A dear friend texted me just minutes after I heard the news. “Oh, Emer, I’m so sorry about Catherine O’Hara.” She was offering it as a condolence, a recognition that I would be devastated upon learning of the death of this woman who meant so much to me.
Many people of a certain age, myself included, first fell for O’Hara in her role as the feisty, frazzled, warm and beautiful matriarch of the McAllister household in the Home Alone movies. She filled so many iconic parts over the years, notably Delia Deetz in Beetlejuice and her many collaborations with Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy on mockumentaries like A Mighty Wind and Best in Show. Her greatest, most iconic role was…