Remembering Catherine O’Hara

As everyone has heard over the weekend, Catherine O’Hara has passed. Deaths are tragic as we all know and when it’s someone within our own Canadian film industry, that can definitely be a big one, espeically when the person is well known for having a strong list of credits. A lot of people know Catherine as the mom from Home Alone, Macauley Culkin has definitely given his condolences via social media. But that’s not all Catherine was known for. She also had a noteworthy role as Moira Rose in Schitt’s Creek. I remember when we first mentioned her winning an award for Best Female Performance at 14th Annual ACTRA Awards, and wouldn’t you know it, she won Best Lead Actress at the Canadian Screen Awards for that character as well, in 2016 and 2017. But it wasn’t just comedy series and comedy movies Catherine got involved in, she was in horror films as well. Take The Nightmare Before Christmas for example, her role as Sally, which was certainly a role that some would argue between small and pivotal, but I honestly cherish O’Hara’s role as Sally, seeing as she portrays a character who understands how some things can lead to disaster. Another one of her most interesting roles had to be as Delia in the Beetlejuice movies which certainly showed how expressive she can be sometimes. Being in a few films by Tim Burton is a great accomplishment for one to have in my opinion. Even though she was in a select few, Catherine’s impact on Tim Burton was definitely as big as the popularity of his movies, as indicated when he posted his reaction to her death by showing a picture of them happy as can be while Burton left a lovely message for a caption. What makes it more interesting was Catherine met her husband on the set of Beetlejuice when was designing the sets, and Tim managed to get them together. A more common ocurrence for Catherine was her work with Christopher Guest who was notorious for making mockumentary films, and three of them even got her awards. Just looking at her IMDB page, it’s incredible just how much she has done both off and on-camera, not to mention each role no matter what the size/amount of lines. The point being, is that Catherine O’Hara’s work as an actress and more is nothing to snort derisively at, and no matter what role you remember her for, whether it being something from a few years ago, or even something from your childhood, I’m sure we can all agree she had a positive and creative impact on us all. It’s a tremendous shame she passed on, but I have a positive feeling that many young actresses have been influenced by her personality and while she cannot be replaced, we should certainly keep an eye and ear out for more Canadian actresses who have unique charm.