{"id":10364,"date":"2010-05-26T06:00:16","date_gmt":"2010-05-26T10:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=10364"},"modified":"2014-04-03T17:32:55","modified_gmt":"2014-04-03T21:32:55","slug":"catherine-ohara-more-than-kevins-mom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=10364","title":{"rendered":"Catherine O’Hara: More Than Kevin’s Mom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Hara1\"Last week on this site an article<\/a> examined the career of SCTV\u00a0regular-turned-movie dad Eugene Levy, so now let’s turn to a look at his distaff counterpart, a\u00a0gifted comic actress from the Great White North who’s also gone on to big-screen notoriety for a parental role, albeit one who was\u00a0a little more forgetful than Levy’s American Pie pop. A passing mention of a woman suddenly sitting up\u00a0in her airplane seat and yelling out “KEVIN!” should be enough for\u00a0filmgoers to know that I’m talking about Home Alone<\/a> mother Catherine O’Hara.<\/p>\n

A native of Toronto, Ontario, O’Hara was born in March, 1954. Her career in comedy began at age 20 when she joined the company of Toronto’s Second City Theatre, whose roster in the early ’70s included the likes of\u00a0Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin and\u00a0Gilda Radner. When Second City TV<\/a> began in 1976,\u00a0Catherine would be among the stage regulars making the jump to the small screen as a performer\/writer. Along with cutting impersonations of\u00a0 everyone from Katharine Hepburn and Meryl Streep to Tammy Faye Bakker and Brooke Shields, she also created such unforgettable characters as booze-loving\u00a0singer\/dancer Lola Heatherton (a send-up of Joey Heatherton), bawdy stand-up comedienne Dusty Towne (based on “party\u00a0record” favorite Rusty Warren), and clueless quiz show loser Margaret Meehan, who had a knack for prematurely pushing the buzzer and giving host Alex Trebek (Levy) the wrong answers to his unasked questions (“Cheese omelets, Alex?” “The Dewey Decimal System?”).<\/p>\n

After\u00a0debuting on the big screen with\u00a0small roles in a pair of 1980 features–the Anthony Perkins thriller Double Negative and a romantic comedy with Donald Sutherland and Suzanne Somers, Nothing Personal–O’Hara signed with SNL during its troubled 1981-82 incarnations, only to\u00a0back out without ever appearing\u00a0(She would get to host the show\u00a0twice in 1991-92, though).\u00a0She also\u00a0said goodbye to SCTV as a regular in 1982\u00a0to continue her film career. Her first key role came in director Martin Scorsese’s 1985 dark comedy After Hours<\/a>, in which she plays an ice cream truck driver who is among the parade of\u00a0 troubled–all right, certifiable–women that Manhattan office worker Griffin Dunne encounters during one wild night in Soho. The following year she was seen as a Washington Beltway gossip maven opposite\u00a0Streep and Jack Nicholson in Heartburn<\/a>.\u00a01988 would find O’Hara playing one of her most memorable “mom” roles as\u00a0would-be sculptor Delia Deetz, whose proto-Goth daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder) befriends the ghosts (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) haunting their new home, in Tim Burton’s supernatural romp Beetlejuice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Supporting turns in such films as Betsy’s Wedding<\/a> and Dick Tracy<\/a> followed, as did a voice role on the animated series The Completely Mental\u00a0Misadventures of Ed Grimley, as the\u00a0sexy neighbor of fellow SCTV alum Martin Short’s title character. 1990, however, was the year Catherine cemented herself in the pop culture consciousness when she was cast as Kate McCallister, the frazzled housewife who, in the midst of getting the family to the airport\u00a0for a Paris Christmas vacation, inadvertently\u00a0leaves eight-year-old son Kevin (Macaulay Culkin)\u00a0home alone.<\/p>\n

O’Hara had a rare lead role with Jeff Daniels\u00a0in the 1992 indie comedy There Goes the Neighborhood, but made a much bigger impression on audiences as the voice of Sally, the patchwork girlfriend\u00a0of Halloweentown hero and would-be Santa Jack Skellington, in Burton’s 1993 stop-motion Yuletide gem The Nightmare Before Christmas. Director\/co-writer Christopher Guest would sign Catherine to play\u00a0opposite Fred Willard as one-half of a\u00a0husband\/wife amateur thespian team\u00a0in his 1996 film\u00a0Waiting for Guffman<\/a>. Along with\u00a0Willard, SCTV colleague Eugene Levy, Michael McKean,\u00a0Parker Posey and other actors, O’Hara would become part of Guest’s gifted repertoire company–improvising much of their on-screen dialogue based on outlines and background info supplied by the filmmaker\u00a0and co-writer Levy–in the critically acclaimed “mockumentaries” Best in Show<\/a>, A Mighty Wind<\/a> (which, like Nightmare, gave her a chance to demonstrate her singing abilities) and For Your Consideration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In between her “Guest shots,” Catherine’s also worked in more mainstream fare (Wyatt Earp<\/a>, Orange County<\/a>); supplied voices for animated films (Chicken Little<\/a>, Monster