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Lugar y fecha de nacimiento. Katherine Helmond (1934 - ) Actress Also: Director Born: July 5, 1934, Galveston, TX Education: AFI Directing Workshop for Women Attractive, dithery character lead and supporting player of stage, TV and film best remembered for the role of Jessica Tate in the cult sitcom Soap. She was also memorable as the free-spirited mother on the long-running sitcom Who's the Boss?. A native of Galveston, Texas who began acting in local and regional theater, Helmond came to New York in the early 1950s and worked with some of the Northeast's most prestigious repertory companies. Helmond owned and operated a summer theater in the Catskills for three seasons and soon established enough of a reputation to win teaching posts in several top university theater programs. She acted steadily on the New York stage, and her portrayal of the tragicomic figure Bananas in The House of Blue Leaves won her several awards for both the New York and LA productions. In 1973, she received a Tony nomination for her work in a Broadway revival of Eugene O'Neill's The Great God Brown. She got her first feature break doing a bit in BELIEVE IN ME (1971), and supporting roles followed in Robert Wise docudrama THE HINDENBURG (1975), and in Alfred Hitchcock final film, TRAMA MACABRA (1976). Terry Gilliam cast her as the Ogre's wife in LOS AVENTUREROS DEL TIEMPO (1981) which led to a featured role in BRAZIL (1985) his dazzling look at a bleak future. Helmond was memorable as the beauty-conscious mother of a ministry chief who, in one bizarre scene, has her face pulled like taffy to get rid of the wrinkles. She was also singled out for her performance as an unpredictable, loony noblewoman in the otherwise unremarkable English comedy SHADEY (1985). Helmond has had numerous roles in TV movies, including a bit in the TV landmark THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MISS JANE PITTMAN (1974). But it was the series Soap (1977-81) that made Helmond a bona fide TV star. She played the spacey Jessica Tate, the wealthier of two small-town sisters spotlighted by the soap spoof, and picked up four Emmy nominations. Helmond was next featured in Who's The Boss? (1984-92) as Mona Robinson, a liberated grandmother who drops in and out of the day-to-day lives of her divorced daughter and her live-in male housekeeper. Helmond, who completed the prestigious AFI Director's Workshop for Women, also directed several episodes of the show.
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