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Catherine O’Hara was never one to shy away from making a statement. Her roles have always been defined by her daring approach, whether it was the eccentric accent of Moira Rose in “Schitt’s Creek,” Delia Deetz’s supernatural dance to “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” in “Beetlejuice,” or the iconic scream of “KEVIN!” as Kate McCallister in the “Home Alone” films.
Yet, O’Hara’s success wasn’t just about her willingness to go bold. Her brilliance lay in her ability to infuse her characters with depth, no matter how outlandish or over-the-top they appeared on the surface. Beneath the humor and the absurdity was always a layer of warmth and empathy. This unique blend of comedy and humanity made every role memorable, even the quirky Cookie Fleck with her myriad ex-boyfriends in “Best in Show.”
Kevin Nealon succinctly captured her impact: “She changed how so many of us understand comedy and humanity.”
O’Hara’s talent was matched by her refusal to rest on her laurels; she continually reinvented herself, resonating with audiences across generations. Even at the age of 71, she was still making waves with her portrayal of the ousted studio executive Patty Leigh in “The Studio.” Her ability to bring new dimensions to her roles was always accompanied by humility and grace, becoming a diva only when the part demanded it.
Sarah Polley, her co-star in “The Studio,” paid tribute to O’Hara on Instagram, writing, “She was the kindest and the classiest. How could she also have been the funniest person in the world?” Her words echo the sentiment shared by many who admired O’Hara’s extraordinary blend of kindness, class, and humor.
Just eight years younger than another comedy trailblazer Gilda Radner, whom she understudied for at “The Second City” in Toronto, O’Hara was not an obvious candidate for stardom as the second youngest of seven in a decidedly non-showbiz, Catholic family. But she loved comedy, obsessing over “Monty Python” in high school and even trying to meet them at the airport once after hearing they were flying in. And when her brother began dating Radner, she followed that trail to the improv stage.
Her first job was not on stage, however, but as a server where she absorbed all that she could. Though she was turned down after her first audition, she wasn’t deterred; She joined the company in 1974. By 1976 she was an essential part of the cast’s transition to television on “SCTV,” where she did original characters and impersonated well-known personalities of the time, including Meryl Streep, who she’d later act alongside.
“My crutch was, in improvs, when in doubt, play insane,” O’Hara told The New Yorker in 2019. “You didn’t have to excuse anything that came out of your mouth. It didn’t have to make sense.”
By the time the show ended in 1984, she was itching for something more, something deeper and started reading scripts for films. Some equated her pickiness (including pulling out of “Saturday Night Live”) with a kind of lack of ambition. For her, it was about waiting for the right thing. Though her film debut was less than auspicious (in the poorly reviewed Canadian thriller “Double Negative” alongside “SCTV” peers like John Candy and Eugene Levy) she soon found her footing working with the likes of Martin Scorsese in “After Hours” and Mike Nichols in “Heartburn,” where she’d play the gossipy beltway journalist friend of Streep and Jack Nicholson.
“You have to try to make this person a real person,” she said in a 1986 CNN interview. “When I first read it, I thought oh this woman does nothing but gossip. But then I started seeing her as a human being, like myself.”
It’s an impulse that served her well during her Hollywood ascent in the late 1980s and early 1990s. You can watch “Home Alone” for the hijinks, but O’Hara made it emotional and grounded as the mom just trying to get back to her child. There was humor, yes (remember the fake Rolex?) but then, a beat later, there were tears. Even Delia Deetz was relatable, giving her husband a withering glare at his tone-deaf suggestion that she might now be able to make a decent meal in her new suburban prison.
She was feisty in period garb as Wyatt Earp’s sister-in-law, sweetly crazy as the depressed, overwhelmed mother to Colin Hanks in “Orange County,” and crazy-crazy as Marty Funkhouser’s sister Bam Bam in “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
From her perspective, nothing was as big as “Schitt’s Creek,” an unlikely cultural phenomenon that had everyone suddenly pronouncing baby as “bébé” (and it wasn’t because of a sudden French language surge on Duolingo). Few actors get to create their own language and cadence as O’Hara managed to do with Moira Rose.
That unmistakable and unplaceable accent, she told Rolling Stone in 2020, was sort of “in defense of creativity.” She was inspired by women she’d met over the years who, out of insecurity and pride, create new personas whole cloth. As far as the look went, socialite Daphne Guinness was the starting point.
“I think that Canadians have not only a sense of humor about others but about themselves, which I think is the healthiest and best kind of sense of humor to have,” she said in that same Rolling Stone interview. “There’s an edge to it but with a compassion and love.”
Just think about Levy’s Mitch and O’Hara’s Mickey in Christopher Guest’s “A Mighty Wind” singing that mock folk song “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow” with its saccharine sweet lines. It is ridiculous. It is funny. And it might just make you cry a little too.
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