Michael Keaton speaks out on decades-long friendship with Catherine O'Hara one week after her death

Michael Keaton paid a heartwarming tribute to Catherine O'Hara during a speech at Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals 2026 Man of the Year event.

It was announced that O'Hara had died on January 30 at the age 71. The well-loved actress for known for starring in hit films and TV shows like Home Alone, Schitt's Creek, Beetlejuice, and The Last of Us.

Celebrities from across Hollywood wasted no time in paying tribute to O'Hara in the wake of the news of her death, one being Eugene Levy, who said he 'cherished' both his working relationship and friendship with the Home Alone star.

Now, Keaton, who worked with O'Hara on Beetlejuice and also had a friendship with her dating back decades, has followed suit.

On Friday (February 6), exactly one week after O'Hara's passing, Batman alum Keaton paid homage to O'Hara at a Harvard University ceremony in Massachusetts.

Michael Keaton seen at Hasty Pudding's Man of the Year ceremony (Lisa Aileen Dragani/Getty Images)

"I was a big SCTV fan," he said of the Canadian TV show that put O'Hara on the map.

Going on to recall when he first met O'Hara, the 74-year-old shared, per People: "I think I was doing a movie in Toronto.

"[...] I remember we must have met or known each other a little bit, because, like myself, she has a big family. She's one of seven, and I'm one of seven. And so somehow we got to be friend."

The first movie the two actors worked on together was 1988's Beetlejuice. They later co-starred in The Paper and Game 6, as well the Beetlejuice sequel.

Speaking about how O'Hara came to be cast in Game 6, Keaton said: "I was doing this tiny little movie called Game 6, which is actually a really good little movie.

"It takes place in Boston, and Griffin [Dunne] and I were talking, and they hadn't cast it. I said, 'Hey, how [about] Catherine O'Hara as my ex-wife? Yeah, you think she'd do it?' So I called her, and she came down."

Keaton's friendship with Catherine O'Hara dated back decades (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

As well as speaking about O'Hara on Friday, Keaton recently penned a tribute to her in Time.

He gushed about the late Golden Globe award-winning actress: "To work comedically with Catherine, as I was lucky to get to do not just at the awards show but on two Beetlejuice movies and projects like The Paper and Game 6 across nearly 40 years, was like breathing rarefied air.

"And between takes, it was the greatest hang on set. The only thing better was the hang off set—in real life, as I call it."

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