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IMDbPro

Mary Jo Catlett

  • Actress
  • Soundtrack
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
Mary Jo Catlett
A documentary on Broadway legend Carol Channing.
Play trailer2:28
Carol Channing: Larger Than Life (2012)
5 Videos
12 Photos
Mary Jo Catlett has been part of the main voice cast on SpongeBob SquarePants (1999) since its premiere, playing SpongeBob's teacher, Mrs. Puff. She is an unmistakably happy and hearty veteran character actress and comedienne who has found success in all three mediums (stage, film and television) with her trademark flowery voice, giddy demeanor and ever-cheery disposition. Having made her off-Broadway debut in 1963, the endearing Mary Jo Catlett is now broaching six decades in the entertainment business.

Catlett was born on September 2, 1938 in Denver, Colorado, the daughter of Robert and Cornelia (Callaghan) Catlett. A graduate of Loretto Heights College in Denver, she was drawn to acting quite young -- musical comedy, in particular. While she made her off-Broadway debut in a 1963 melodrama, "Along Came a Spider", which opened at the Mermaid Theatre, the following year Mary Jo was right back in her tuneful element scoring as Ernestina in the original Broadway production of "Hello, Dolly!" starring Carol Channing. She toured with the production when Ginger Rogers took the show on tour. Eventually building up her resume in regional theater, she served as a replacement in the 1969 musical "Promenade", then returned to Broadway at the end of that year where her broad, burlesque style well suited the bawdy musical takeoff of Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales", which lasted about four months. Other New York-based productions came her way but most were short-lived, including "Greenwillow" (1970), "Different Times" (1972), "Lysistrata" (1972) and "Fashion" (1973). However, she did enjoy a scene-stealing role as Mabel in the New York revival of "The Pajama Game" in 1973.

While Mary Jo has a propensity for humor and laughter, she has also demonstrated an award-winning dramatic side. Her role as Lola Delaney in "Come Back, Little Sheba" earned her the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award in 1976. Four years later, she won the award again in a production of "Philadelphia, Here I Come". Over the years, she has flitted about not only in musicals ("Annie Get Your Gun" (as Annie), "How to Succeed in Business..."), but has tackled Shakespeare ("Twelfth Night", "Romeo and Juliet") and other serious stage roles ("27 Wagons Full of Cotton", "Naomi Court", "Our Town").

With her plaintive and matronly features, ample size, wallflower demeanor and instincts for broad levity, Mary Jo has proven to be a natural for small screen comedy. In the late 1960s, she began to apply her trade on-camera. One of her earliest mid-career appearances included a role in the television fantasy The Littlest Angel (1969) where she and fellow comedienne Lu Leonard played plus-sized scribes, but it was not until the mid-1970s that she began making the normal rounds with dozens of appearances on the sitcom circuit, including roles on "The Bob Newhart Show", "M*A*S*H", "Mr. Belvedere", "Night Court", Gimme a Break", "Saved By the Bell", "Maude" and "Welcome Back, Kotter". In 1982, she joined the cast as a housekeeping regular for television kids Gary Coleman, Todd Bridges and Dana Plato on Diff'rent Strokes (1978) and found plentiful work on lightweight dramatic series too such as "Murder, She Wrote," "Matlock" and "Fantasy Island". In daytime, she was nominated for an Emmy Award during the 1989-1990 season of General Hospital (1972). She also became a television face in households with over 30 national commercials to her credit.

Sparingly used on film, she made her debut in an unbilled part in Woody Allen's Bananas (1971). Other supporting work include roles in High Anxiety (1977), Semi-Tough (1977), The Champ (1979), The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) and, more notably, Serial Mom (1994). She has had a slight upsurge of late in movie parts with roles in the gay-themed Surprise, Surprise (2010) and Anderson's Cross (2010), and the comedy How to Be a Serial Killer (2008). On stage, Mary Jo has continued to put her best foot forward on the musical stage in such productions as "Beauty and the Beast", "Big River" and "The Full Monty", not to mention several variations of "Nunsense" and its offshoots.

Over the years, Mary Jo has shown that her heart is as big as her talent as a consistently reliable and fun-filled novelty song performer at charity fund raisers and musical benefits, most notably for various AIDS and the Broadway-oriented "Help Is on the Way" organizations.
BornSeptember 2, 1938
  • More at IMDbPro
    • Contact info
    • Agent info
    • Resume
BornSeptember 2, 1938
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
  • Unlock contact info on IMDbPro
  • Awards
    • 3 nominations

Photos12

Mary Jo Catlett and Arch Johnson in The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (1977)
Todd Bridges, Conrad Bain, Mary Jo Catlett, Dorothy Hamill, and Dana Plato in Diff'rent Strokes (1978)
Todd Bridges, Conrad Bain, Mary Jo Catlett, Gary Coleman, and Dana Plato in Diff'rent Strokes (1978)
Todd Bridges, Conrad Bain, Mary Jo Catlett, Gary Coleman, Terry Kiser, and Dana Plato in Diff'rent Strokes (1978)
Conrad Bain, Dixie Carter, and Mary Jo Catlett in Diff'rent Strokes (1978)
Mary Jo Catlett, Cynthia Frost, Bunny Levine, Norma Michaels, and Kat Dennings in 2 Broke Girls (2011)
Mary Jo Catlett, Linda Kelsey, Carol Locatell, Pat Sturges, and Loretta Swit in M*A*S*H (1972)
Mary Jo Catlett in The Dukes of Hazzard (1979)
Mary Jo Catlett in Diff'rent Strokes (1978)
Todd Bridges, Conrad Bain, Mary Jo Catlett, Gary Coleman, and Dana Plato in Diff'rent Strokes (1978)
Mary Jo Catlett

