Back to Home

The Biography of KATHERINE HELMOND as Mona Robinson

Birthday: July 5, 1934 Birth Place: Galvelston,Texas Birth Name: Catherine Marie Helmond

Katherine Helmond starred in the role of "Mrs Thelma Cates" in Marsha Norman's Pulitzer Prize winning play,"'Night,Mother" at the Orpheum Theatre in Foxboro,Massachusetts January 28,1998 thru February 15,1998.She is Best Known for her role of "Jessica" in the controversial comedy "Soap" in which she won Golden Globe honors for.She is a star of Stage,TV,and Movies with credits long and varied in these.She is a member of Actor's Equity.She began her career in stage productions and she continues acting in theatre.She is Catholic.She began acting in high school.She is a member of Actor's Equity.She made her professional debut at the Houston Playhouse and Margo Jones Theatre.She has done many stage productions with many of the country's most important theatre companies like the Trinity Square Theatre Company in Rhode island.She was nominated for a Tony Award in 1973.She was nominated for a Clarence Derwent Award,a New York Drama critics Variety Award and a Los Angeles Drama Critics Award.She teaches acting and directing at UCLA.She does movies.She did a production of "'Night,Mother" for The BBC in 1989.She did a one woman show play "Sarah in America" in 1989.She directs shows.She played "Mrs Doris Elizabeth Sherman" in the ABC TV comedy "Coach" from 1995 until 1997.She plays the semi regular role of "Lois" in the CBS TV Comedy "Everybody Loves Raymond".She starred in the NBC TV 1 hour Special "Christmas Snow".She starred in the movie "The Lady in White".      -She is married to her husband is David Christian.      -Peformed in The Vagina Monologues in June, 2001      -Of Irish Catholic extraction on her late mother (Thelma Malone)'s side      She won the role of Jessica in Soap after one of the Directors of Soap saw her in a play though 250 actresses had tested for the role of Jessica in Soap she got the role and became Famous. -Golden Globe Nominations: Who's The Boss (1986) -Golden Globe Wins: Soap (1981); Who's The Boss (1989) -Emmy Nominations: Soap (1978, 1979, 1981); Who's The Boss (1988, 1989) -Tony Nominations: The Great God Brown (1973)           The episode of Who's The Boss intitled "Mona" was the original concept for a series for Katherine Helmond but the show was never picked up off the ground. Helmond says that she was NOTHING like her character "Mona Robinson".

As Boss’s sassy, liberated and libidinous grandmother, Katherine Helmond “just nailed it,” says the show’s co-creator Martin Cohan. “In one episode she came back from a date with her sweater on backward, but she was able to make it funny, not smarmy.” Adds co-creator Blake Hunter: “Katherine brought so much more to the role than the little randy thing we had originally written.” That’s because “I thought Mona was terrific,” says Helmond. “She wasn’t a slut, but suddenly in her life she had the freedom to flirt and date. I hope I projected a positive image to older women.” The role won her a second Golden Globe; the first came in 1981 for playing the wealthy, whacked-out Jessica Tate on the sitcom Soap. Neither character, she says was true to life. “I am so much more reserved. And if I really behaved like Mona, I wouldn’t be married 38 years!” exclaims Helmond, who met her husband, painter and set designer David Christian, in 1962. Now playing Ray Romano’s very proper mother-in-law on Everybody Loves Raymond, she keeps connected to her Boss family via phone. “We had a great run,” she says. “We ended up friends.”