Katherine Helmond dies: Who's the Boss? and Soap star was 89

The Hollywood Reporter

The Golden Globe-winning actress was best known for playing Mona, the "man-crazy" mother of Judith Light's Angela Bower on the 1984-92 ABC sitcom Who's the Boss? Helmond has said ABC filmed a pilot for a Mona spinoff that was never picked up. Helmond also starred on ABC's Soap, playing one of the two main characters/sisters on the show: the wealthy Jessica Tate, who had a philandering husband. Helmond also had recurring roles on Coach and Everybody Loves Raymond. Helmond won a Golden Globe in 1981 for Soap and in 1989 for Who's the Boss? She was also nominated for seven Emmys for her roles on Soap, Who's the Boss? and Everybody Loves Raymond. “I was married to drunks, I got knocked around and battered and beaten and taken advantage of,” she said of her first TV roles in a March 2008 interview with the Archive of American Television. “That’s one of the reasons I got switched to comedic roles. My agent said, ‘I just can’t bear to see you knocked around on television any more. … We’re going to try for a sitcom.’” Alyssa Milano paid tribute to her former Who's the Boss? co-star, tweeting: "My beautiful, kind, funny, gracious, compassionate, rock. You were an instrumental part of my life. You taught me to hold my head above the marsh! You taught me to do anything for a laugh! What an example you were!" Co-star Tony Danza described Helmond as his "soulmate." “I was in love with her,” he told Deadline. “She was such an influence on me. From being a single guy with a hit show in Hollywood, though my marriage and having kids — she was with me. No matter what problem I had, I could go to her. Very few people could match her.” Helmond's Who's the Boss? daughter Judith Light said she was a “gift to our business and to the world” in a statement. “Katherine Helmond was a remarkable human being and an extraordinary artist; generous, gracious, charming, and profoundly funny,” Light said. “She taught me so much about life and inspired me indelibly by watching her work. Katherine was a gift to our business and to the world, and will be deeply missed.”