We went into the weekend with some terrible news: the passing of Catherine O’Hara, the comedy legend. O’Hara died on Friday at 71.
The Canadian actress started her rise with Second City, and then the Canadian sketch show SCTV. In the 1980s, she appeared in a number of memorable supporting film roles, from After Hours to Heartburn. Then, of course, in 1990 she entered the holiday pantheon with Home Alone, playing a mother desperate to get home to her son. I just watched Home Alone for the first time (I know!) this past holiday season. It was so clear that O’Hara was the blueprint for movie moms, harried by the holiday season and yet full of love and life for those around her. She won her first acting Emmy for her indelible role as Moira Rose on Schitt’s Creek.
In a 2019 interview with the New Yorker, she talked about her rise in comedy and a relatable admission: she said she was bad at auditioning. “When you’re on the job, it’s so collaborative. It’s about everyone,” she said. “When you’re auditioning, it’s only you. It’s so not related to what the job will be, really.”
From sketch comedy to the camaraderie of a TV set, O’Hara was committed to those who were lucky enough to cross her path. “Why work alone if you don’t have to?” she explained in that New Yorker interview.
Through it all, O’Hara was willing to be ridiculous, insane (in the best way), a singular presence onscreen. She described her characters as “insecure delusional.” “I love playing people who have no real sense of the impression they’re making on anyone else,” she told Vulture in 2019. “But the more I say it, the more I realize that’s all of us, and the internet, social networking, is a desperate attempt to try to control what others think of you.”
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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PARTING WORDS
"I had to make a transition for survival from folk music, which was killed by the British Invasion. ... Then I made an album called For the Roses, because I was pissed off at the music business."
— Joni Mitchell, accepting her award for Best Historical Album at the Grammys
