Say the name Catherine O’Hara, and a smile inevitably follows. Perhaps you think about her hysterical TV characters or her holiday movies that became family-night traditions. Or maybe you’re drawn to her warm, quick-witted personality, on display during her eulogy to John Candy in 1994 and her Hollywood Walk of Fame tribute to Home Alone son Macauley Culkin in 2024. Whatever she did, she brought a spirit of generosity to every role and every interaction.
That’s why the news of her death on Jan. 30 at age 71 feels like a collective heartbreak. It also seems so, well, unfair. When I interviewed O’Hara in 2024, she Zoomed in from her family’s summer cottage in Ontario, Canada, exuding pure bliss and satisfaction at age 70. Lounging on a plush chair with the birds chirping through the open window, she said, “I’m sorry to rub it in, but this is very cozy!”
She deserved more summers in that chair.
O’Hara’s career spanned five decades, beginning in the 1970s when she joined Toronto’s famed Second City comedy troupe as Gilda Radner’s understudy. In the ’80s, she collaborated with Martin Scorsese (After Hours), Mike Nichols (Heartburn) and Tim Burton (Beetlejuice), but it was the 1990 blockbuster Home Alone (and its 1992 sequel) that made her a household name. Next, she flexed her improv chops in Christopher Guest–directed mockumentaries like Best in Show, For Your Consideration and A Mighty Wind. With Schitt’s Creek’s iconic Moira Rose—and all those quotable Moira Rose–isms (“David, stop acting like a disgruntled pelican!”)—we witnessed yet another career renaissance, at age 60.
Here’s the thing about Catherine O’Hara: She didn’t just play these oddball characters; she infused them with heart and humanity. In all, O’Hara took home a slew of awards—including two Emmys, a Golden Globe and two Actor Awards (formerly Screen Actors Guild Awards)—and was just nominated for two Emmys in 2025. Looking back at her career, it’s hard to choose which of her beloved and brilliant characters tops the rest, so think of this ranked list as 10 reasons why O’Hara was simply the best.
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10. The Last of Us (2025)
O’Hara is known for her comedic prowess, but let’s appreciate her solid dramatic work first. She starred in The Paper, Temple Grandin and Wyatt Earp, and most recently, she made a meal out of her powerful guest-star spot in HBO’s popular post-apocalyptic series The Last of Us. She’s Gail, an unorthodox therapist who has zero interest in self-healing following the death of her husband, which she squarely blames on her patient, Joel (Pedro Pascal).
The Emmy-nominated role reminds us of the actress’s emotional range: In her scenes, she expresses heartbreak, viciousness, acerbic humor (“Be careful, Joel. Lest you suffer vertigo from the dizzying heights of your moral high ground”), tenderness and vulnerability.
9. After Hours (1985)
It was a minor role early in her career, but O’Hara still rose to the occasion in this surrealistic Scorsese-directed comedy. Over the course of a single night in New York City, a mild-mannered computer clerk named Paul (Griffin Dunne) experiences misadventures galore while trying to return home. His series of awful encounters includes one with O’Hara’s Gail, a bubbly ice-cream-truck driver who ultimately mistakes Paul for a criminal and sends a horde of neighbors after him.
Despite her mere six minutes of screen time, the actress leaves an indelible impression … and shows exactly why she would go on to become a force in the genre.
8. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
We never see O’Hara in this stop-motion musical masterpiece about the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town’s attempt to take over Christmas. But in voicing Sally, the shy, stitched-together rag doll, she gives the Burton-produced movie its melancholic soul. Amid the town’s dreary ghoulishness, Sally is the voice-of-reason resident who realizes that the spirit of Christmas can’t be replicated—even as she falls in love with his royal highness himself. The actress also sings here, and her lovely rendition of the ballad “Sally’s Song” in a crucial moment is so stirring that it will move you to tears.
7. The Studio (2025)
Hurray for this delicious ode to Hollywood, which showcases O’Hara as Patty Leigh, a powerful studio head who is ousted and replaced with underling Matt Remick (Seth Rogen). But despite the ego blow, there are still deals to be made, so she keeps Matt close. In a role based on former Sony Pictures Entertainment head Amy Pascal, O’Hara nails all the chaotic insecurities that come with the ever-fickle industry—without resorting to caricature. (To wit: In her opening scene, she haughtily tells Matt, “How dare you show up at my door?” and then bursts into tears).
She received an Emmy nomination for her efforts here; it’s unclear if she filmed any scenes for Season 2 before her death.
6. Waiting for Guffman (1996)
O’Hara was a key player in actor-writer-director Guest’s comedy troupe, along with greats Eugene Levy, Fred Willard, Parker Posey and Jennifer Coolidge; this cult-classic mockumentary, loosely based on the play Waiting for Godot, is the one that started it all. She portrays Sheila, a travel agent who holds a special place in her quirky heart for community theater. And so she and a few fellow residents in the small city of Blaine, Missouri, decide to stage a musical chronicling the town’s 150-year history titled Red, White and Blaine. Fun!
