Like many women ‘of a certain age’ I am both saddened and shocked by the death of Catherine O’Hara, aged 71 following a ‘brief illness’. The actor played the unforgettably eccentric matriarch, ‘Moira Rose’ in the Canadian comedy series Schitt’s Creek, one of the biggest hits of the Covid lockdown.
O’Hara leaves a huge comedy legacy built upon a lifetime of experience. She rose to fame through Toronto’s Second City improvisation troupe and on Second City Television (SCTV), before making a name for herself in the US with the 1988 classic movies Beetlejuice and Home Alone. She most recently appeared in the Emmy-winning comedy The Studio and HBO’s The Last of Us.
The Toronto-born actress got her foot in the door as a waitress at the Toronto Second City theatre franchise in the 1970s, before auditioning for a role with the famed acting troupe. She further developed her comedic chops after joining the cast of sketch comedy show SCTV – one of the most successful Canadian television programmes ever – alongside the likes of Eugene Levy and the late John Candy.
She has credited her Canadian roots with helping develop her sense of humour – will vouch for this as I’ve been married to one of her fellow countrymen for many years. It’s in their DNA as exemplified by the characters depicted in the Canadian made series, Schitt’s Creek.
The fish-out-of-water comedy show followed the wealthy Rose family as they abruptly lose their money and mansion and are forced to move into a shabby motel in a deadbeat town they bought as a joke. O’Hara’s character ‘Moira Rose’ stole the show with her outlandish fashion sense and brilliant one-liners.
Upon winning the Emmy Award for actress in a comedy, she thanked father and son writers and co-stars, Eugene and Dan Levy, for giving her the opportunity to play “a woman of a certain age – my age – who gets to fully be her ridiculous self”.
O’Hara continued working until very close to her death, playing a therapist in HBO’s sci-fi drama The Last of Us and as an ousted movie executive in Seth Rogen’s The Studio just last year.
In The Studio, she embodied ‘Patty Leigh’, a studio boss replaced by Rogen’s character, who pursues more creative roles as a film producer and makes her way to the Golden Globes.
O’Hara won a Golden Globe for best actress in 2021 for her role in Schitt’s Creek and was nominated for her role in The Studio at this year’s awards. She is also nominated at the Actor Awards (formerly the Screen Actors Guild Awards) for her role as ‘Patty’ – which takes place in March.
Catherine O’Hara leaves a huge comedic legacy, forever immortalised by the character ‘Moira Rose’. I’m putting a call out to my contemporaries of a certain age to ‘be more Moira’ in her honour.
