Catherine O’Hara played some of the funniest characters on film and TV – and her sister Mary Margaret O’Hara made one of the best debut albums ever recorded.

It’s an eternal irony that when a prominent artist dies, they’re not around to appreciate the sudden stampede to enjoy their work once again the moment the news has broken.

When I heard that Catherine O’Hara had left us, my initial thought was to binge Schitts Creek, not in tribute but simply because the show – and her ludicrous character Moira Rose in particular, had me in stitches for all 80 episodes.

It was either that or – by which I mean ‘and’ – re-watch her equally ludicrous character Cookie Fleck in my all-time funniest comedy film, Best In Show. And then her roles in Christopher Guest’s other mockumentaries: Waiting For Guffman, A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration.

Instead I went to her sister Mary Margaret O’Hara’s album Miss America: a cult classic if ever there was one, not least because she never made another.

If you’ve never heard it I beseech you to track it down and sink into its beauty; it’s unlike anything or anyone else, though O’Hara’s eccentric quaver does put me slightly in mind of Martha Wainwright.

Musically, it ranges from upbeat numbers to languorous ballads, and all points in between, all of them idiosyncratic and all of them compelling. 

When it comes to an appropriate elegy for her sister, I can find no better song than this one, Dear Darling. It’s a country-tinged tearjerker, with O’Hara’s quavery voice singing to a departed loved one: 

You bust loose from heaven
And now your life starts
So soon you will see
You’ve broken two hearts
And when you discover
The love I still know
You’ll worry dear darling
Why you had to go

RIP Catherine O’Hara (1954-2026)