Catherine O'Hara's Most Iconic Roles Revisited After Her Death at 71: From Kate in 'Home Alone' to Delia in 'Beetlejuice'

Catherine O'Hara's iconic roles will live on after her death on January 30.

Among the characters she played, O'Hara showcased her razor-sharp comedic instincts as Marty Funkhouser's sister, Bam Bam, on Curb Your Enthusiasm. The hit sitcom ended with its twelfth and final season in 2024.

Released in 2000, the dog show comedy Best in Show featured O'Hara as Cookie Fleck, showing her hilariously unpredictable side with her jaw-dropping improvs and punchlines.

The Christopher Guest-directed mockumentary comedy film also starred Guest himself alongside Eugene Levy, Jennifer Coolidge, Jane Lynch, Michael McKean, John Michael Higgins, Michael Hitchcock and Parker Posey.

In one of her collaborations with Tim Burton, O'Hara was tapped to play Delia Deetz in Beetlejuice — a role she reprised in the 2024 sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

The project revealed her brilliantly chaotic edge, but she surprised her fans even more when she revealed Burton kept calling her to audition and meet him.

"I flew to L.A. from Toronto, and I rented a car. The address was in Burbank. I drove for hours. I thought, 'What kind of director is this far from show business?' I was so late. I got lost. There was no cell phone. I had to pull over somewhere and find a phone booth and phone my agent," she recalled. "I finally, two hours late, got back to Burbank. There was a note on the door from Tim Burton. It said, 'I'm sorry. I waited as long as I could.' I go back home to Toronto. A few weeks later they offer me the part."

O'Hara had a smaller role in Martin Scorsese's After Hours, playing the underrated character Gail. As a fan of SCTV, the filmmaker still highlighted her delightfully unhinged persona in the 1985 flick.

"I remember really being pumped up by Scorsese. He'd go, 'Who's this little f-----? You're the one helping him!'" she said, referring to Griffin Dunne's Paul Hackett. "He made it clear my job was to make Griffin's character's life h---. It's fun when you're given license to be bad."

O'Hara had a scene-stealing turn on The Last of Us as Gail Lynden, particularly in the episode in which her character learned about Eugene's death.

"I'm glad they didn't use so much of the crying," she told Vulture. "I was crying all day long. It was very emotionally and mentally taxing, and I just wanted to do a good job. You give it your all every take. It is a very sad scene, but it was a fun process."

In her career-defining project, O'Hara portrayed Kate McCallister in Home Alone. Three decades after the holiday classic was released, her piercing wail of "Kevin!" remains one of her most iconic lines in the film.

For her part, O'Hara admitted to struggling with the scene in which her character forced Macaulay Culkin's Kevin to sleep in the attic.

"The scene where I had to drag him upstairs to sleep in the attic 'cause he'd misbehaved, he's mouthing off about the family and I say, 'Well, you'd be pretty sad if you woke up tomorrow morning and you had no family,' and he says, 'No, I wouldn't.' And I was supposed to say, 'Then say it again – maybe it'll happen.' I can't tell you how much that killed me," she shared.

From her formidable comic persona to her remarkable accent, O'Hara truly left an indelible mark when she played Moira Rose in the hit comedy series Schitt's Creek. She scored six Canadian Screen Awards for her portrayal, on top of other wins and nominations from other award-giving bodies.

"You have to work with lovely, smart, talented people who allow you to sound like an alien," she gushed about her costars in an interview with Variety. "Just to have creative freedom is — I don't expect to have it with other people. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to have done this with Eugene and Daniel [Levy]."

Before her death, O'Hara appeared in Apple TV+'s The Studio as Patty Leigh, a powerful Hollywood executive reportedly based on producer Amy Pascal.

"I don't know Amy Pascal personally, and I did not really go into researching too much about her because I just didn't want to be accused of playing anyone in particular. But if you talk to Seth and Evan, who wrote the script, they might have someone in mind," she told IndieWire.

According to reports, O'Hara missed the early filming of The Studio Season 2 due to "personal matters." A source said it was "not widely known she was dealing with any health or major issues."

However, on January 30, her manager confirmed she died at the age of 71 following a "brief illness."

Even O'Hara's voice was enough to conquer Hollywood.

In Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, she delivered an unforgettable voice performance as the ragdoll-like deuteragonist Sally.

"I like voicing characters for films and television. It's challenging but fun," she told Live for Films in 2018. "Recording 'Sally's Song' was intimidating — that song is beautiful and difficult to sing — but it's been even more thrilling to sing the song live onstage with an orchestra while the audience watches the film."

She also breathed life into Shock by providing the voice of one of the three mischievous trick-or-treaters in the Gothic tale.

In the Guest-directed mockumentary Waiting for Guffman, O'Hara emerged as Sheila Albertson. With the actress' lovely portrayal, Sheila stood out as both attractive and menacing amid her journey as an amateur musical theater performer and a travel agent.