House,<\/a> and\u00a0as one of the titular creatures in Where the Wild Things Are<\/a>); and made some memorable appearances for\u00a0HBO (Six Feet Under, Curb Your Enthusiasm and the movie Temple Grandin<\/a>). And next month you’ll be able to see O’Hara on the big screen in the Katherine Heigl-Ashton Kutcher action\/comedy Killers, in which she’ll play…of all things…Heigl’s\u00a0mother. At least she won’t have to worry about leaving her child behind this time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week on this site an article examined the career of SCTV\u00a0regular-turned-movie dad Eugene Levy, so now let’s turn to a look at his distaff counterpart, a\u00a0gifted comic actress from the Great White North who’s also gone on to big-screen…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":10446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[529],"tags":[1491],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-10364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scene-stealers","tag-character-actors"],"yoast_head":"\nCatherine O'Hara: More Than Kevin's Mom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Catherine O'Hara the Canadian actress from SCTV and roles in the movies Beetlejuice & Home Alone, her career is explored:\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=10364\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Catherine O'Hara: More Than Kevin's Mom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Catherine O'Hara the Canadian actress from SCTV and roles in the movies Beetlejuice & Home Alone, her career is explored:\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=10364\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"MovieFanFare\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Movies-Unlimited\/88679322377\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-05-26T10:00:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-04-03T21:32:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Hara1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"313\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gary Cahall\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gary Cahall\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=10364#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=10364\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Gary Cahall\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a2c2ea32cf8c017c11e8f3ff4821d480\"},\"headline\":\"Catherine O’Hara: More Than Kevin’s Mom\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-05-26T10:00:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-04-03T21:32:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=10364\"},\"wordCount\":764,\"commentCount\":2,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=10364#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2010\\\/05\\\/Hara1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Character Actors\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Scene Stealers\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=10364#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=10364\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=10364\",\"name\":\"Catherine O'Hara: More Than Kevin's Mom\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=10364#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=10364#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2010\\\/05\\\/Hara1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-05-26T10:00:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-04-03T21:32:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a2c2ea32cf8c017c11e8f3ff4821d480\"},\"description\":\"Catherine O'Hara the Canadian actress from SCTV and roles in the movies Beetlejuice & Home Alone, her career is explored:\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=10364#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=10364\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=10364#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2010\\\/05\\\/Hara1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2010\\\/05\\\/Hara1.jpg\",\"width\":350,\"height\":313},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=10364#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Catherine O’Hara: More Than Kevin’s Mom\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"MovieFanFare\",\"description\":\"Movie Articles, Movie Reviews, New DVD Releases\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a2c2ea32cf8c017c11e8f3ff4821d480\",\"name\":\"Gary Cahall\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a8404c32999bab24e48881263dd2494bae924f4ea8ea72c0ba427fb1b369cd4a?s=96&d=mm&r=g5143b3427c8003c3e81a9804e133cb59\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a8404c32999bab24e48881263dd2494bae924f4ea8ea72c0ba427fb1b369cd4a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a8404c32999bab24e48881263dd2494bae924f4ea8ea72c0ba427fb1b369cd4a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gary Cahall\"},\"description\":\"Trapped in a world he never made...Movies Unlimited...since 1982, Gary's knack for mocking customers' tastes in films quickly moved him from the rental counter to the catalog department, where he still serves as co-writer\\\/editor, playing by his own rules in a deadly game of cat and mouse. A lifelong fan of Alfred Hitchcock, the Marx Brothers and Three Stooges, Universal and Hammer horror films, and all things dinosaur- and superhero-related, his 2001 bantering with Regis Philbin pops up now and again on GSN. Gary's not ashamed to admit he cried at the end of Titanic, after realizing he had just wasted three hours of his life.