Catherine O’Hara’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice costar Justin Theroux has spoken out after her death.
“🕊️Oh Catherine. You will be so so missed,” Theroux, 54, wrote via Instagram, sharing a pic of O’Hara’s director’s chair.
Us Weekly confirmed earlier on Friday that O’Hara died at the age of 71.
“Prolific multi-award-winning actress, writer, and comedian Catherine O’Hara died today at her home in Los Angeles following a brief illness,” O’Hara’s agency, Creative Artists Agency, shared with Us in a statement. “A private celebration of life will be held by the family.”
O’Hara starred as Delia Deetz in 1988’s Beetlejuice and 2024’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. In the first Tim Burton film, Charles Deetz (Jeffrey Jones) and Delia Deetz (O’Hara) move into a haunted house with daughter Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder). Michael Keaton played the titular spirit, Beetlejuice.
O’Hara reprised her role in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, where Lydia’s teenage daughter, Astrid Deetz, (played by Jenna Ortega) discovered a portal to the afterlife before Keaton’s Beetlejuice gets summoned again. Theroux played Lydia’s boyfriend, Rory, in the sequel.
“[Tim Burton] told me that he wanted to get that feeling back from the set when he was still a new director, and there weren’t so many expectations,” O’Hara recalled of joining Beetlejuice Beetlejuice in a Parade interview published in September 2024. “Then, he asked, ‘If you have any ideas, let me know.’ I didn’t have any ideas, but then it all seemed to come together.”
She continued, “Tim says [the film is] about three generations of women. Now, that I’ve seen the movie, I agree.”
O’Hara also enjoyed making the sequel.
“It was fun! Tim was just so excited and enthusiastic about doing it, and that was infectious,” O’Hara told Parade at the time. “Everybody jumped in, and we kept saying, ‘Do you believe we’re doing this?’ And to see Michael’s face for the first time as Beetlejuice. Like, his character doesn’t have to age because he was always dead!”
According to O’Hara, “it was lovely to think about where” the OG characters were in 2024.
“[The sequel] worked out to be good timing because the people who first watched it are now at an age of nostalgia,” she said. “If it had been done earlier, it wouldn’t have been the same. So, I hope people are pleased with what we’ve done because it was a fun experience, but let expectations go. Pretend it’s your first time.”
Beetlejuice was also the start of her love story with husband Bo, a production designer who worked on the original film.
“It’s a lovely memory. My husband and I love to laugh,” she told the outlet. “We’d laugh 50 times a day if we could. Even when we have a fight, we’ll somehow say something to make fun of the other person, so you just have to laugh at the ridiculousness of us.”
In addition to Welch, O’Hara is survived by sons Matthew and Luke, who inherited their parents’ humor.
“Our kids are funny. They’re lovely. They’re both in the art department. One of them does set construction and actual construction with a contractor,” she said, referring to Matthew. “He’s in L.A., and he’s learning to build things that actually have to stand the test of time, which is nice. [Luke] lives in Vancouver and is a set dresser. There’s a lot of work for him there.”
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