Joe Flaherty

For the Irish politician, see Joe Flaherty (politician).

Joseph Flaherty (born Joseph O'Flaherty, June 21, 1941 – April 1, 2024) was an American actor, writer, and comedian. He is best known for his work on the Canadian sketch comedy SCTV from 1976 to 1984 (on which he also served as a writer), his role as Harold Weir on Freaks and Geeks (1999), and as the heckler in Happy Gilmore (1996).

Joe Flaherty
Flaherty in 2009
Born	Joseph O'Flaherty (1941-06-21)June 21, 1941 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S
Died	April 1, 2024(2024-04-01) (aged 82) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Occupations	Actor writer comedian
Years active	1969–2018
Spouse	Judith Dagley ​ ​ (m. 1974; div. 1996)​
Children	2

Early life and career

Joseph O'Flaherty was born on June 21, 1941, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the eldest of seven children.^[1][2] His father was a production clerk at Westinghouse Electric and of Irish heritage and his mother was of Italian descent.^[1]

Flaherty served in the United States Air Force for four years, before becoming involved in dramatic theatre.^[1]

Flaherty moved to Chicago, where he started his comedy career in 1969 with the Second City Theater as Joe O'Flaherty and would work with future stars such as John Belushi and Harold Ramis.^[3] He dropped the "O" in his birth name as there was another Joseph O'Flaherty registered with Actors Equity.^[1] Along with several other Second City performers, he began appearing on the National Lampoon Radio Hour from 1973 to 1974. After seven years in Chicago, he moved to Toronto to help establish the Toronto Second City theatre troupe.^[4] During those years, he was one of the original writer/performers on SCTV, where he spent eight years on the show, playing such characters as Big Jim McBob (of Farm Film Report fame), Count Floyd/Floyd Robertson, and station owner/manager Guy Caballero, who goes around in a wheelchair only for respect and undeserved sympathy.^[5][6][7]

SCTV ceased production in 1984.^[8] The same year, Flaherty played Count Floyd in a short film that was shown at concerts by the rock band Rush before the song "The Weapon", for their tour in support of Grace Under Pressure (and can be seen in the home video, Grace Under Pressure Tour).^[9]

In 1988, Flaherty reprised his Count Floyd character for live-action segments of the animated series The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley, a character created and voiced by another SCTV alum, Martin Short.^[10]

Flaherty appeared in a number of cult-favorite films, including an appearance as a Western Union postal worker who delivers Doc Brown's 70-year-old letter to Marty McFly in Back to the Future Part II (1989), as well as the crazed fan yelling "jackass!" who secretly works for antagonist Shooter McGavin in Happy Gilmore.^[11] In season eight of Family Guy, Flaherty once again played the Western Union man in "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side".^[2][12]

Flaherty plays a Vatican Messenger in the Family Guy season 9 episode "The Big Bang Theory".^[13] In 1989, he played a guest role in Married... with Children in the season-four episode "Tooth or Consequences", as a dentist who must repair Al Bundy's teeth.^[14][15] From 1990–93, Flaherty starred in The Family Channel series, Maniac Mansion.^[16]

During 1997–1998, Flaherty starred in the television adaptation of Police Academy (Police Academy: The Series) as Cmdt. Stuart Hefilfinger. The series lasted for only one season.^[11][17] In 1999, Flaherty joined the cast of Freaks and Geeks, an NBC hour-long dramedy set in the 1980–1981 academic year, in which he played Harold Weir, the "imperfect perfect" father of two teens.^[9][18] Despite a dedicated cult following, the show only lasted one season.^[19]

Flaherty made appearances on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens as Father McAndrew, the priest at the Heffernans' church. He starred on the Bite TV original program, Uncle Joe's Cartoon Playhouse, and served as a judge on the CBC program The Second City's Next Comedy Legend.^[20]

From 2001 to 2004, he had appeared in various Disney shows and films, including The Legend of Tarzan and Home on the Range.^[21]

