We’ve bid farewell to yet another unique talent.
The unexpected passing of Catherine O’Hara on Friday morning at the age of 71 has left many in disbelief.
O’Hara was an exceptional figure in Hollywood: a comedic virtuoso whose unforgettable performances transcended generations. Remarkably, she was known for her kindness.
Many comedians derive their humor from deep-seated anger, self-doubt, or dissatisfaction—though not all.
Catherine O’Hara, however, seemed to radiate joy. She embraced her role as a professional eccentric.
In a 2019 interview with The New Yorker, she shared her mantra: “When in doubt, play insane.”
In real life, she was anything but. The tributes pouring in attest to that.
We’ve lost another true original. Catherine O’Hara’s death on Friday morning, at age 71, comes as a shock.
She was rare among Hollywood stars: A comedic genius whose indelible work spanned generations – and who, notably, seemed kind. (Pictured in Home Alone with Macaulay Culkin).
Michael Keaton, who starred alongside O’Hara in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice, wrote on Instagram: ‘She’s been my pretend wife, my pretend nemesis and my real life, true friend. This one hurts. Man am I gonna miss her.’
Pedro Pascal, who worked with O’Hara on The Last of Us, posted: ‘There is less light in my world, this lucky world that had you, will keep you, always. Always.’
Actress Rita Wilson: ‘Catherine O’Hara — a woman who was authentic and truthful in all she did.’
Craig Mazin, writer and producer of The Last of Us: ‘It all hurts terribly. Goodbye, you legend… you wonderful, brilliant, kind, beautiful human being. We were lucky to have had you at all.’
As much as Hollywood is given to hyperbole, this all feels genuine. O’Hara was, indeed, special.
Born on March 4, 1954 in Toronto, she was one of seven children. ‘Being funny was highly encouraged in our family,’ she told The New Yorker. ‘I think everyone is born with humor, but your life can beat it out of you, sadly. Or you can be lucky enough to grow up in it.’
O’Hara began making her name as part of SCTV, the Second City Television sketch show in Canada, before her breakout came opposite Keaton in Tim Burton’s phantasmagorical 1988 comedy Beetlejuice.
But it was her role as Macaulay Culkin’s mom in the 1990 blockbuster Home Alone — a mother, of course, who forgets she left her 8-year-old, Kevin, back at home while jetting to Paris with the rest of her family — that made O’Hara a household name.
Culkin himself took to Instagram to mourn his on-screen mother.
‘Mama,’ he wrote, next to a still from the original movie of him in character with O’Hara and another, more recent photo of them together. ‘I thought we had time… I love you.’
A lesser actress wouldn’t have been able to make an audience fall in love with her, let alone forgive her for leaving her small son at home, at Christmas, to fend off two burglars. Such was O’Hara’s unique gift.
She returned to her improv roots for a series of films with Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy, starring as unhinged characters in the mockumentaries Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration.
‘I think there’s a bit of the sameness in a lot of the characters I do,’ O’Hara told Vulture in 2019. ‘I think there’s a lot of… insecure delusional [sic]. And I say this a lot, but I love playing people who have no real sense of the impression they’re making on anyone else.’
It was her unforgettable Moira Rose, the dispossessed aging actress-wife-mother on Schitt’s Creek, that was O’Hara’s crowning achievement.
No one had ever seen a character like Moira before: a woman dressed to the nines in a rural backwater, a snob with heart and an accent of indeterminate origin rivaled, in oddness, only by the various and sundry wigs hanging from her motel room wall — Moira’s scalps, as it were.
‘I had no idea that anyone else would care,’ O’Hara said in 2020. ‘I said, ‘Can I wear different wigs all the time?’ and they said, ‘Yes!’
Moira’s increasingly zany, dated wigs became the show’s standout running gag.
O’Hara took inspiration from none other than heiress and one-time Alexander McQueen muse Daphne Guinness for Moira’s look.
Sarah Jessica Parker could never.
Would-be comic actors such as Parker — who just accepted the Carol Burnett Award for ‘her outstanding contributions to television’ — are mere supporting players compared to the outsize genius of Catherine O’Hara.
O’Hara never sacrificed a laugh for vanity. She didn’t take herself seriously. She didn’t merchandise her husband, their two sons or her home life.
And unlike younger female comics such as Amy Schumer, Nikki Glaser or Lena Dunham, O’Hara never degraded herself or her physical appearance to get cheap laughs.
Perhaps because O’Hara knew, unlike the perpetually gushing, preening, needy Parkers and Dunhams of the world, that she was the real deal.
It was her unforgettable Moira Rose, the dispossessed aging actress-wife-mother on Schitt’s Creek (pictured), that was O’Hara’s crowning achievement.
Moira Rose was O’Hara’s creation from the ground up. She told The New Yorker about pitching Moira’s look to father-and-son show creators Eugene and Dan Levy.
‘[Guinness’s] wardrobe, it’s just so great and extreme,’ she told The New Yorker. ‘It’s strong and it’s armor, which is perfect when you’ve had your life ripped out from under you, like Moira, and you’re in this place that’s like the town you got out of earlier in life.’
O’Hara located Moira’s heart: a woman who had worked so hard, only to find herself returned to her humble beginnings — and yet refused, in her inimitable, humorous way, to be dragged back down.
Sarah Jessica Parker, who refuses to abandon the character she’s been playing for nearly 30 years, could learn a lot.
‘Moira just has so much to show, she believes, but doesn’t know quite what that is yet,’ O’Hara told Vulture. ‘And if you can externally present different versions of yourself with the help of great wigs and wardrobe, then it boosts your confidence. I have more to me, too. I can be different. I can still grow.‘
What a lesson in being a great artist, a great comedienne, and more importantly, a good person.
