Katherine Helmond was an American actress.

Helmond is best known for her starring roles as the Jessica Tate on the primetime soap opera sitcom Soap (with Billy Crystal and Robert Guillaume), for which she received four Best Actress Emmy Award nominations, and as Mona Robinson on Who’s the Boss? (with Tony Danza, Judith Light and Alyssa Milano), for which she earned two Supporting Actress Emmy nominations.

In 1983, Helmond studied at the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop. She went on to direct four episodes of Benson, as well as one episode of Who's the Boss?.

Helmond also had recurring roles as Doris Sherman, owner of the fictional Orlando Breakers professional football team on Coach, opposite Craig T. Nelson and Jerry Van Dyke, and as Debra Barone’s mother Lois Whelan, alongside Ray Romano and Patricia Heaton on Everybody Loves Raymond.

More recently, she guest starred as Caroline Bellefleur on HBO's True Blood.

Helmond died February 23, 2019, in Los Angeles, California. She was 89.