Profile of Mary Walsh on Famous Like Me

For the American television producer, see Mary Walsh (journalist).

Mary Cynthia Walsh, CM (born May 13, 1952, St. John's, Newfoundland) is a Canadian actress and comedian.

Walsh had a difficult childhood with alcoholic parents and studied at a strict convent school. She studied Theatre in Toronto at Ryerson University, but dropped out to appear with CBC and "Cod on a Stick", the group that became CODCO.

She founded the award-winning CODCO comedy troupe of Newfoundland and won several Gemini Awards for writing and performing during the series, which aired on the CBC. It ended after the death of co-star Tommy Sexton.

1992, she began to work with former co-star Rick Mercer and former CODCO co-stars Cathy Jones and Greg Thomey to create a new television series, called This Hour Has 22 Minutes. The show would be a parody of the nightly news and would poke fun at Canadian and International politics. 22 Minutes received strong ratings during its earlier seasons and Mary's character of Marg Delahunty, a parody of Lucy Lawless' fictional "princess warrior" Xena, became famous for grilling politicians. Usually "Marg Delahunty" would recite a scripted piece intended to humiliate the politician, often by providing criticism and "grandmotherly" advice.

In the mid-1990s, Mary openly admitted to being an alcoholic and it was her co-star, and now close friend, Cathy Jones who helped her seek treatment. She took several months off from 22 Minutes to take part in a alcoholic's anonymous program.

In 2001 Rick Mercer left 22 minutes and rumours circulated that it was due to a long-standing feud between the two. Walsh also allegedly rolled her eyes during an interview about Mercer's show Rick Mercer Report, which some see as further evidence of the feud.

In 2004, Walsh hosted a segment on the CBC documentary series The Greatest Canadian, where she championed the case for Sir Frederick Banting (the Nobel prize-winning inventor of insulin) as the greatest Canadian who ever lived.

She is currently taking a one-year sabbatical from the show to pursue movies and Mary Walsh: Open Book, the CBC program she created in 2003.

Besides acting, she worked on movies such as; Mambo Italiano, Rain, Drizzle and Fog, Buried on Sunday, The Divine Ryans and Violet.

Mary created her own show called Hatching, Matching and Dispatching in 2005.

Mary suffers from a disease (macular degeneration) that has rendered her left eye essentially blind.

Honours

She won Best Supporting Actress at the Atlantic Film Festival in 1992 for her performance in Mike Jones' Secret Nation.

In 1993 Walsh was chosen to deliver the prestigious Graham Spry lecture which was broadcast nationally on CBC Radio.

In 1994, Walsh addressed the United Nations Global Conference on Development in New York. She has also served as a spokesperson for Oxfam Canada's human rights campaign.

Walsh has a son, Jesse, born in 1989. She married Donald Nichol in 2002.

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