Monday, February 02, 2026

Another "icon" bites the dust--an actress who few people outside of the business ever heard of, has died, and gets the Garbo/Hepburn treatment

By RM
sunday, february 1, 2026 at 2:04:00 p.m. est

Another "icon" bites the dust--an actress who few people outside of the business ever heard of, has died, and gets the Garbo/Hepburn treatment

Might as well post this gripe here: Catherine O'Hara, an actress I never heard of, died, and the news is being treated as if she were Garbo or Hepburn (big attention over at the Commie Film Board, including a headline banner with her photo-Barbara Rush didn't get that kind of treatment!)

Her big credits: SCTV (never watched it), Beetlejuice (saw it ages ago, made no great impression), Home Alone (which I HATED), and-this is what galls me-a TV series called-ready for this?-Schitt's Creek.

Something to be proud of?! I mean, she may well have been a good actress, but that list of titles doesn't impress me-and the last-mentioned is a real embarrassment. And the nyt is THRILLED to trumpet that in a headline!

Another "icon" bites the dust.

-RM



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the reaction to O'Hara's passing,by RM,that's a stark contrast to the Times adulation piece. She was far down on my radar screen as an actress,but being familiar with SOME of SCTV,I won't dismiss her completely. I don't remember any characters of hers,specifically,on SCTV--more the great impersonations by the men--which means,I agree with RM:

NOT an icon.


--GRA

AbolishTenure said...

In a game of "Dead or Canadian?", she has moved into the "both" column.

Here is an interview with Johnny Carson. (7 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkypSXXIeBA

SCTV was quite well done. SNL could have learned a thing or two from it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_City_Television

But as Carson said, it was put into bad time slots in the US. What little I saw of SCTV was a few minutes here and there coming home from 2nd shift or just before leaving for 3rd.

Here's the "Identical Cheese Hostesses" bit (under 1 minute), a parody of The Patty Duke Show theme.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTl4T5g6aWg

Anonymous said...

abc called her "iconic" today,in a movie called,"Best in Show" AND that Bill Gates "broke his silence" concerning Epstein.

The daily double.

Must be easy(and boring)to write newscopy these days.

Rinse and repeat,by inserting those two descriptors,into any story or person you're talking about.

--GRA