Known for

Matthew Lillard, Kathleen Turner, Ricki Lake, and Sam Waterston in Serial Mom (1994)
Serial Mom
6.8
  • Rosemary Ackerman
  • 1994
Alec Baldwin, Clancy Brown, Jeffrey Tambor, Tom Wilson, Dee Bradley Baker, Rodger Bumpass, Bill Fagerbakke, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Kenny, Carolyn Lawrence, and Mr. Lawrence in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004)
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
7.1
  • Mrs. Puff(voice)
  • 2004
Damon Wayans Jr., Jake Johnson, Nina Dobrev, and Libby Blake in Let's Be Cops (2014)
Let's Be Cops
6.4
  • Old Lady
  • 2014
Rob Schneider, David Spade, and Jon Heder in The Benchwarmers (2006)
The Benchwarmers
5.5
  • Mrs. Ellwood
  • 2006

Credits

Edit
IMDbPro

Actress

  • When the Moon Was Twice as Big
    • Elsie
    • Post-production
    • 2023
  • Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie
    • Mrs. Puff (voice)
    • In Production
  • Clancy Brown, Mary Jo Catlett, Bill Fagerbakke, Tom Kenny, Mr. Lawrence, and Jill Talley in SpongeBob SquarePants (1999)
    SpongeBob SquarePants
    • Mrs. Puff
    • Mrs. Poppy Puff
    • Old Lady Fish ...
    • TV Series
    • 1999–2023
  • Rodger Bumpass, Bill Fagerbakke, and Carolyn Lawrence in SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake (2023)
    SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake
    • Mrs. Puff (voice)
    • Video Game
    • 2023
  • Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years (2021)
    Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years
    • Mrs. Puff (voice)
    • TV Series
    • 2021–2022
  • The Patrick Star Show (2021)
    The Patrick Star Show
    • Mrs. Puff (voice)
    • TV Series
    • 2021–2022
  • Christina Hendricks, Retta, and Mae Whitman in Good Girls (2018)
    Good Girls
    • Dorothy
    • TV Series
    • 2020–2021
  • Toca Life Stories (2020)
    Toca Life Stories
    • Nari (voice)
    • TV Series
    • 2020
  • The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run (2020)
    The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run
    • Mrs. Puff (voice)
    • 2020
  • SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated (2020)
    SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated
    • Mrs. Puff (voice)
    • Video Game
    • 2020
  • Pamela Adlon in Better Things (2016)
    Better Things
    • Rosie
    • TV Series
    • 2019
  • Mary McCormack, Michael Cudlitz, Jack Gore, Sawyer Barth, Sam Straley, Christopher Paul Richards, Andy Walken, Caleb Foote, and Santino Barnard in The Kids Are Alright (2018)
    The Kids Are Alright
    • Mrs. Strausser
    • TV Series
    • 2018
  • John Michael Higgins, Andrea Martin, Horatio Sanz, Adam Campbell, Nicole Richie, and Briga Heelan in Great News (2017)
    Great News
    • Marie
    • TV Series
    • 2017
  • Aaron Springer in Billy Dilley's Super-Duper Subterranean Summer (2017)
    Billy Dilley's Super-Duper Subterranean Summer
    • Aunt Agnes (voice)
    • TV Series
    • 2017
  • Kristin Chenoweth, Nicholas D'Agosto, Sherri Shepherd, Jayma Mays, Steven Boyer, and Amanda Payton in Trial & Error (2017)
    Trial & Error
    • Brianne
    • TV Series
    • 2017
  • Bajillion Dollar Propertie$ (2016)
    Bajillion Dollar Propertie$
    • Ethel Simmons
    • TV Series
    • 2016
  • Matthew Perry and Thomas Lennon in The Odd Couple (2015)
    The Odd Couple
    • Elderly Woman
    • TV Series
    • 2016

Soundtrack

  • Clancy Brown, Mary Jo Catlett, Bill Fagerbakke, Tom Kenny, Mr. Lawrence, and Jill Talley in SpongeBob SquarePants (1999)
    SpongeBob SquarePants
    • performer: "Dead Eye"
    • TV Series
    • 2008
  • Pocahontas 2: Journey to a New World (1998)
    Pocahontas 2: Journey to a New World
    • performer: "What a Day in London"
    • Video
    • 1998
  • Fred Gwynne, E.G. Marshall, and Johnny Whitaker in The Littlest Angel (1969)
    The Littlest Angel
    • performer: "You're Not Real"
    • TV Movie
    • 1969

Videos6

Carol Channing: Larger Than Life
Clip 1:51
Carol Channing: Larger Than Life
Carol Channing: Larger Than Life
Clip 0:59
Carol Channing: Larger Than Life
U.S. Version
Trailer 2:28
U.S. Version
How To Be A Serial Killer
Trailer 1:52
How To Be A Serial Killer
How To Be A Serial Killer - Web
Trailer 1:49
How To Be A Serial Killer - Web
How To Be A Serial Killer - Official Theatrical
Trailer 1:50
How To Be A Serial Killer - Official Theatrical

Personal details

Edit
  • Alternative names
    • Mary Joe Catlett
  • Height
    • 5′ 10″ (1.78 m)
  • Born
    • September 2, 1938
    • Denver, Colorado, USA
  • Parents
      Cornelia Catlett (Callaghan)
  • Other works
    Appeared in Los Angeles cast of Beauty and the Beast, and off-broadway in Fashion.

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    Having done scores of commercials, one of her best known is for "Black Flag" where she delivered the popular catchphrase "The roaches check in, but they don't check out!".
  • Quotes
    It's really hard for us character ladies to get work. We're at the bottom of the totem pole.
  • Trademarks
      Flowery voice

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