Catherine Ann O'Hara, Canadian-American actress. Biography

Two—time Emmy Award winner Catherine Ann O'Hara is a Canadian-American film and dubbing actress who played the mother of the main character in the Christmas films "Home Alone" and "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" by Kevin McCallister and voiced Grandma Frump in the English-language version of the animated film "The Addams Family." During her career, she played in at least 55 films and was remembered by the audience for her "absolute sincerity" and the so-called "visiting smile", which she often broadcast from the screens.

Early years of life

O'Hara was born into an Irish family who emigrated to Toronto on March 4, 1954. It is known that in addition to the future actress, three more children were raised in the family, some of whom, in particular Sister Mary, devoted their lives to art in one way or another.

The future actress began to show interest in acting during her school years — back then, while studying in high school, she preferred not to waste her time on celebrations that were organized on the occasion of graduation, preferring theatrical activities. Subsequently, the future multi-award winner graduated from a college institute and adult education center in her hometown called Burnhamthorpe, from where comedian Robin Duke, senior animator at the American Walt Disney animation studio Nick Ranieri and former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada George Smitherman also graduated.

One of the main principles of O'Hara's life, as she stated in an interview with reporters, is the awareness of the unity of the family, which has always been in the first place for her.

TV debut and first steps in voice acting

Catherine Ann O'Hara began appearing on television in 1974, when she was 20 years old. The dream of becoming an actress began to come true with participation in small fragments of projects such as the program "Wayne and Schuster", where she played the role of a waitress, the show Second City TV and the television series The Rimshots, also known as Custard Pie. At the beginning of her career, O'Hara is believed to have tried to adopt the features of stars such as Katharine Hepburn, Lucille Ball and Brooke Shields in her game. The directors who worked with her noted that her special feature was the lightness and spontaneity with which they offered to work, transforming her into a professional "highlight".

However, at that time, the aspiring actress also began to receive offers for voicing roles. This fascinated her greatly and she devoted herself almost entirely to working on animated films.

The first "Hollywood" projects: "Beetlejuice" and "Home Alone"

A decade later, in 1985, O'Hara agreed to participate in the thriller directed by Martin Scorsese "After Work," where she played the role of an ice cream truck driver named Gail, who provokes the persecution of the main character Paul Hackett.

Gradually, Catherine began to be noticed by more and more Hollywood producers, whose films made her more recognizable. So in 1988, she was involved in Tim Burton's Oscar-winning film Beetlejuice, where she played Delia Dietz. Two years later, O'Hara got on the set where Chris Columbus's iconic movie "Home Alone" was created — the role of Kate McCallister, Kevin's mom, brought the star worldwide fame.

In 2023, at the opening ceremony on the Hollywood Walk of Fame of a star named after the performer of the role of her on-screen child, McCauley Culkin, Catherine admitted that it was "Home Alone" and "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" (1992) that became her favorite projects.

Career in the early 2000s and participation in recent films

Since the beginning of the 21st century, O'Hara has returned to dubbing cartoons. She worked on "Chicken Chick," "The Forest Bros," "Monster in Paris," "Frankenweenie," and "The Addams Family."

The actress has a number of awards — she was awarded the Emmy Award (in 1982 and 2020) and the Screen Actors Guild Award (in 2021 — twice), at the same time she received the Golden Globe.

Personal life and family

The actress married production designer Bo Welsh in 1992. Two years later, the couple had their first child, who was named Matthew, and three years later, the second child, named Luke, was born in the family. Catherine O'Hara, being a devout Catholic, preferred not to expose her personal life and the lives of her relatives. She ran social media, where she posted photos.

TMZ reported on January 30 that 71-year-old Catherine Ann O'Hara had died. The cause of death of the actress is unknown. The news about this was taken hard by her colleagues — director Ron Howard offered condolences to the relatives of the actress, whom he called an amazing person who became "everything brilliant" every year. American actress Rita Wilson, commenting on the news, added that her colleague was sincere and conscientiously approached everything she had to do.

Catherine herself said about her work during her lifetime: "I'm attracted to characters who don't understand what they might look like from the outside, we're all really delusional, and I like that about us, about people, and I love playing it."

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