O’Hara shines as the amateur stage star, and her hilarious audition scenes with her husband (Willard)—especially their performance of “Midnight at the Oasis”—represent sublime parody at its best.
5. SCTV (1976–84)
Not-so-live from Canada, it’s SCTV! An offshoot of the Second City improv troupe, this terrific SNL-like sketch show became the launching pad for influential comedians like Levy, Martin Short and Andrea Martin. O’Hara shows incredible range as she takes on recurring characters, inspired celebrity impressions (hello, Brooke Shields!), commercial parodies and original skits that bring out her amazing comedic instincts. A standout? Lola Heatherton, a Spandex-clad, Vegas-style diva known for her manic performances. While accepting a compliment, she always responds, “I love you! I want to bear your children!”
The Television Academy loved her so much that she won a writing Emmy for SCTV in 1982.
4. Best in Show (2000)
In this Guest gem that satirizes the world of dog shows, O’Hara’s earnest Cookie Fleck and her nerdy husband (Levy) are the underdogs of the circuit. He literally has two left feet, while she’s a bland suburbanite hiding a party-girl past. Together, they share a sincere love for their Norwich terrier, Winky.
Alas, Cookie keeps running into her old flames—after one ex tells her that she was the best, she replies, much to her husband’s dismay, “You don’t forget the best.” In taking a more restrained approach, O’Hara supplies cringe comedy at its finest. Much of the dialogue is improvised, enabling O’Hara to draw from her extensive experience to bring Cookie to life. And unsurprisingly, she and Levy deserve a blue ribbon for their chemistry.
3. Beetlejuice (1988)
Nobody but nobody pulls off the privileged, deluded—yet absurdly confident—snob character quite like O’Hara. That’s why the star is such an entertaining presence in Burton’s supernatural comedy classic about a deceased couple (Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis) who summon a spirit (Michael Keaton) to scare an eccentric family out of their Connecticut country home. As manic mom and avant-garde artist Delia Deetz, O’Hara gamely lets her freak flag fly—most notably during the infamous “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” dinner party sequence.
After decades of annual Halloween watches and fan demands, she revisited the flame-haired wannabe Goth in the smash 2024 sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
2. Home Alone (1990)
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Let’s put away the cheese pizza and get real: This comedy classic would never, ever, work without an empathetic mom so harried that it’s totally forgivable—and understandable!—that she would accidentally leave her trouble-making son home alone during a family trip to Paris. All the more reason to salute O’Hara, who provides the film’s emotional core as her Kate McCallister character frantically tries to head back to Chicago to reach young Kevin. (Make that, “Kevin!!!!”).
Her solo journey is equal parts exasperating and amusing, capped by her droll conversation in a truck with a traveling polka king (played by Candy, her former SCTV co-star). And the big reunion between Kate and Kevin serves as a heartfelt and well-earned payoff. Given Culkin’s poignant tribute to O’Hara after her death—”Mama, I thought we’d have time”—no doubt the scene will hit even harder during the 2026 Christmas season.
1. Schitt’s Creek (2015–20)
The top choice goes to an acclaimed Canadian-produced comedy series that happens to feature O’Hara’s most hilarious creation—and one that endeared her to a whole new generation. Her oh, so posh Moira Rose was a city socialite and former soap opera star before her family’s fortune disappeared due to an unfortunate embezzlement. Now she and her husband (Levy, naturally) and two grown kids (Dan Levy and Annie Murphy) are reduced to living at the Rosebud Motel in “the sticks” of Schitt’s Creek, surrounded by simple civilians. The horror!
O’Hara fully embodies Moira’s dramatic prima donna for the ages, from her vast wig collection and her thesaurus-like vocabulary—bombating! Pettifogging!—to her pretentious accent and eye-rolling disdain for her new lifestyle (“Let’s all go to bed and pray we don’t wake up”). And yet Mrs. Rose continues to keep that chin up. As a result, the actress spawned dozens of viral memes, quotes and moments that will never fail to make your day. The performance earned O’Hara an Emmy in 2020, her first one for actress in a comedy.
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Sources:
- The New York Times: “Catherine O’Hara, Home Alone and Schitt’s Creek Actress, Dies at 71”
- Parade: “Catherine O’Hara Reveals How She Landed Original Beetlejuice Without an Audition”
- The New York Times: “The Delightful Mania of Catherine O’Hara”
- Today: “Macaulay Culkin Reacts to Catherine O’Hara’s Death: ‘Mama. I Thought We Had Time’”
- People: “Catherine O’Hara Delivered a Beautiful, Witty Eulogy for Dear Friend John Candy as She Recalled Their Last Day Working Together”
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