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Flaherty was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but moved to Chicago where he started his comedy career with the Second City Theater as Joe O`Flaherty. After seven years in Chicago, he moved to Toronto, Ontario 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 (the latter being a spoof of CBC newsman Lloyd Robertson), and station owner/manager Guy Caballero who goes around in a wheelchair simply for the respect therein.
Other memorable Flaherty characterizations included emotional talk show host Sammy Maudlin, seedy saxophonist Vic Hedges, aggressive elocution lecturer Norman Gorman, myopic public television host Hugh Betcha and "crazy as a snake" ex-convict Rocco.
SCTV ceased production in 1984.
Throughout his film career, Flaherty has appeared in a number of cult favorites, most notably playing the part of the Western Union postal worker who delivers Doc Brown`s 70-year-old letter to Marty McFly in the climax of 1989`s Back to the Future Part II. Younger audiences may know him best as the heckler who taunts Happy Gilmore with under-his-breath intonations of `Jackass!`.
In 1999, Flaherty joined the cast of Freaks and Geeks, an NBC hour-long dramedy in which he played Harold Weir, the irascible father of two teens. (He would often lecture them with cautionary tales concluding, `You know where he is now? He`s dead!`) Despite a dedicated cult following, the show only lasted one season. He makes appearances on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens as Father McAndrew, Priest at the Heffernan`s Church. He currently stars on the BITE TV original program called Uncle Joe`s Cartoon Playhouse, and serves as a judge on the CBC program Second City`s: Next Comedy Legend
As of 2004, Flaherty is a member of the faculty at Humber College, where he teaches a comedy writing course. He is also on the program`s Advisory Committee.
Flaherty`s brother is comedy writer David Flaherty. He also has a daughter, Gudrun Flaherty.
Biography Credit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Flaherty
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