While Catherine O’Hara is best known for her iconic roles on beloved films and TV shows like Home Alone, Best in Show, Schitt’s Creek and Beetlejuice, the late actress was also a former Saturday Night Live cast member — for a week, that is.
“I got asked to be on Saturday Night Live. And of course I said yes,” O’Hara told People back in 2024 of her short-lived time on the sixth season of the hit sketch comedy show. “Who doesn’t want to do that?”
At the time, O’Hara was also a cast member on the hit Canadian comedy sketch show SCTV. When she was offered a spot on SNL in the early 1980s, SCTV wasn’t consistently airing.
“Our producer would get a deal with a network, and we’d have a show for a season or two, and then the deal would go away,” O’Hara explained to the outlet at the time. “There’d be a break, then we’d do the show again.”
‘SNL’ Pays Tribute to Catherine O'Hara After Death at 71
After a week at SNL, SCTV started up again, so O’Hara left the famed show in New York City without ever filming a single live episode.
“Basically I said, ‘Oh, sorry, I gotta go be with my [comedy] family,’” O’Hara recalled of her decision to leave SNL. “Yeah, not cool to take a job and leave it. You know what I mean? It all worked out the way it was supposed to.”
O’Hara did eventually host Saturday Night Live on two occasions, first in April 1991 and then again on Halloween night in 1992.
On Saturday, January 31, SNL paid tribute to the former cast member and host after news broke on Friday, January 30, that O’Hara had died following a brief illness and hospitalization. She was 71.
Catherine O’Hara Getty Images“Prolific multi-award-winning actress, writer and comedian Catherine O’Hara died today at her home in Los Angeles following a brief illness,” O’Hara’s agency, Creative Artists Agency, said in a statement shared with Us at the time, confirming the actress’ death. “A private celebration of life will be held by the family.”
A Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson later confirmed to Us that paramedics were called to the actress’ Brentwood home at 4:48 a.m. Friday morning for a medical aid call. O’Hara was transported in “serious condition” to the hospital. An official cause of death has yet to be released.
Shortly after news broke, fans and former costars of the famed actress took to social media to express their sadness and condolences in the wake of her death.
“Catherine O’Hara and I met when she was 18 years of age,” Martin Short said while on stage at the Bass Concert Hall in Austin, Texas, on Friday as he and his comedy partner Steve Martin raised a glass in the late Home Alone star’s honor.
Catherine O'Hara Said She Felt 'Lucky’ to Be Alive 2 Years Before Her Death
“And all these years later, she has been the greatest, most brilliant, kindest, sweetest angel that any of us worked with,” Short added, per footage shared via TikTok. As the crowd reportedly reacted with applause, Short said, “God bless.”
Short worked with O’Hara at Toronto’s Second City improv theater in the 1970s, with O’Hara joining in 1975 after the late Gilda Radner departed the group to appear on Saturday Night Live, and Short joining in 1977.
Martin and O’Hara worked alongside one another on NBC’s The New Show, created by Lorne Michaels in 1984 during his time away from Saturday Night Live. The pair later costarred in the 1994 comedy-drama A Simple Twist of Fate. O’Hara’s surviving husband, Bo Welch, also worked with Martin on 1991’s Grand Canyon.
O’Hara and Welch shared two sons, Matthew and Luke.
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