There were few actors as universally loved and respected as Catherine O’Hara.
She was a comedy legend who could easily transition into different genres (as is evidenced by her recent Emmy nomination for HBO’s grim, post-apocalyptic “The Last of Us”), who worked tirelessly on television and in the movies, in live-action performances and providing voice roles. She was maybe best defined as part of a double act with Eugene Levy, her fellow Canadian and “SCTV” collaborator. Together they appeared in several Christopher Guest comedies and the series “Schitt’s Creek” (which won her an Emmy).
It’s hard to whittle down her output to a small list of favorite big screen performances, but we’ll try our best.
Obviously, she had a huge impact on the small screen too, appearing in countless television series, most recently in “The Studio” (which also won her an Emmy, with a character based on former studio chief and super-producer Amy Pascal) and the aforementioned “The Last of Us.” There are 80 episodes of “Schitt’s Creek” to watch alone.
If we had to suggest an under-the-radar O’Hara TV performance, we’d have to suggest her 1994 episode of “Tales from the Crypt,” in which she plays a crooked lawyer trapped in a backwoods town. It was directed by Australian auteur Russell Mulcahy and served as the Season 6 premiere, airing on HBO – when else? – on Halloween night. In 1997 she appeared on the new “Outer Limits” in an episode based on a Stephen King story (“The Revelations of Becka Paulson”), which is fun too.
“After Hours” (1985)
Released just a year after O’Hara ended her run on the hugely influential Canadian sketch comedy show “SCTV,” she had a small but memorable role in Martin Scorsese’s nocturnal odyssey “After Hours.” She plays Gail, one of the many oddball characters that beleaguered word processor Paul (Griffin Dunne) encounters on a single, seemingly endless night. Gail first comes to Paul’s aid – after accidentally injuring him, she allows him to use her phone (in a wonderful bit, she tries to distract him from dialing the number), becoming an ally that later turns on him when an angry mob comes for Paul’s head. If for some reason you haven’t seen “After Hours,” it’s one of Scorsese’s best, brightest, most alive films ever and it’s in no small part due to the sparkling supporting performances like O’Hara’s.
“Beetlejuice” (1988)
An early breakout role, O’Hara played Delia Deetz, a narcissistic artist from New York who is forced to live in the Connecticut country by her husband Charles (Jeffrey Jones). Of course, while in the house, she learns of the existence of ghosts and becomes embroiled in the (undead) lives of the house’s former occupants (Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin), as well as the “bio-exorcist” Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton), who they are using to try and scare the new family away. While the movie is probably best remembered for Keaton’s flamboyant performance, it’s O’Hara who gets some of the very best lines (“I will go insane and I will take you with me”) and a central role in the famous “Day-O” musical number. Delia is a mother without a conscious and an artist without much of a soul and O’Hara plays he beautifully.
She would reteam with director Tim Burton several more times – for “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (where she voiced Sally and Shock), “Frankenweenie” (where she voiced several characters including Susan Frankenstein) and, most recently, in 2024’s sequel “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” She also regularly performed during the live “Nightmare Before Christmas” performances at the Hollywood Bowl every Halloween. She was an underrated but essential part of Burton’s troupe.
“Home Alone” (1990)
1990 was a big year for O’Hara, who had a small role in Disney’s lavish live-action “Dick Tracy,” supporting turns in romantic comedies “Betsy’s Wedding” and “Little Vegas,” and one of her best-loved and most remembered roles, as Kate McCallister in Chris Columbus and John Hughes’ “Home Alone.”
While the movie was really centered around Macauley Culkin’s Kevin McCallister, there’s a parallel narrative that is just as entertaining and even more emotional – the narrative that follows Kate as she desperately tries to return to her son. This is quintessential Hughes material, made all the more meaningful when she runs into John Candy, a longtime Hughes collaborator and her close friend since the “SCTV” days. Their chemistry, which is tinged with sadness and yearning, recalls “Planes Trains and Automobiles” but is somehow even more heartbreaking. Knowing what she’s trying to get back to and having him be her wingman is so powerful and profound. These are the beautiful interludes that make “Home Alone” such a classic. She would return to the role in the sequel, released in 1992, but she was given less to do and it didn’t mean as much. Christmas leftovers never taste as good.
The Christopher Guest Comedies – “Waiting for Guffman” (1996), “Best in Show” (2000), “A Mighty Wind” (2003), “For Your Consideration” (2006)
Perhaps unknowingly, when O’Hara joined “Waiting for Guffman,” directed by and starring Christopher Guest, she joined a loose acting troupe that would span several more films. She was recruited by Eugene Levy, who would co-write and co-star in all of the films, a friend and collaborator from the “SCTV” days, and absolutely flourishes in these movies. Each character drew on her exceptional improvisational abilities and her skill at fully inhabiting a character and making that character three-dimensional even when they are truly outlandish.
It’s hard to pick which performance or character is best, with O’Hara delivering every time (usually partnered with Levy, whose comedic instincts perfectly matched hers) but we will be belting out a rendition of “God Loves a Terrier” in her memory.
“The Wild Robot” (2024)
O’Hara did a lot of voice roles, everything from one of the monsters in Spike Jonze’s gonzo “Where the Wild Things Are” adaptation to an English dub of a Studio Ghibli film (“When Marnie Was There”) to things like the Robert Zemeckis-produced mo-cap movie “Monster House” and Pixar’s 2023 romantic comedy “Elemental,” in a role that was originally earmarked as the villain but simply became an overbearing family member (one of O’Hara’s specialties).
But if we had to pick a single vocal performance from her career that stood out the most, it was the role of Pinktail in Chris Sanders’ brilliant “The Wild Robot.” As an opossum mother who has more kids than she knows what to do with, she is both overworked and deeply compassionate. When a young gosling falls under the stewardship of the titular robot Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o), it’s Pinktail who helps teach her what it is to be a mother.
O’Hara, throughout her career, specialized in playing mothers who are perhaps too involved or maybe not involved enough. Her performance in “The Wild Robot” is a perfect synthesis of every O’Hara mother that came before, and one that is, thanks to the film’s painterly style and deep earnestness, one of her deepest and most heartbreaking. O’Hara had two children with Bo Welch, the production designer of “Beetlejuice,” and it is easy to see her injecting some of herself into these roles. Perhaps none greater than in “The Wild Robot.”
“John Candy: I Like Me” (2025)
O’Hara’s last film role was as herself in Prime Video’s big-hearted tribute to her old friend, “John Candy: I Like Me.” Directed by Colin Hanks, with full approval from the family, the documentary at times feels a little too squeaky clean, especially given the considerable demons that Candy faced throughout his life and career. O’Hara is a standout among the talking heads, offering insight and catharsis. Her role in the documentary will now stand as the last testament to who she was – as a collaborator, a friend, a comedian. Taken as such, it gives her participation in the documentary even more weight and importance.
