Catherine O'Hara: The Comedy Legend Who Redefined Heart and Humour
Catherine O'Hara, who passed away at age 71, leaves behind an unparalleled legacy in comedy and acting. Her career, spanning decades, demonstrated a unique ability to blend outrageous humour with genuine humanity, making her one of the most beloved performers of her generation.
Bold Characters with Beating Hearts
From Moira Rose's wild accent on Schitt's Creek to Delia Deetz's possessed dance in Beetlejuice, O'Hara was never afraid to embrace the absurd. Yet, beneath the silliness and preposterous scenarios, there always shone a compassionate, beating heart. This delicate balance transformed even her most outlandish characters into relatable figures.
As Kevin Nealon aptly noted, "She changed how so many of us understand comedy and humanity." This innate grasp of her craft allowed her to impact multiple generations of film, television, and comedy fans, refusing to settle into nostalgia and constantly reinventing herself with each project.
An Unlikely Path to Stardom
Born the second youngest of seven in a decidedly non-showbiz Catholic family, O'Hara was not an obvious candidate for stardom. Her love for comedy, however, was undeniable. Obsessing over Monty Python in high school and even attempting to meet them at the airport, her passion was clear.
Her breakthrough came through improvisation at Toronto's The Second City, where she understudied for Gilda Radner. Joining the company in 1974, she became an essential part of the cast's transition to television on SCTV by 1976. There, she developed original characters and impersonated well-known personalities, including Meryl Streep.
"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."
Hollywood Ascent and Artistic Integrity
After SCTV ended in 1984, O'Hara sought deeper roles, reading film scripts with careful discernment. Some misinterpreted her pickiness—including pulling out of Saturday Night Live—as a lack of ambition. For her, it was about waiting for the right project.
Her film debut in the poorly reviewed Canadian thriller Double Negative was less than auspicious, but she soon found her footing. Working with directors like Martin Scorsese in After Hours and Mike Nichols in Heartburn, she honed her craft. In a 1986 CNN interview, she emphasised her approach: "You have to try to make this person a real person... I started seeing her as a human being, like myself."
Iconic Roles and Emotional Depth
O'Hara's Hollywood ascent in the late 1980s and 1990s showcased her versatility. In Home Alone, she brought emotional grounding to Kate McCallister, balancing hijinks with a mother's desperate love. Her performance offered humour—like the fake Rolex scene—followed by genuine tears.
She was feisty in period garb as Wyatt Earp's sister-in-law, sweetly crazy in Orange County, and outright chaotic as Bam Bam in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Each role demonstrated her commitment to finding the humanity within the comedy.
The Phenomenon of Schitt's Creek
From her perspective, nothing compared to the cultural phenomenon of Schitt's Creek. As Moira Rose, O'Hara created her own language and cadence, inspiring a nation to pronounce "baby" as "bébé." Her accent, she told Rolling Stone in 2020, was "in defence of creativity," inspired by women who craft new personas out of insecurity and pride.
Reflecting on her Canadian roots, she noted: "I think that Canadians have not only a sense of humour about others but about themselves, which I think is the healthiest and best kind of sense of humour to have. There's an edge to it but with a compassion and love."
A Legacy of Grace and Laughter
Even in her final role as the ousted studio executive Patty Leigh in The Studio, O'Hara forged new trails with grace and humility. Fellow Canadian Sarah Polley, who acted alongside her, wrote on Instagram: "She was the kindest and the classiest. How could she also have been the funniest person in the world?"
Consider her performance with Eugene Levy in Christopher Guest's A Mighty Wind, singing the mock folk song "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow." It is ridiculous, it is funny, and it might just make you cry a little too. Catherine O'Hara's legacy is precisely that: a perfect blend of heart and humour that will endure for generations.
