angeles, New York City, Long Island, and London. After Helmond died, her husband said: ‘She was the love of my life...We spent 57 beautiful, wonderful, loving years together, which I will treasure forever… The night she died, I saw that the moon was exactly half-full, just as I am now … half of what I’ve been my entire adult life.’
Selected filmography
Film
{|class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Film
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| rowspan="2"|1971
| Believe in Me
| Saleslady
|
|-
| The Hospital
| Mrs. Marilyn Mead
|
|-
| 1975
| The Hindenburg
| Mrs. Mildred Breslau
|
|-
|1976
| Family Plot
| Mrs. Maloney
|
|-
| 1981
| Time Bandits
| Mrs. Ogre
|
|-
| rowspan="2"|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
|
|-
| 1998
| Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
| Desk Clerk at Mint Hotel
|
|-
| 2006
| Cars
| rowspan="3"| Lizzie
| rowspan="3" | Voice role
|}
Television
{|class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| 1962
| Car 54, Where Are You?
| Betty Lou Creco (uncredited)
| rowspan="3" | 1 episode
|-
| 1972
| Gunsmoke
| Ena Spratt in "The Judgment."
|-
| 1973
| The Bob Newhart Show
| Dr. A.J. Webster
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1974
| Mannix
| Mrs. Sylvia Jarrud/Martha Cole
|- 2 episodes
| The Rookies
| Molly Phillips - Season 3, Episode 10
|-
| The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
| Lady at House
| rowspan="3" | TV film
|-
| Larry
| Maureen Whitten
|-
| rowspan="2" |1975
| The Legend of Lizzie Borden
| Emma Borden
|-
| The Six Million Dollar Man
| Middy
| Episode: "The White Lightning War"
|-
| 1977–81
| Soap
| Jessica Tate
| 85 episodes<br>Won — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy (1980)
|-
| 1979
| $weepstake$
| Sarah
| Episode: "Lynn and Grover and Joey"
|-
| 1979–83
| Benson
| Jessica Tate
| 2 episodes<br>also as director
|-
|1982
| Rosie: The Rosemary Clooney Story
| Frances Clooney
| TV film
|-
|1983
| Faerie Tale Theatre
| Jack's mother
| 1 episode
|-
| 1984–92
| Who's the Boss?
| Mona Robinson
| 196 episodes<br>Won — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (1989)<br>Nominated — Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (1988–1989)<!--COMMMENT OUT TILL SOURCES ARE ADDED -- <br> Nominated — TV Land Award for Favorite Mother-in-Law (2005) -->
|-
| 1986
| Girls on Top
| Mrs DuPont
| 1 episode “Mr Yummie Brownie”
|-
| 1993
|The Upper Hand
| Madame Alexandra
| 1 episode "Tunnel of Love"
|-
| 1995–97
| Coach
| Doris Sherman
| 11 episodes
|-
| 1996–2004
| Everybody Loves Raymond
| Lois Whelan
| 14 episodes<br>Nominated — Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series (2002)