Michael Keaton has reflected on his decades-long friendship with Catherine O'Hara - a week after her shock death

Michael - who famously worked with Catherine on the 1988 horror-fantasy film, Beetlejuice - started looking back by talking about how she shot to fame after appearing on the sketch comedy series Second City Television in the mid-1970s.

He said: "I was a big SCTV fan. I am the biggest SCTV fan. And I'm trying to think, when was it? 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 friends."

"I remember a night in Toronto where she had a summer [with her] brothers and sisters, and we were all shooting pool in some bar somewhere.

"But I think I had known her before, kind of having a hard time remembering it."

Michael added that he was a "giant fan" of Catherine and hailed the late actress - also known for appearing in Home Alone and Schitt's Creek - as a "kind of a goddess" inside the comedy world.

Michael said that others in the industry also "knew how brilliant she was and how great she was".

As well as Beetlejuice, the pair went on to work with each other on the 2005 sports comedy movie Game 6 and then the Beetlejuice sequel in 2024.

And Michael helped Catherine - whose cause of death has yet to be revealed - land the role of Lillian Rogan in Game 6.

He explained: "And I was doing this tiny little movie called Game 6, which is actually a really good little movie. It takes place in Boston, and [co-star] Griffin [Dunne] and I were talking, and they hadn't cast it [yet].

"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.

"I guess that was after the first Beetlejuice. But I knew her before that. And to answer your question, I don't remember what the first time was when I met her, but we got to be friends in addition to just working together as well."

Michael was one of the first celebrities to pay tribute to Catherine - who is survived by her 74-year-old husband, production designer Bo Welch and their two adult sons, Matthew, 32, and 29 year old Luke - after her manager confirmed her death on January 30.

Captioning a photo of him and Catherine, he wrote on Instagram: "We go back before the first Beetlejuice. She's been my pretend wife, my pretend nemesis and my real life, true friend. This one hurts. Man am I gonna miss her. Thinking about Beau as well. (sic)"