Tributes are pouring in for Catherine O’Hara, the multi-award-winning actor who died Friday at her home in Los Angeles following a brief illness. She was 71.
O’Hara had a versatile career spanning comedy and drama. She was known for her role as Delia Deetz in Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice” and its 2024 sequel, as well as voiced Sally and Shock in the 1993 animated classic “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” Another notable film role was Kate McCallister, the mother of Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin McCallister, in the first two “Home Alone” movies.
“Mama. I thought we had time. I wanted more. I wanted to sit in a chair next to you. I heard you but I had so much more to say,” Culkin wrote on Instagram. “I love you. I’ll see you later.”
Michael Keaton, who portrayed the titular role in the “Beetlejuice” films, wrote, “We go back before the first ‘Beetlejuice.’ She’s been my pretend wife, my pretend nemesis and my real life, true friend. This one hurts. Man am I gonna miss her. Thinking about Beau as well.”
Burton shared a behind-the-scenes photo from the “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” set featuring himself and O’Hara alongside Keaton, Jenna Ortega and Winona Ryder, writing in the caption, “Catherine, I love you. This picture shows how much light you gave to all of us. You were a special part of my life and after life.”
On television, O’Hara portrayed the eccentric and extravagantly dressed Moira Rose on “Schitt’s Creek,” for which she won a Primetime Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a comedy series. She recently appeared in Apple TV’s “The Studio” and the second season of HBO’s “The Last of Us.”
“Really don’t know what to say… I told O’Hara when I first met her I thought she was the funniest person I’d ever had the pleasure of watching on screen. ‘Home Alone’ was the movie that made me want to make movies,” Seth Rogen, co-creator and star of “The Studio,” wrote on Instagram. “Getting to work with her was a true honour. She was hysterical, kind, intuitive, generous… she made me want to make our show good enough to be worthy of her presence in it. This is just devastating. We’re all lucky we got to live in a world with her in it.”
Pedro Pascal, who played Joel Miller on “The Last of Us,” wrote, “Oh, genius to be near you. Eternally grateful. There is less light in my world, this lucky world that had you, will keep you, always. Always. The one and ONLY Catherine O’Hara.”
O’Hara frequently collaborated with Christopher Guest and co-writer Eugene Levy, who also starred in and co-created “Schitt’s Creek.” Together, O’Hara, Guest and Levy worked on the critically acclaimed mockumentary films “Waiting for Guffman,” “Best in Show,” “A Mighty Wind” and “For Your Consideration.” Her performance in the latter earned her the 2007 National Board of Review Award for best supporting actress.
(Excerpt) Read more in: Variety