Mourning the death of an entertainer is inherently selfish. 

As much as we leap to social media to shout, “The hell with you, 2026,” and express our admiration (as much as the character limit allows), what we’re really upset about is all the great stuff the recently deceased won’t be able to give us.

Catherine O’Hara, who died unexpectedly Jan. 30 at age 71, gave us nothing but great stuff for about five decades. And one of the lousiest things about the comic legend’s passing is that she was giving us some of her greatest stuff right up until the end. 

Here’s a too-short sampling of some of O’Hara’s best.

‘SCTV’ (1976-1984)

Alongside a murderers’ row of Canadian comic greatness (Rick Moranis, Martin Short, Portland’s own Andrea Martin, John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Dave Thomas, and her lifelong pal and comic partner Eugene Levy), O’Hara redefined sketch comedy. As the more-popular “Saturday Night Live” marched on south of the border, the gang at “SCTV” examined the sketch form, turned it ambitiously sideways, and peopled the show’s fictional town of Melonville with side-splitting weirdos, none more boisterously and hilariously than the ridiculously versatile O’Hara. (O’Hara was lured to join “SNL” in 1980 but fled back to Canada before the season started, which is a whole other story.) As if to cement “SCTV”’s singular, overlooked brilliance, the groundbreaking series is currently not available to watch anywhere. (I did my O’Hara tribute thanks to my precious DVD collection.)

‘After Hours’ (1985)

No less than directing icon Martin Scorsese recognized O’Hara’s talent when he cast her in a small but pivotal role in his darker-than-dark NYC comedy. As one of the mysterious women Griffin Dunne’s weaselly protagonist encounters as he vainly attempts to flee a hellish night in Soho, O’Hara twinkles with possible danger, her wary promise to assist this rumpled stranger evaporating in a fascinating mix of prankishness and implied malice. Scorsese needed a guaranteed scene-thief, and O’Hara swiped this underrated black comic gem.

‘Heartburn’ (1986)

Speaking of stealing, there’s talent overflowing from this fictionalized film version of screenwriter Nora Ephron’s book about divorce from journalist Carl Bernstein. Apart from Ephron, Mike Nichols directed Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson as the quipping couple, but it was once more O’Hara who sparked the sour flick alive in a small role as the D.C. gossip columnist whose delighted tales of the indiscretions of the rich and famous is far more entertaining than the mismatched and chemistry-deficient leads. Like all truly great sketch actors, Catherine O’Hara could bring a character to vivid life in an instant. 

‘Beetlejuice’ (1988)

Of course, we’ve all seen Tim Burton’s ghoulish comedy about Michael Keaton’s demon wreaking hilarious havoc. But I can still recite O’Hara’s spoiled art poseur Delia Dietz’s staccato ultimatum to her meek husband (“If you don’t let me gut out this house and make it my own, I will go insane and I will take you with me!”) in a worshipful approximation of O’Hara’s wild-eyed maniacal delivery as much as any of Keaton’s wonderfully hammy antics. 

‘Home Alone’ (1990)

Nobody came to this surprise smash hit for the parents, but there was Catherine, her dogged (if undeniably careless) mother’s globe-hopping quest to make it back to her accidentally abandoned moppet, plugging away with all she had. Whether berating a ticket agent with not-to-be-thwarted mom-rage or playing off buddy John Candy in an improvised van ride, it was O’Hara elevating everything she appeared in, as usual.

‘A Mighty Wind’ (2003)

Naturally, this whole list could be nothing but O’Hara’s absurdly fruitful partnership with Christopher Guest. (See “Waiting for Guffman,” “Best in Show,” and — to a lesser extent — “For Your Consideration” if you haven’t already.) But O’Hara’s turn as one half of the once almost-popular singing duo Mitch and Mickey is perhaps her finest performance. The dully married, middle-aged Mickey circles a proposed reunion with the unstable Mitch (an equally amazing Eugene Levy) for a gala folk celebration, the couple’s former artistic and personal chemistry climaxing in an onstage moment even more achingly touching than the rest of the film is lovingly hilarious.

Co-star Michael McKean and wife Annette O’Toole won an Oscar for the long-ago lovers’ anthem “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow,” but Levy and O’Hara’s performances in Guest’s meticulously improvised comedy is what put the song over the top.  

‘Schitt’s Creek’ (2015-2020) 

Levy’s son Daniel created this irresistible series about an absurdly  rich family whose sudden poverty sends them to live in the oddball town dad Eugene once bought as a joke, giving his father and longtime surrogate aunt O’Hara one more outstanding doubles act.

As destitute former socialite and B-movie actress Moira Rose, O’Hara adopts an unidentifiably affected accent, Moira’s every line a virtual feast for a comic genius to munch on. As the sitcom progressed, the Roses grew, none more than the seemingly frivolous Moira, O’Hara somehow imbuing one of her broadest characterizations with oceans of uproarious depth. 

‘The Studio’ (2025)

The stunned reactions of coworkers on this stellar TV satire of the movie biz to O’Hara’s shocking death all echoed my own. (Plus, her “Home Alone” son Macauley Culkin addressed his sorrowful message to “Mom,” which made me tear up.) O’Hara, playing ousted movie head Patty Leigh with her customary melange of comic desperation and hard-headed wisdom, jolts her scenes by sheer virtue of presence and peerless timing.

Her Hollywood lifer is integral to co-creator Seth Rogen’s take on a ludicrous business they’ve both toiled in for so long, and it’s tough to see how the show proceeds without her. O’Hara’s unmatched ability to carry belly laughs in one hand and secret soul in the other (also evident in a very different role in HBO’s “The Last of Us”) is an indication that this once-in-a-lifetime comic force was just getting warmed up. 

Dennis Perkins is a freelance writer who lives in Auburn with his wife and his cat.