TORONTO (AP) — Comedian Joe Flaherty, a founding member of the Canadian sketch series “SCTV,” has died. He was 82.
His daughter Gudrun said Flaherty died Monday following a brief illness.
Flaherty, who was born in Pittsburgh, spent seven years at The Second City in Chicago before moving north of the border to help establish the theater’s Toronto outpost.
He went on to star alongside John Candy and Catherine O’Hara in "SCTV,″ about a fictional TV station known as Second City Television that was stacked with buffoons in front of and behind the cameras.
Flaherty’s characters included network boss Guy Caballero and the vampiric TV host Count Floyd. He also acted as the dad in “Freaks and Geeks.”
Flaherty maintained deep ties to Toronto, serving as an artist-in-residence at Humber College.
