A Catherine O’Hara character was always going to get what she wanted — or was at least going to try. A fantastically gifted comedic performer, O’Hara, who died on Friday at age 71, had a knack for playing women in dogged pursuit of their goals, whether that meant getting home to her son in “Home Alone” or winning a title for her prized terrier in “Best in Show.”
A member of the 1970s and ’80s Canadian sketch show “SCTV,” O’Hara was known for her transformations. She excelled in wacky wigs and could pronounce words in strange and wonderful ways. Her face seemed almost elastic, her limbs like rubber. But for all the silliness, one always got the sense that O’Hara loved these often delusional goofballs and was rooting for them to succeed. As her audience, you wanted that as well.
Here’s where to stream some of her most memorable films and shows.
‘SCTV’ (1976-84)
Before Hollywood came calling, O’Hara made a splash in her native Canada on the sketch show “SCTV,” produced by the Toronto branch of Chicago’s Second City improv comedy club. The series, which eventually made its way stateside (first on NBC, then on Cinemax), became known as a breeding ground for talent to rival “Saturday Night Live,” featuring a cast that included Andrea Martin, John Candy and Eugene Levy. O’Hara did impressions of Katharine Hepburn and Brooke Shields, portraying the latter as a distracted and ditzy teenager. (In an interview with Vulture she said she modeled her impressions after Martin Short’s.) One of her most popular characters was the shimmying showgirl Lola Heatherton, who was of questionable talent.
Stream it on YouTube.
‘After Hours’ (1985)
One of O’Hara’s first major screen appearances came in Martin Scorsese’s “After Hours,” about a yuppie, Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne), on a late-night odyssey through gritty SoHo. Scorsese was an early fan of O’Hara’s from “SCTV.” She once told Parade that he ripped out a page of his passport during their first meeting in Toronto, in order to give her his number. O’Hara pops up late in the movie as Gail, a Mister Softee truck driver. At first, it appears as if she might come to Paul’s aid, but she quickly reveals herself to be a creature of mischief. As Gail, O’Hara’s eyes burn with what seems at first like seduction but ultimately reveals itself to be pure chaos.
Rent or buy it on Amazon, Apple TV and Fandango at Home.
‘Beetlejuice’ (1988) and ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ (2024)
Delia Deetz, in other hands, could have been just another variation on the evil stepmother cliché. As played by O’Hara, in “Beetlejuice,” she is something far more fabulous: an artist who is just as out of place in suburbia as her miserable stepdaughter, Lydia (Winona Ryder). Delia’s sculptural creations might be monstrous and her taste in home décor hideous, but she is utterly convinced she is a genius. Thirty-six years later, in the sequel, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” time has not stopped Delia from making ugly art or being obsessively self-centered. Still, O’Hara turns out a performance that is slyly moving as she grapples with Delia’s grief over the death of her husband and bonds with Lydia over the pains of raising a troublesome teen.
Rent or buy “Beetlejuice” on Amazon, Apple TV and Fandango at Home.
Stream “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” on HBO Max.
‘Home Alone’ (1990) and ‘Home Alone 2: Lost in New York’ (1992)
If there’s a role that O’Hara is best known for, it is perhaps Kate McCallister, the mother who forgets her son Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) during a holiday trip to Paris in “Home Alone,” written by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. While Kevin is back in Chicagoland, setting out booby traps for bandits, Kate is battling airport bureaucracy to get back home to him, growing increasingly frazzled in the process. O’Hara’s determination is of course funny. But it is also a little heartbreaking to watch Kate doubt herself as a mother. That is especially clear in the absurd but sweet sequence in which she bonds with the Polka King of the Midwest, played by Candy. In “Home Alone 2,” she gets to do it all over again while Kevin is left in New York.
Stream “Home Alone” on Disney+.
Stream ‘Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” on Disney+.
‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ (1993)
For someone who was not known primarily as a vocalist, a surprising amount of O’Hara’s work involved singing. The animated film “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” directed by Henry Selick and based on a story by Tim Burton, features her loveliest vocal performance. In the film, which has become a hallmark for emo kids of multiple generations, she voices Sally, a big-eyed rag doll, who pines for the protagonist, Jack Skellington. Her ballad “Sally’s Song” is full of romantic yearning, with a haunting lilt. After all, this is a twisted story about the attempt to bring Christmas to Halloween Town.
Stream it on Disney+.
The Mockumentaries of Christopher Guest
No one understood O’Hara’s range better than Christopher Guest, who used her as a key player in his acclaimed mockumentaries, starting with “Waiting for Guffman” (1997), about a community theater production that aspires to greatness. O’Hara and Fred Willard played the veteran members of the company, who think of themselves as acting professionals despite understanding very little about the business. Their precisely rehearsed rendition of “Midnight at the Oasis,” in which O’Hara contorts her usually lovely voice to a squawk, is a highlight.
Guest often relied on O’Hara to anchor the emotional beats of his stories. In “Best in Show” (2000), she plays the brashly sexual Norwich terrier owner and handler Cookie Fleck, who with her nerdy husband, Gerry (Levy), keeps running into former flings. After Cookie trips and hurts her knee (her hobbled walk is physical comedy at its best), she is forced to cheer from the sideline for Gerry — who literally has two left feet — and the earnestness of her love shines through. She and Levy are paired again in “A Mighty Wind” (2003) as a reunited folk duo, whose chemistry is palpable despite the tumult in their past.
Sometimes the dreams of these women are out of reach — as in “For Your Consideration” (2006), in which she plays an actress who thinks herself an Oscar contender — but O’Hara plays all of them as women who know their worth.
Rent “Waiting for Guffman” on Amazon, Apple TV and Fandango at Home.
Rent “Best in Show” on Amazon, Apple TV and Fandango at Home.
Rent “A Mighty Wind” on Amazon, Apple TV and Fandango at Home.
Rent “For Your Consideration” on Amazon, Apple TV and Fandango at Home.
‘Schitt’s Creek’ (2015-2020)
O’Hara received the most accolades of her career, including a lead actress Emmy, for this small Canadian series from Levy and his son, Dan, about a wealthy family that loses all of its money and has to move to a rural town. As the matriarch, Moira Rose, O’Hara refuses to give up her dignity or her wigs. Moira lives in her own world, where her favorite season is “awards,” but there was always a sense she was doing her best with what she had. A perfect example? Her brilliant ad for “fruit wine,” O’Hara’s own Vitameatavegamin.
Stream it on Amazon, Disney+ and Hulu.
‘The Last of Us’ (2025)
Although O’Hara’s career consisted largely of comedies, she could also be a fascinatingly disarming presence in a drama, as in her Emmy-nominated turn last year in HBO’s postapocalyptic series “The Last of Us.” She appears in Season 2 as a self-medicating therapist who counsels the surly protagonist Joel (Pedro Pascal). O’Hara brings a wryness to the part, but she leans just as hard into her character’s devastation.
Stream it on HBO Max.
‘The Studio’ (2025)
O’Hara earned another Emmy nomination in 2025 for her role in Apple TV’s Hollywood satire “The Studio,” bringing a daffy desperation to the role of Patty Leigh, an ousted studio head attempting to reinvent herself as a producer. Although O’Hara was in many ways the elder stateswoman of the cast, she was an integral part of the gags, choking back vomit on the stage of the Golden Globes and running around Las Vegas trying to deal with intoxicated celebrities. Her Patty was a woman scorned by her workplace, who wasn’t going to let that kill her spirit. In other words, a classic O’Hara creation.
Stream it on Apple TV.
The post Where to Stream Catherine O’Hara’s Best Performances appeared first on New York Times.
