Mary Cynthia Walsh (born May 13, 1952, St. John's, Newfoundland) is a Canadian actress and comedian.

She had a tough childhood with alcoholic parents and studied at a strict convent school. She studied theatre in Toronto at Ryerson University, but dropped out to appear with CBC and Cod on a Stick, the group that became CODCO.

She founded the award-winning CODCO comedy troupe of Newfoundland and won several Gemini Awards for writing and performing during the series, which aired on the CBC. It ended after the death of costar Tommy Sexton.

1992, she began to work with former co-star Rick Mercer and former CODCO co-stars Cathy Jones and Greg Thomey to create a new television series, which became This Hour Has 22 Minutes. The show would be a parody of the nightly news and would poke fun at Canadian and International politics. 22 Minutes received strong ratings during its earlier seasons and Mary's character of Marg Delahunty became famous for roasting politicians.

In the mid-1990s, Mary openly admitted to being an alcoholic and it was her co-star, and now close friend, Cathy Jones who helped her seek treatment. She took several months off from 22 Minutes to take part in a alcoholic's anonymous program.

In 2001 Rick Mercer left 22 minutes and rumours cirrculated that it was due to a long standing fued between the two. A rumour Walsh added fire to when she rolled her eyes during an interview about Mercer's show Monday Report.

She is currently taking a one-year sabbatical from the show to pursue movies and Mary Walsh: Open Book, the CBC she created in 2003.

Besides acting, she worked on movies such as; Mambo Italiano, Rain, Drizzle and Fog and Violet .

Mary created her own show called Hatching, Matching and Dispatching in 2005.

Mary suffers from a disease (macleor degeneration) that has rendered her left eye essentially blind.

Honours

She won Best Supporting Actress at the Atlantic Film Festival in 1992 for her performance in Mike Jones' Secret Nation .

In 1993 Mary Walsh was chosen to deliver the prestigious Graham Spry lecture which was broadcast nationally on CBC Radio.

In 1994, Walsh addressed the United Nations Global Conference on Development in New York. She has also served as a spokesperson for Oxfam Canada's human rights campaign.

Walsh has a son, Jesse, born in 1989. She married Donald Nichol in 2002.

External links

• Mary Walsh: Canadian Women in Theatre and dance
• Daily Herald Tribune article
• Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia

Another Mary Walsh is a producer at CBS News.[1][2] She graduated from University of Texas College of Communication in 1977. She won a 2002 and a 2004 duPont-Columbia Award.[3][4] She was a media gamer in Dark Winter .[5]