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\"],\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com?author_name\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Catherine O'Hara: More Than Kevin's Mom","description":"Catherine O'Hara the Canadian actress from SCTV and roles in the movies Beetlejuice & Home Alone, her career is explored:","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=10364","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Catherine O'Hara: More Than Kevin's Mom","og_description":"Catherine O'Hara the Canadian actress from SCTV and roles in the movies Beetlejuice & Home Alone, her career is explored:","og_url":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=10364","og_site_name":"MovieFanFare","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Movies-Unlimited\/88679322377","article_published_time":"2010-05-26T10:00:16+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-04-03T21:32:55+00:00","og_image":[{"width":350,"height":313,"url":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Hara1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Gary Cahall","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Gary Cahall","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=10364#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=10364"},"author":{"name":"Gary Cahall","@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a2c2ea32cf8c017c11e8f3ff4821d480"},"headline":"Catherine O’Hara: More Than Kevin’s Mom","datePublished":"2010-05-26T10:00:16+00:00","dateModified":"2014-04-03T21:32:55+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=10364"},"wordCount":764,"commentCount":2,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=10364#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Hara1.jpg","keywords":["Character Actors"],"articleSection":["Scene Stealers"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=10364#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=10364","url":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=10364","name":"Catherine O'Hara: More Than Kevin's Mom","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=10364#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=10364#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Hara1.jpg","datePublished":"2010-05-26T10:00:16+00:00","dateModified":"2014-04-03T21:32:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a2c2ea32cf8c017c11e8f3ff4821d480"},"description":"Catherine O'Hara the Canadian actress from SCTV and roles in the movies Beetlejuice & Home Alone, her career is explored:","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=10364#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=10364"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=10364#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Hara1.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Hara1.jpg","width":350,"height":313},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=10364#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Catherine O’Hara: More Than Kevin’s Mom"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/","name":"MovieFanFare","description":"Movie Articles, Movie Reviews, New DVD Releases","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a2c2ea32cf8c017c11e8f3ff4821d480","name":"Gary Cahall","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8404c32999bab24e48881263dd2494bae924f4ea8ea72c0ba427fb1b369cd4a?s=96&d=mm&r=g5143b3427c8003c3e81a9804e133cb59","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8404c32999bab24e48881263dd2494bae924f4ea8ea72c0ba427fb1b369cd4a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8404c32999bab24e48881263dd2494bae924f4ea8ea72c0ba427fb1b369cd4a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Gary Cahall"},"description":"Trapped in a world he never made...Movies Unlimited...since 1982, Gary's knack for mocking customers' tastes in films quickly moved him from the rental counter to the catalog department, where he still serves as co-writer\/editor, playing by his own rules in a deadly game of cat and mouse. A lifelong fan of Alfred Hitchcock, the Marx Brothers and Three Stooges, Universal and Hammer horror films, and all things dinosaur- and superhero-related, his 2001 bantering with Regis Philbin pops up now and again on GSN. Gary's not ashamed to admit he cried at the end of Titanic, after realizing he had just wasted three hours of his life.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com"],"url":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com?author_name"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10364"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=10364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}