Catherine O’Hara, the comedian and actor best known for her roles in films like Home Alone and Beetlejuice, has died. She was 71 years old. After a brief illness (per her agency), O’Hara was hospitalized early yesterday morning, and passed away a few hours later.
O’Hara, whose career launched with the sketch comedy series Second City Television (SCTV), had a career that spanned more than fifty years, during which time she became one of Hollywood’s most-loved comic actors.
O’Hara was an accomplished comedian and one of the most beloved supporting actresses of her generation, earning a raft of awards including two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and two Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards.
While mainstream audiences know O’Hara from Home Alone and Schitt’s Creek, her long working relationship with mockumentary filmmaker Christopher Guest was one of the defining relationships of her career. O’Hara appeared in Waiting for Guffman, Best In Show, A Mighty Wind, and more with the filmmaker.
While working on Beetlejuice, O’Hara met and started dating Bo Welch, the film’s production designer, and the pair married in 1992. They have two sons, Matthew and Luke. In addition to Beetlejuice, O’Hara worked with filmmaker Tim Burton on The Nightmare Before Christmas.
“Words seem inadequate to express the loss I feel today,” O’Hara’s Schitt’s Creek and SCTV collaborator Eugene Levy wrote. “I had the honor of knowing and working with the great Catherine O’Hara for over fifty years. From our beginnings on the Second City stage, to SCTV, to the movies we did with Chris Guest, to our six glorious years on Schitt’s Creek, I cherished our working relationship, but most of all our friendship. And I will miss her. My heart goes out to Bo, Matthew, Luke and the entire O’Hara family.”
“What a gift to have gotten to dance in the warm glow of Catherine O’Hara’s brilliance for all those years,” added Levy’s son and Schitt’s Creek co-creator Dan Levy. “Having spent over fifty years collaborating with my Dad, Catherine was extended family before she ever played my family. It’s hard to imagine a world without her in it. I will cherish every funny memory I was fortunate enough to make with her. My heart goes out to Bo, Matthew, Luke and every member of her big, beautiful family.”
…And, yes, O’Hara starred in a comic book movie, appearing as Texie Garcia in 1990’s Dick Tracy, directed by Warren Beatty and one of a number of films clearly inspired by Burton’s take on Batman.
Most recently, O’Hara made acclaimed appearances in both The Studio and The Last of Us.
