Catherine O'Hara

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Catherine O'Hara
Born	March 4, 1954 (age 53) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Spouse(s)	Bo Welch
Notable roles	Various in SCTV (1976–79, 1981–82) Delia Deetz in Beetlejuice (1988) Kate McCallister in Home Alone (1990) Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) Sally in The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) Cookie Fleck in Best in Show (2000) Marilyn Hack in For Your Consideration (2006) Voice roles: Over the Hedge (2006) Chicken Little (2005) Brother Bear 2 (2006)

Catherine O'Hara (born March 4, 1954) is a Canadian actress and comedian. She is well known for her appearances in many roles on the TV series SCTV, as well as for her film roles as Delia Deetz in Beetlejuice (1988), Kate McCallister in the first two Home Alone films, Sally in The Nightmare Before Christmas and her various roles in the films of Christopher Guest. She also provides voiceover in Over the Hedge, Chicken Little and Brother Bear 2.

Contents 1 Career overview 2 Personal life 3 Selected Filmography 4 Footnotes 5 External links

[edit] Career overview

She started her acting career in 1974 as a cast member of The Second City in Toronto. In 1976, this theatre troupe created the television series SCTV, on which O'Hara became a regular performer. Memorable O'Hara characterizations on the show included Las Vegas scorcher Lola Heatherton, buzzer-happy game show contestant Margaret Meehan, raunchy nightclub comedian Dusty Towne, soap opera seductress Sue Ellen and stage actress Sue Bopper Simpson.

In the late 1970s, she did various voice-overs for a number of cartoons, which would continue throughout her career. She was hired to replace Ann Risley when Saturday Night Live was being retooled in 1981 following Jean Doumanian's disastrous stint as executive producer. However, O'Hara quit the show without ever having made an appearance on it, primarily due to her shock after witnessing a long, loud diatribe by SNL writer Michael O'Donoghue. Her SNL position was then given to fellow Canadian Robin Duke, who had also replaced O'Hara for a season on SCTV.

Celebrities impersonated by O'Hara on SCTV include: Liv Ullmann, Katharine Hepburn, Diane Keaton, Joey Heatherton, Lola Falana, Elizabeth Taylor, Brooke Shields, Morgan Fairchild, Barbara Billingsley, Phyllis George, Charlotte Rampling, Monica Vitti, Jane Pauley, Rona Barrett, Tammy Faye Bakker, Angie Dickinson, Dorothy Kilgallen, Jessica Savitch, Linda Blair, Judith Crist, Rusty Warren, Gilda Radner, Joan Sutherland, Jane Fonda, Joan Embry and Candice Bergen.

She had a role in The Last of the High Kings as a staunch Irish nationalist in 1970s Dublin. In 2006, O'Hara starred in her fourth Christopher Guest film, For Your Consideration (following Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind).

[edit] Personal life

O'Hara was born and currently resides in Toronto, Ontario, but is a naturalized U.S. citizen.^[1] She is a third-generation Irish Canadian and Catholic.^[2] O'Hara married Bo Welch in 1992. They have two sons, born in 1994 and 1997. She is the sister of singer-songwriter Mary Margaret O'Hara, though she is a singer-songwriter in her own right, having written and performed songs in the 2003 film A Mighty Wind.

[edit] Selected Filmography

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

• Catherine O'Hara at the Internet Movie Database
• Catherine O'Hara at the Voice Chasers Database

Films by Christopher Guest and his frequent costars
Films: This Is Spinal Tap | Waiting for Guffman | Best in Show | A Mighty Wind | For Your Consideration
Actors: Bob Balaban | Paul Benedict | Ed Begley Jr. | Jennifer Coolidge | Paul Dooley | Christopher Guest | Rachael Harris | John Michael Higgins | Michael Hitchcock | Don Lake | Eugene Levy | Jane Lynch | Michael McKean | Larry Miller | Catherine O'Hara | Jim Piddock | Parker Posey | Harry Shearer | Deborah Theaker | Fred Willard | Scott Williamson