From the spunky blind-date-from-hell Ernestina in Hello, Dolly! to Mrs. Puff, the matronly puffer fish in Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants, Mary Jo Catlett's remarkable 40-year career has encompassed a lengthy and diverse roster of credits in all mediums. This charming veteran actor/singer left her hometown of Denver to head for the bright lights of New York at age 23, encouraged by her parents to leave the nest and take a stab at her career ambitions. They bought her a train ticket and ushered her out the door, as she tearfully and fearfully embarked on her passionate mission, which had been set ever since she received a standing ovation in a seventh-grade school performance. Less than a year after her arrival, Gower Champion cast her as Ernestina in the 1964 Broadway premiere of Hello, Dolly!, alongside Carol Channing, and she never stopped working. She has resided in L.A. since 1975, where she does voiceover work, as well as film and TV roles--and once in a blue moon tackles a stage role. That moon is currently rising over West Hollywood's Globe Playhouse, where a revival of Noel Coward's classic comedy Blithe Spirit, starring Catlett as the eccentric medium Madame Arcati, opens this week.
"This is a role I've always yearned to play," Catlett enthuses during our lunch interview at a cozy Studio City cafe near her home. "I played the maid in a production of this show when I was 19, and even then I dreamed of playing Madame Arcati. It's been a long wait, but I finally have the chance to do it." In the years following that initial brush with Coward witticisms, Catlett performed in classic plays, musicals, comedies, and dramas. She worked in New York for several years, appearing in Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, before relocating to L.A. "I think I always wanted to be in films," she says. "When I first started to go into show business I was advised, 'Go to New York because your training will be better, and you can go to jobs on your own. In California you can't because you have to have an agent.'" Catlett says she was first introduced to L.A. when she was doing an industrial film in Kansas, selling Cessna airplanes. "I figured I was not that far from California, and I should go check it out for a couple of days. It happened that I had a couple of good commercials going at that time, such as the Roach Lady for Black Flag insecticide. So I was recognizable. I quickly signed up with a commercial agent and a theatrical agent."
Though few would contend that kindness isn't a virtue, Catlett candidly admits that in a few cases her compassion might have cost her some major career breaks. When she first arrived in New York, she accompanied a friend to his audition for legendary acting instructor Uta Hagen. Hagen declined to accept her friend as a student but wanted Catlett to sign on. To spare her friend's feelings, Catlett declined. An even bigger lost opportunity was the chance to play the harridan Mrs. Hannigan in the pre-Broadway incarnation of the musical Annie at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut. She hesitated to take the part of a character who was mean to children, so she stuck with another job she was up for, in the Burt Reynolds film Semi-Tough. She got the film, but Dorothy Loudon went on to win the Tony as Mrs. Hannigan. "I've been offered that role again in later years," says Catlett. "But I always turn it down because not taking it when I first had a chance has always been a pain in my heart. I tell myself how stupid I was to not accept it."
Yet, Catlett's career is filled with roles of which she can be extremely proud. When Charlotte Rae left her housemother role on the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes to launch The Facts of Life, Catlett replaced her, continuing on the series for four years. She won L.A. Drama Critics Circle Awards for Come Back Little Sheba and in Philadelphia, Here I Come. She was Emmy-nominated for her performance an as an Irish nanny in General Hospital, on which she appeared for two years. Following her work with Burt Reynolds in Semi-Tough, in which she played "a hooker with a heart," he hired her for the film version of Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. She has played other choice roles in films such as John Waters' Serial Mom. Among her favorite roles is the operatic Wardrobe Chest in Beauty and the Beast. For the past four years, she's been delighted to supply her voice for the animated series SpongeBob SquarePants. Jack of all acting trades, master of all, Catlett is a consummate craftsman who seems unfazed by her own extraordinary talent. She's a gentle and warm spirit, yet one has a sense that a strong inner drive is the secret to her success--along with superb skill, of course. She might best be termed semi-tough--hard-driving enough to have realized her dreams, yet soft enough to avoid the ruthlessness one often finds in this business. How many singing clothes-closets can exude such class?