Biography

Was notorious at Second City for improvising midway through a sketch that would catch the performer off guard, making it difficult for them to improvise given what he had ad libbed.

He was raised in Pittsburgh, and did not come to Toronto until the early 70s for the Second City theatre.

In 2021, Joe Flaherty - "Count Floyd" from "Monster Chiller Horror Theatre", was inducted into "The Official Horror Host Hall of Fame".

He appeared in three films written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale: 1941 (1979), Used Cars (1980) and Back to the Future Part II (1989). The latter two films were also directed by Zemeckis.

Accepted the role of Donald the Heckler in Happy Gilmore (1996) after Gilbert Gottfried declined to take it. When Gottfried realized that Flaherty was quoted as saying "jackass" in the film by fans and it's subsequent success he later said he regretted turning it down.

If you don't hop aboard the change train, you're gonna get derailed.

We will never have that chance [of doing SCTV] again. We will never get that kind of a shot at it.

[on auditioning for a scholarship at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts:] I didn't get it! And I was pissed!

[on the SCTV cast:] Well, we really had a chemistry. The whole was greater than the sum of its parts.

People interest me more than things.