Comic actor Joe Flaherty, who rose from the ranks of Chicago’s Second City to acclaimed roles on TV’s “SCTV” and “Freaks & Geeks,” has died at age 82.
His daughter Gudrun told the Canadian Press that he died Monday following a brief illness.
The Pittsburgh native was a fixture of “SCTV,” the 1976-84, Canadian-based sketch series that depicted the backstage doings of a hapless TV network as well as its bizarre programming. Like the rest of the cast, Flaherty played countless roles on the show but was most often seen ruthless station owner Guy Caballero and as Count Floyd, the howling monster movie host who also anchored the news as Floyd Robertson.
Earlier Flaherty had written and performed in several Chicago revues at Second City, where he was part of group labeled “the Next Generation” that brought youthful sensibilities to the theater in the early 1970s. In 1973 he moved to Toronto to help establish a Second City theater, from which most of the “SCTV” cast was drawn.
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