Remembering Catherine O’Hara

Episode notes

Photo: John Phillips / Getty Images 2024

We’re taking a moment to remember actress and comedian, Catherine O’Hara, who died on January 30, 2026. She was 71 years old.

Catherine O’Hara is a comedy legend. She helped launch SCTV alongside other burgeoning comedy greats like John Candy and her longtime collaborator Eugene Levy. She went on to star in some huge blockbuster comedies. She became spiritually possessed in Beetlejuice. She played a memorable, anxiety-ridden mother to Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone, and became a critical part of Christopher Guest’s ensemble mockumentaries, like Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show. Some other recent favorites include HBO’s critically-acclaimed biopic Temple Grandin and Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie.

For all of its six seasons, Catherine played Moira Rose on Schitt’s Creek, a comedy that follows a wealthy family who are forced to relocate to a tiny, rural town after losing their entire fortune. 

When Catherine joined Bullseye in 2013, she talked about the difficulties of being a woman in the SCTV writers’ room. Plus, creating memorable characters with Eugene Levy, and her own secret comedic formula.