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

Walsh had a difficult childhood with alcoholic
parents and studied at a strict convent school.
She studied Theatre in Toronto, Ontario|Toronto at
Ryerson University, but dropped out to appear with
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|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
co-star 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,
called 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, a parody
of Lucy Lawless' fictional "princess warrior"
Xena:_Warrior_Princess|Xena, became famous for
grilling politicians.  Usually "Marg Delahunty"
would recite a scripted piece intended to
humiliate the politician, often by providing
criticism and "grandmotherly" advice.

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
circulated that it was due to a long-standing fued
between the two.  Walsh also allegedly rolled her
eyes during an interview about Mercer's show Rick
Mercer Report, which some see as further evidence
of the feud.

In 2004, Walsh hosted a segment on the CBC
documentary series The Greatest Canadian, where
she championed the case for Sir Frederick Banting
(the Nobel prize-winning inventor of insulin) as
the greatest Canadian who ever lived.   

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

Besides acting, she worked on movies such as;
http://www.mamboitalianomovie.com/ Mambo Italiano,
Rain, Drizzle and Fog and Violet (2000)
movie|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.