Catherine O’Hara, the singular Hollywood force whose chameleonic brilliance defined a generation of comedy and improv across SCTV, Home Alone, Best in Show, and Schitt’s Creek, has died at the age of 71.
TMZ reports that O’Hara passed away on Friday. A representative for O’Hara confirmed she died after a brief illness.
Born in Toronto, Ontario in March of 1954, O’Hara’s five-decades-long career began in 1974 as a member of the sketch and improv comedy group Second City. There, she was an understudy for Gilda Radner until Radner joined Saturday Night Live. O’Hara then was part of the originating cast of Second City Television alongside her future frequent costar Eugene Levy and the likes of John Candy, Harold Ramis, Andrea Martin, Joe Flaherty, and Dave Thomas.
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In 1981, O’Hara had her own shot at SNL, as she was brought on to replace Ann Risley. However, she ended up quitting before ever getting screentime, opting instead to return to SCTV when the show got picked up by NBC. She received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series in 1982; SCTV made up four of the five nominated entires that year. SCTV also took all five nominations the following year, though the winning episode did not feature O’Hara as a credited writer.
She had a series of roles in Canadian feature film productions like Nothing Personal, Double Negative, and the adult animation feature Rock & Rule in the early ’80s before her first Hollywood break came along. She was cast in a bit role in After Hours, Martin Scorsese’s 1985 neo-noir black comedy film starring Griffin Dunne. She played the bit role of Gail, an ice cream truck driver who leads a mob in hunting down the Dunne’s character when he’s wrongly accused of being a neighborhood burglar.
O’Hara continued making TV appearances throughout the ’70s and ’80s (1978’s Witch’s Night Out, a number of CBC holiday animated specials including Intergalactic Thanksgiving and Easter Fever, the 1980 miniseries You’ve Come a Long Way, Katie). After appearing in Nora Ephron’s 1986 movie Heartburn with Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson, O’Hara’s breakout Hollywood role came in 1988’s Beetlejuice. She replaced a sick Anjelica Huston as Delia Deetz, mother to Winona Ryder’s Lydia, and her performance became one of the most iconic in her career. She would later reprise the role in the 2024 sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
1990 was a busy year for the rising star, with roles in Dick Tracy, Betsy’s Wedding, and Little Vegas. Fans most fondly remember her as Macaulay Culkin’s mom in the classic Home Alone. She returned as Kate McCallister in 1992’s Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and her frantic screaming of “KEVIN!” remains one of the most referenced moments of ’90s cinema.
She reunited with Beetlejuice mastermind Tim Burton by voicing and singing for both Sally and Shock in the 1993 stop-motion classic The Nightmare Before Christmas. She later made frequent apperances at Nightmare Before Christmas Live performances at The Hollywood Bowl, singing “Sally’s Song” and “Kidnap the Sandy Claws.”
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