Exploring Catherine O’Hara’s Catholic roots

Catholic faith was not part of comedian Catherine O’Hara’s public-facing work and personality.

She didn’t mine that part of her life for laughs, focusing instead on developing her signature oddballs, described by comedy writer Merrill Markoe, an admirer, as “deeply disturbed female characters, many of whom had been somehow mangled by show business.”

In the wake of the Canadian actress’ death in Los Angeles at age 71 on Jan. 30, generous and loving tributes to her work piled up and many were inspired to explore the roots of her talent. If nothing else, her Catholic background, O’Hara indicated, gave her empathy.

Among O’Hara’s more memorable turns were her performances in a series of mockumentaries directed by Chrisopher Guest. They included “Waiting for Guffman” (1996), 2000’s “Best in Show,” “A Mighty Wind” (2003) and “For Your Consideration” (2006).

Though in a different key, O’Hara’s appearances as iconic suburban mom Kate McCallister in Chris Columbus’ immensely popular 1990 comedy “Home Alone” and its 1992 first sequel also made a lasting impact. So, too, did her portrayal of artist Delia Deetz in Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice” (1988).

To these big-screen credits, O’Hara later added a six-season run on the celebrated TV series “Schitt’s Creek,” which first aired in 2015. On the show, O’Hara played Moira Rose, a deliriously pompous ex-soap opera star. Her work in the role gained her both an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe.

It was on the small screen that O’Hara had first gained a wide following as a cast member of the sketch series Second City Television. The program, which debuted in 1976, featured actors from the Canadian Second City comedy troupe and ran weekly in a late-night time slot on NBC beginning in 1981.

SCTV, as it became known, turned virtually all of its ensemble cast, including fellow Catholics John Candy and Martin Short, into cult figures.

In 1983, shortly before SCTV left the air, O’Hara gave an interview to Rolling Stone magazine. Conducted in her hometown of Toronto, the exchange seems to have been the only occasion on which she directly and publicly addressed the topic of faith.

As the second youngest of seven children, she said she was close to her family, especially to Mary Margaret, her next-oldest sister, who became a musician and actress.

“I’m pretty much a good Catholic girl at heart,” she observed. “And I believe in family. I also have a basic belief that God takes care of me. I believe in prayer, even though I’m not that religious. I just have that foundation from my family. I mean when you think that you’re just a human being and one of God’s creatures, you can’t take anything that seriously.”

Born March 4, 1954, O’Hara attended Catholic schools in Toronto through eighth grade before enrolling in a public high school. “They put on musicals,” she remembered. “I went to see ‘The Music Man’ there, and I thought, ‘Wow! Great! A musical!’ Besides, there were boys in public school. There were a lot of motivating factors.”

On a 2024 installment of the podcast “Wiser Than Me,” with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, O’Hara recalled her first role on stage: the Virgin Mary in a grade-school Nativity play. She also said of her parents, they “were devout Catholics” who would not forget their sense of humor.

In 1992, O’Hara married production designer Bo Welch, whom she had met during the filming of “Beetlejuice.” Burton’s wedding gift to the couple was a private tour of the Vatican. As O’Hara recounted to Louis-Dreyfus during their talk, this led to an unexpected incident.

Their tour guide, whom O’Hara described as “a lovely priest or cardinal,” though O’Hara did not give his name, took the duo “all around the Vatican, including, I swear, the pope’s closet.” This amenity O’Hara characterized as “small.” The visit ended abruptly when another priest admonished their wayward docent.

One of O’Hara’s best-remembered SCTV segments, in which her loud, volatile and clueless entertainer Lola Heatherton meets St. Teresa of Kolkata, has lost none of its audaciousness over the subsequent four-and-a-half decades.

Lola (the name was a portmanteau of Lola Falana and Joey Heatherton, gaudy Las Vegas performers of the 1960s and 1970s), is promoting her new series of TV specials, “Way to Go, Woman!” Over the course of them, she announces, she’ll interview — “and totally involve myself” in the lives of — “the five most influential women of our time.”

These turn out to be “Dallas” actress Charlene Tilton, comedian Lily Tomlin, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Margaret Trudeau, the first lady of Canada at the time, and Mother Teresa. Clad in a sequined version of a Missionaries of Charity habit, Lola watches the future saint care for an undernourished child.

“What do you get out of this?” she asks. Mother Teresa calmly replies, “I am happy they are strong.”

Lola is incredulous. “Don’t you feel like sometimes saying ‘Oh, get it together! Will you stop coming to me for all the answers?'”

Mother Teresa is unfazed. “You’ve had a long trip. Would you like to rest for a while?”

Instead, the skit cuts to Lola performing an absurdly inappropriate portion of Steve Miller’s 1973 song “The Joker.” Later, pleased by her interviewee’s affirmative attitude toward her but characteristically unable to express herself in a normal way, Lola declares, “Oh, Mommy Teresa! You’re so special, it’s scary!”

No damage is done, and Lola returns to her insular ignorance.

In addition to her husband, O’Hara is survived by sons Matthew and Luke.

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