In 2018, Flaherty participated in a SCTV cast reunion at Toronto's Elgin Theatre filmed by Martin Scorsese for a yet to be released Netflix special on SCTV.^[20]

Beginning in 2004, Flaherty was artist-in-residence at Humber College's School of Creative and Performing Arts in Toronto, where he taught a comedy writing course. He previously helped found the school's comedy writing and performance program serving as its artistic director. He was also on the program's advisory committee.^[3][7][22]

Personal life and death

Flaherty was married to Judith Dagley for 22 years until their divorce in 1996.^[3] They had two children, Gudrun, who is also an actress and writer, and Gabriel. His brothers, Paul (b. 1945)^[23] and Dave (1948–2017),^[24][25] were both comedy writers.^[1]

Flaherty died on April 1, 2024, at the age of 82, after a short illness.^[26][27][28]

Characterizations

Flaherty impersonated a number of celebrities, including Kirk Douglas, Richard Nixon, Gregory Peck, Alan Alda, Bing Crosby, Gavin McLeod and Elvis Presley.^[9][29]

Flaherty appeared in a cameo in the deleted scenes from Anchorman as the manager of a Texas television station and the boss of Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), one of the members of the station's news team.^[30][31][32] He also appeared as an immigration Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer in the "Canadian Road Trip" episode of That '70s Show alongside fellow SCTV member Dave Thomas.^[33][34]

In the third episode of Freaks and Geeks, "Tricks and Treats", he is dressed up as a vampire, a reference to his character Count Floyd.^[35]

