Joseph Maher

Highest Rated: 88% Heaven Can Wait (1978)

Lowest Rated: 0% Under the Rainbow (1981)

Birthday: Dec 29, 1933

Birthplace: Westport, County Mayo, Ireland

A veteran character player with a long career on stage and screen, the silver-haired, often mustachioed Joseph Maher was usually cast in comedic roles, generally as butlers or clerics. The Irish-born actor moved to Canada at age 22 where he briefly worked for an oil company and as a bartender before joining an amateur theater troupe. He made his professional debut with the Canada Players in a 1959 production of "The Taming of the Shrew" and migrated to the USA three years later. Maher soon became a prominent stage actor, co-starring with Dustin Hoffman in "Eh?" (1966-67), Zoe Caldwell in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1968) and Al Pacino in "The Local Stigmatic" (1969). During this time, he alternated between NYC and regional theaters. He also found time to act in the occasional TV production, like his supporting turn to Julie Harris in "Little Moon of Alban" (NBC, 1964).