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NEED TO KNOW
Catherine O'Hara once joined the cast of Saturday Night Live, but quit before ever appearing in an episode of the show
Speaking to PEOPLE in an earlier interview, she explained that she left SNL to rejoin the cast of the Canadian comedy sketch show SCTV
O'Hara's manager confirmed on Friday, Jan. 30, that the actress had died at age 71
Catherine O'Haraonce quitSaturday Night Livebefore ever appearing in an episode of the show.
O'Hara — who died Friday, Jan. 30 at age 71 — spoke toPEOPLEin 2024 about how she was cast on the sixth season ofSNLin the early 1980s, but quit after a week.
She explained that prior toSNL, she'd already been in the cast of the Canadian comedy sketch showSCTV, though it wasn't consistent work.
"Our producer would get a deal with a network, and we'd have a show for a season or two, and then that deal would go away. There'd be a break, then we'd do the show again," she said.
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During one break, "I got asked to be onSaturday Night Live. And of course I said yes. Who doesn't want to do that?"
When she got word thatSCTVwas picked up again, she departedSNLwithout ever filming an episode. "Basically I said, 'Oh, sorry, I gotta go be with my [comedy] family.' "
Looking back, O'Hara said she was "stupid" for not waiting longer to see ifSCTVgot picked up.
"Yeah, not cool to take a job and leave it. You know what I mean?" she says.
In the end, O'Hara's best friend from high school, Robin Duke, took herSNLslot. "It all worked out the way it was supposed to," says O'Hara.
SCTVran from 1976 to 1984 and was an offshoot of Toronto's famed Second City comedy troupe, where the late comedian Gilda Radner (who eventually left Second City forSaturday Night Live)got her start.
O'Hara acted as Radner's understudy on the show and, in a 2020 interview onWatch What Happens Live, said she learned from Radner "that you could still be the loveliest person in the world, and still be hilarious."
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"She was really a dreamy doll of a girl, just like you'd imagine," O'Hara added of Radner. "And I got to hang out with her, because my brother dated her. She'd come to our house for dinner on Sundays and play games with the family."
She continued: "I dared to take her place at Second City theater, and I've been imitating her since."
O'Hara's other costars onSCTVincludedJohn Candy,Martin Short,Rick Moranis, Joe Flaherty,Andrea MartinandEugene Levy. She and Levy would go on to collaborate several more times — in Christopher Guest's movies includingBest in Showand in the television showSchitt's Creek.
Read the original article onPeople
