Today we received the heartbreaking news that Home Alone and Beetlejuice‘s Catherine O’Hara has passed away. One of the most universally beloved performers of her generation or any other, O’Hara buoyed each and every project she graced throughout her perpetually busy 50-year career. Her big break came in 1976 with SCTV, Canada’s answer to Saturday Night Live. On that sketch show she was paired with her future Home Alone co-star John Candy as well as other comedy world favorites such as Joe Flaherty, her Schitt’s Creek husband Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, and Ghostbusters‘ Harold Ramis and Rick Moranis. Her time with that show was on and off, but it very much established her as a versatile comedian capable of making an impact on the audience.
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She even had a way of elevating very minor roles that were mostly inconsequential, such as Texie Garcia in Dick Tracy and Gail in Martin Scorsese’s After Hours. Furthermore, she was an asset in single-episode appearances on shows like 30 Rock, Modern Family, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. But outside Delia Deetz and Kevin McCallister, what were the legendary O’Hara’s best roles? Let’s go through some of the highlights.
5) Patty Leigh on The Studio
O’Hara’s two projects in 2025 ended up being her final projects, but what a way to go out. Both The Last of Us Season 2 and the premiere season of Apple TV’s The Studio were highly regarded, and while she was wonderful as Joel’s (Pedro Pascal) therapist on the video game adaptation, we’re giving it to her work as ousted studio head Patty Leigh in Apple TV’s fan-favorite.
O’Hara brought just the right amount of frantic energy to Leigh. We believed she was hurt by her mentee usurping her place as the head of a studio, but she also managed to make the character’s feelings just as funny as they were tragic.
4) Cookie Fleck in Best in Show
O’Hara was in the first four Christopher Guest mockumentaries: Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration. And, of those four, Best in Show is the, well, best.
The same applies to the roles played by O’Hara. In Best in Show she’s Cookie Fleck, who along with her husband, Gerry (Eugene Levy), is bringing their Norwich terrier Winky to the Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show. However, the couple just keeps on running into Cookie’s former lovers, who still cling to the hope of winning back her heart. To quote Gerry Fleck, “She had dozens of boyfriends.” And to quote Cookie Fleck, “Hundreds.” Like with her other collaborations with Guest, Best in Show was a display of how, even over the course of 20 years, O’Hara’s proficiency with improv hadn’t deteriorated an ounce since SCTV.
3) Geraldine ‘Gerri’ Ferrett in Tales from the Crypt
The first few seasons of HBO’s Tales from the Crypt are way better than the final two or three, but the premiere of Season 6 is an all-timer, and that’s almost entirely due to O’Hara. Because of her, “Let the Punishment Fit the Crime” ends up being one of the few top-tier episodes of the show that were more comedy-horror than horror-comedy.
She plays an ambulance-chasing lawyer placed in front of a judge merely for nothing more than an improper license plate. Usually you just pay a fine, but in Stueksville, pronounced sticks-ville, the punishments doled out are bizarrely harsh, and they only get worse if you argue. In fact, this is a town where hangings are still carried out. In other words, it’s the exact opposite type of place to be when you have the short-fused, smug temperament of ‘Gerri’ Ferrett.
2) Sally (and Shock) in The Nightmare Before Christmas
O’Hara actually plays two roles in Henry Selick’s classic holiday musical The Nightmare Before Christmas. One is Shock, one of Oogie Boogie’s unfriendly henchmen. She is to her trick-or-treater cohorts what Whoopi Goldberg’s Shenzi was to Banzai and Ed in The Lion King.
More importantly, she was Sally, have of the film’s beating, black heart. One of Dr. Finkelstein’s creations, she wants nothing more than to experience the full world on her own. On her own, but not alone, because she would much prefer Jack Skellington to be by her side. It’s one of the most charming romances in animated film history, and O’Hara is largely to thank for that, as she imbues Sally with a curiosity and drive that make her very easy to root for.
1) Moira Rose on Schitt’s Creek
O’Hara was one of the very few people who could play a character that requires overacting, yet never make her overacting seem like actual overacting. It just felt true to the character. For instance, Delia Deetz in Beetlejuice and its sequel or Moira Rose on Schitt’s Creek.
Moira was once a popular star on a soap opera. She’s also extremely accustomed to wealth. So, when the Rose family’s business manager runs off with all their money, she has the biggest learning curve to get used to, and she has a hilariously difficult time doing that. We should hate Moira, but we can’t, because she’s played by O’Hara, who gives the classist character the right amount of humanity in the right moments.
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