Katherine HelmondCharacter actress best known for her "cougar" characters in the sitcoms Soap andWho's the Boss? dies at 89
The buxom redheaded Helmond was a relative latecomer to acting; although Wikipedia claims one uncredited appearance on TV in 1962, her first verifiable acting credit was in a stage performance in 1969, and her first appearance in front of the camera came two years later. After several guest roles in the early 1970s, she finally landed her first starring television role in the soap-opera parody
Soap, where she portrayed the comically innocent yet flirtatious matriarch Jessica Tate. Following that show was her longest-running role, the oversexed Mona Robinson on
Who's the Boss?, which ran for eight seasons and (along with the similar character of Blanche Devereaux on
The Golden Girls) was a rare example of a sexually liberated older character on prime time television of the 1980s.
Helmond would continue acting into her 80s; notable roles later in life included the eccentric owner of a professional football team in
Coach and as Ray Barone's mother-in-law on
Everybody Loves Raymond. Her last role was that of Lizzie, a Ford Model T in the
Cars film franchise.
Helmond died February 23 of complications from Alzheimer's disease.
Obituary from NBCWikipediaIMDB