(5 July 1929 - 23 February 2019)
Although she had appeared in many television series and a number of films, the American actress Katherine Helmond, who has died from Alzheimer’s aged 89, only really became known to UK audiences through the comedy series Soap, a send-up of the TV soap opera genre which aired from 1977. Helmond was in all 88 episodes playing the ditzy mother Jessica Tate. She began acting in school plays in Galveston, Texas, joined a local theatre group during high school until her New York debut in the 1950s. Summer stock occupied her till her TV debut in Car 54, Where Are You? An early film was The Hospital (1971), Paddy Chayefksy’s hilarious and Oscar-winning take on the medical profession, starring George C. Scott. Mostly on TV in Gunsmoke, The Bob Newhart Show, The Snoop Sisters, Mannix, Barnaby Jones and The Six Million Dollar Man, etc, plus television movies such as The Legend of Lizzie Borden as Lizzie’s sister Emma, Helmond also made the occasional film such as Robert Wise’s The Hindenburg, Hitchcock’s Family Plot and Baby Blue Marine with Jan-Michael Vincent (q.v.). Then came Soap, which led to Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits, playing Mrs Ogre opposite John Cleese, and also Gilliam’s Brazil as Jonathan Pryce’s mother. She repeated her Soap role in the spin-off series Benson, some episodes of which she also directed. She also made Shadey, Snoo Wilson’s screenplay with Antony Sher. More TV included The Love Boat, Coach, Everybody Loves Raymond and Who’s the Boss? which she also directed. Of her remaining film appearances, Overboard with Goldie Hawn, Lady in White, and Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas were arguably the most interesting. She also played gossip columnist Hedda Hopper in the TV movie Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story, with Sherilyn Fenn as Liz. Helmond’s last work was voice-overs on the Cars animated films, and Frank and Ava, a 2018 film about Sinatra and Gardner. She won Golden Globes for Soap and Who’s the Boss? and was nominated many times for Emmy Awards. She kept on working in theatre and was nominated for a Tony Award, while her last stage appearance was in The Vagina Monologues. An early marriage to actor George Martin ended in divorce. Then she was married to David Christian from 1962 until her death. She had no children.
MICHAEL DARVELL
