This TV/Movie Mom is 70 Today!

Happy 70th birthday to Catherine O’Hara! She is a Canadian and American actress who started her career in 1974 as a cast member of “The Second City” in her hometown of Toronto, Canada.

She has been in so many movies and TV shows over the years – 119 actress credits on IMDB! – but we have three favorites for sure!

#3 Beetlejuice!

O’Hara played Delia Deetz, the artist wife of Charles Deetz and stepmother to Lydia Deetz. They move from their home in the city to a house that is still occupied by the newly-deceased owners, the Maitlands.

#2 Home Alone & Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

O’Hara is Kate McCallister, the well-to-do mother of five who has very bad luck when it comes to vacationing with her family! She accidentally leaves her youngest son, Kevin, home alone during a Christmas trip to Paris. In the second movie, she loses track of Kevin at the airport and he ends up in New York City while the entire family flies to Florida! (Side note: Some of our favorite scenes in “Home Alone 2” are the ones she shares with John Candy, the polka-playing Good Samaritan who offers her a ride back to Chicago. John Candy died on O’Hara’s birthday in 1994 at the age of 43.) 

#1 Schitt’s Creek

We can’t leave O’Hara’s portrayal of Moira Rose off our list! Moira is a dramatic kind of wife and mother who used to be an actress, and now finds herself poor and living in a small-town motel.

Happy birthday, Catherine O’Hara! Enjoy this now-classic movie clip to celebrate!