Michael Keaton recalls 'goddess' Catherine O'Hara a week after her death

Michael Keaton reflected on his decades-long friendship with Catherine O'Hara a week after her death while accepting Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals 2026 Man of the Year honor in Cambridge, Mass. He said he was a "big 'SCTV' fan" and tried to recall their first meeting, noting that both come from large families—each one of seven—and that they "somehow we got to be friends." Keaton said he met O'Hara shortly before they worked together on Tim Burton's 1988 Beetlejuice and recalled "a night in Toronto" when she, her siblings and others were "shooting pool in some bar somewhere." He called her "kind of a goddess" in comedy, said people knew how brilliant she was, and added that he pushed for her to play his ex-wife in the 2005 film Game 6.

The pair also co-starred in The Paper (1994) and reunited for the 2024 Beetlejuice sequel. Keaton had posted a tribute after O'Hara's death on Jan.

United States, Cambridge, Massachusetts

michael keaton, catherine o'hara, hasty pudding, harvard, beetlejuice, sctv, game 6, the paper, toronto, tim burton