It is only fitting to pay tribute to Catherine O’Hara during her favorite season: Awards!

On Friday, Jan. 30, O’Hara passed away at the age of 71. Her career spanned 50 years as an actress, comedian and screenwriter, during which she played iconic roles in beloved movies and television shows, including “Home Alone” and “Schitt’s Creek.”

Her career began on Canadian sketch comedy show “Second City Television,” which ran from 1976 to 1984, for which she won her first Emmy Award for Outstanding Writer for a Variety Series. O’Hara kept acting until her death. Most recently, she appeared in the TV shows “The Last of Us” and “The Studio,” securing Emmy nominations for both

   Throughout the 1980s, O’Hara began landing roles in notable films, such as “After Hours” and “Heartburn.” In 1988, O’Hara portrayed Delia Deetz in Tim Burton’s comedy-horror classic “Beetlejuice.” Delia is stepmother to Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), a depressed gothic teen still grieving the death of her mother. The Deetz family moves into the house of the recently deceased Maitland couple, who then, with the help of a psychotic demon, try to scare the family out of the house. Delia’s character longs for the life in the city that the Deetz’s have left behind, and O’Hara’s hilarious portrayal of her artsy coping mechanisms for isolation create a nice change of pace from the otherwise disconcerting plot of the movie.

   In the 2024 sequel “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” Delia is once again in distress, this time because of her husband’s passing. Even though some aspects of the sequel felt a little forced or untrue to the original characters, O’Hara returned to Delia’s shoes as if she had gone back to 1988. “Beetlejuice” also marked O’Hara’s first project with Burton, with whom she would do three more movies throughout her career.

   In the 1990s, O’Hara famously played Kevin’s (Macauley Culkin) mom in “Home Alone” and “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.” In both films, she plays the kind of mother everyone wants. She is a warm, powerful and brave woman who stops at nothing to get back to her son. In the sequel, in true mom fashion, she singlehandedly finds Kevin in one of the biggest cities in the world. The emotional final scenes of both movies depict the pair reuniting, ensuring that they won’t have to spend Christmas without each other.

   Following her passing, Culkin posted a touching tribute to his TV mom on Instagram saying, “Mama. I thought we had time … I love you. I’ll see you later.” The picture showed a side-by-side of Culkin and O’Hara, one from a still in “Home Alone” and the other from a more recent event, both grown up.

   Beyond her live-action roles, O’Hara has voiced many iconic characters in animated films throughout the years. Her most notable voice acting role was as Sally (and Shock) in Burton’s holiday classic “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (1993), which she did both the speaking and singing parts for. She also lent her voice to “Frankenweenie,” “Over the Hedge,” “Monster House” and “The Addams Family” (2019), just to name a few. 

   Another one of O’Hara’s most notable roles was her participation in popular sitcom “Schitt’s Creek” as the comedic character Moira Rose. With co-stars and show creators, Dan Levy and Eugene Levy, O’Hara morphed Moira into a catalyst of her own vision. Using Daphne Guiness as a fashion reference, along with a unique accent that O’Hara herself created, she perfected Moira’s character. Moira would not have been the eccentric and beautifully deep narcissistic character without O’Hara’s portrayal.

   After the announcement of O’Hara’s passing, Dan Levy recounted his time working with her in an Instagram post: “What a gift to have gotten to dance in the warm glow of O’Hara’s brilliance for all those years.”

   “Schitt’s Creek” will forever be a highlight of O’Hara’s successful career and of the way she perfectly delivered comedic lines. Thanks to her role in this show, she won the Emmy, Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice and SAG awards for Best Actress in a Comedy Series in 2020. O’Hara’s wigs, wit and wonderful portrayal of Moira will be remembered as authentic and irreplaceable.

   O’Hara will continue to be adored by those she worked with and those who watched her work. As “Schitt’s Creek” co-star Annie Murphy wrote on Instagram, “Gosh, were we ever lucky to have her.”