Joe Flaherty

Born Joseph O'Flaherty
June 21, 1941
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S
Died April 1, 2024 (aged 82)
Occupations
Actorwritercomedian

Joseph Flaherty (né O'Flaherty; June 21, 1941 – April 1, 2024) was an American actor, writer, and comedian. In television, Flaherty starred on the Canadian sketch comedy SCTV from 1976 to 1984 (on which he also served as a writer, winning two Primetime Emmy Awards) and as Harold Weir on Freaks and Geeks (1999). His film roles include the heckler in Happy Gilmore (1996).

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

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. He dropped the "O" in his birth name as there was another Joseph O'Flaherty registered with Actors Equity. 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. 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.