Discography

• Gold Turkey (National Lampoon album, 1975)^[36]
• Count Floyd (1982) (RCA)^[9][37]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	References
1976	Tunnel Vision	Carl Michaelevich		[38]
1979	1941	Sal Stewart, Raoul Lipschitz		[39]
1979	The Lady in Red			[40][41]
1980	Used Cars	Sam Slaton		[38]
1981	By Design	Veteran Father		[42]
1981	Stripes	Border Guard		[43]
1981	Heavy Metal	Lawyer, General (voice)		[44]
1983	Going Berserk	Chick Leff		[38]
1984	Johnny Dangerously	Death Row inmate	Uncredited	[45]
1985	Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird	Sid Sleaze		[38]
1986	Club Paradise	Pilot		[46]
1986	One Crazy Summer	General Raymond		[38]
1987	Innerspace	Waiting Room Patient		[47]
1987	Blue Monkey	George Baker		[38]
1988	Kid Safe: The Video	Count Floyd	Video	[48]
1989	Who's Harry Crumb?	Doorman		[49]
1989	Speed Zone	Vic DeRubis	AKA Cannonball Fever	[38]
1989	Back to the Future Part II	Western Union Man		[2]
1994	A Pig's Tale	Milt	Video	[38]
1995	Stuart Saves His Family	Cousin Ray		[50]
1996	Happy Gilmore	Donald		[38]
1997	Snowboard Academy	Mr. Barry	Video	[38]
1997	The Wrong Guy	Fred Holden		[38]
1999	Detroit Rock City	Father Phillip McNulty		[38]
2001	Freddy Got Fingered	William	Uncredited	[38]
2002	Slackers	Mr. Leonard		[38]
2003	National Security	Owen Fergus		[38]
2004	Home on the Range	Jeb the Goat (voice)		[44]
2004	Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy	Manager of Texas television station, boss of Veronica Corningstone	Deleted scene	[30][31][32]
2004	Phil the Alien	Beaver (voice)		[51]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes	References
1972	The David Steinberg Show	Kirk Dirkwood	10 episodes	[52]
1976	The Sunshine Hour	Various	Regular	[30]
1976–1984	SCTV	Various		[30]
1978	King of Kensington	Fast Frankie	Episode: "The Hustler"	[30]
1985	George Burns Comedy Week	Guest star		[53][54]
1986	Really Weird Tales	Your Host	TV movie/pilot, also producer and writer	[55][56]
1988	CBS Summer Playhouse	Regis Rogan	Episode: "Limited Partners"	[57]
1988	The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley	Count Floyd	13 episodes	[58]
1989	Looking for Miracles	Chief Berman	TV movie	[59]
1989	I, Martin Short, Goes Hollywood	Gene Siskel	TV movie	[60][61]
1989	Married... with Children	Dr. Plierson	Episode: "Tooth or Consequences"	[38][14][15]
1990	Monsters	Sherwin	Episode: "Murray's Monster"	[62]
1990–1993	Maniac Mansion	Dr. Fred Edison	65 episodes	[63]
1991	Morton & Hayes	Thug	Episode: "The Vase Shop"	[30]
1991	Little Dracula	Big Dracula (voice)	4 episodes	[44]
1993–1994	Dinosaurs	Chief Elder (voice)		[38]
1994	Nurses	Mr. Fortin	Episode: "The Big Jack Attack"	[64][65]
1994	Phenom	Father O'Malley		[30]
1994	Rebel Highway	Mr. Nicholson	Episode: "Runaway Daughters"	[30][66]
1994	Hardball	Butt Winnick		[67]
1995	Family Reunion: A Relative Nightmare	Kevin Dooley	TV movie	[30]
1995	Cartoon Planet	Count Floyd		[68]
1996	Dream On	Stod	Episode: "Second Time Aground"	[30]
1996	The Louie Show	Mr. Wells		[30][69]
1996	Ellen	Perry	Episode: "Kiss My Bum"	[30]
1997	The Don's Analyst	Dr. Lowell Royce	TV movie	[30]
1997–1998	Police Academy: The Series	Cmdt. Stuart Hefilfinger		[70]
1999	Traders	McGraff	Episode: "This World... Then the Fireworks"	[30][71]
1999	The Wonderful World of Disney		Episode: "Dogmatic"	[30]
1999–2000	Freaks and Geeks	Harold Weir	18 episodes	[2][9]
2000	Mentors	James Naismith	Episode: "Nothing But Net"	[30]
2001	Even Stevens	Mr. Rupert	Episode: "Almost Perfect"	[30]
2001	The Industry	Don Douglas		[30]
2001	That '70s Show	Bryan	Episode: "Canadian Road Trip"	[30]
2001	Go Fish	Dr. Frank Troutner		[30][72]
2001	Primetime Glick	Clay Glick	Episode: "Molly Shannon/Nathan Lane"	[30]
2001	The Legend of Tarzan	Hooft (voice)	Episode: "Tarzan and the Mysterious Visitor"	[30]
2001	The Santa Claus Brothers	Snorkel (voice)	TV movie	[44]
2001–2003	The King of Queens	Father McAndrew	4 episodes	[30]
2002	Maybe It's Me	Chaz	Episode: "The Romeo & Juliet Episode"	[30]
2002	Royal Canadian Air Farce			[30]
2002	Frasier	Herm Evans	Episode: "Frasier Has Spokane"	[30]
2002	A Nero Wolfe Mystery	Dr. Vollmer	2 episodes	[30]
2002–2004	Teamo Supremo	Cloaked Skull (voice)		[30][49]
2002	The True Meaning of Christmas Specials	Bing Crosby	TV movie	[30]
2002–2003	Clone High	Abe's Foster Dad (voice)	2 episodes	[44]
2004	Puppets Who Kill	Joe	Episode: "Bill's Got the Blues"	[30]
2005	Tilt	Casino Player from Aliquippa	Episode: "Risk Tolerance"	[30]
2005	Chilly Beach	Antoine DelVecchio	Episode: "Driving Mr. Biggs"	[30]
2005	Robson Arms	Ramon Garcia		[73]
2008–2010	Caution: May Contain Nuts	Count Floyd		[74]
2008–2011	Family Guy	Vatican Messenger		[38]
2009	American Dad!	Car Door Owner (voice)	Episode: "Delorean Story-An"	[75]
2012	I, Martin Short, Goes Home	Atticus Finch	TV movie	[76]
2012	Call Me Fitz	Mayor Andrews	Episode: "Teetotal Recall"	[3][77]