Catherine Anne O’Hara (March 4, 1954 – January 30, 2026) was a Canadian and American actress, comedian, and screenwriter, whose career spanned over 50 years. She came to prominence in the sketch comedy series SCTV (Second City Television), which ran from 1976 to 1984. She left SCTV in 1980 briefly for a spot on the newly retooled Saturday Night Live, but left after a week without appearing in any episodes, then rejoined SCTV for the 1981–82 season. Her iconic characters included Lola Heatherton and Dusty Towne, and she earned an Emmy for her writing work on the program in 1982.
She made her feature debut in the 1980 film Double Negative, which also starred her SCTV co-stars John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Joe Flaherty. By the time SCTV ended in 1983, O’Hara was more widely known and began to get better roles, including secondary characters in Martin Scorsese’s After Hours (1985) and Mike Nichols’s Heartburn (1986).
She gave a memorable performance as Delia Deetz, the overbearing stepmother, in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice (1988). It was on that set that O’Hara met her future husband, production designer Bo Welch, and decided to move to the United States.
The 1980s were essentially O’Hara’s transition from beloved Canadian TV comedian to internationally recognized film actress, setting the stage for Home Alone (1990) and everything that followed.
Several of the pictures are not of Catherine O'Hara.
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