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Canadians are still grieving after the news of the death of Canadian actress and comedian Catherine O’Hara on Friday, aged 71.
The Toronto native began her career with improv theatre group The Second City, replacing Gilda Radner in the cast when Radner left for New York.
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Since then, she’s had a multitude of TV and film roles including Macaulay Culkin’s mom in Home Alone, Beetlejuice, Best in Show, and Schitt’s Creek.
While many across the nation are mourning her loss, some here on the Prairies are reflecting on a special connection to the comedy great.
Blaine Hart is a member of improv group Saskatoon Soaps and said that the news of O’Hara’s death had been a real shock.
“Everyone in our organization feels pretty devastated about it. She has been such a strength in Canadian comedy for so many years and so well known, and has done so many really amazing things,” he said.
Hart, along with others with Saskatoon Soaps, had the opportunity to work with the actress when she came to the city in January 1993.
He said O’Hara had many strengths but a few stuck out in particular.
“I think a lot of her qualities and strengths go back to improvisation, and having worked with her when she was here she was amazing and incredibly warm and giving,” he said.
“I think everyone who worked with her here felt just like they really got to know her in that very brief period of time, because she was so generous and kind and willing to try anything and work with us.
“I think that the strength of her comedy came from the fact that she brought so much from her herself and from her own life and experience to everything she did,” said Hart.
As for O’Hara’s most iconic performances, Hart said he couldn’t just name one.
“I’m sure a lot of people say the Home Alone movies, but for me, it was probably her work with Christopher Guest in the movies that he did.”
“Mighty Wind was one of them and Best in Show was another. In those in those two films, she worked with Eugene Levy very closely, and I don’t know if that made a difference to the impact of those performances on me, but there was something about the combination of the two of them working together as couples or as ex-couples, that really made an impact,” said Hart.
— with files from CKOM News
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