Catherine O’Hara Dies at Age 71
Beloved actress Catherine O’Hara has died at her home in Los Angeles, according to Variety, following a brief illness. The comedian, best known for roles in Home Alone, Beetlejuice, and Schitt’s Creek, was age 71.
O’Hara got her start in improv and comedy as a member of the Second City improv troupe. She later co-starred on the troop’s late-night sketch show S.C.T.V., which at the time was something like Canada’s alternative to Saturday Night Live. She won her first Emmy for writing on the series alongside comedy legends like John Candy, Rick Moranis, and Andrea Martin. She then played the mother of Macaulay Culkin in the first two Home Alone movies and of Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice, cementing her as a comedic icon of her era.
She also appeared in several of Christopher Guest’s genre-defining mockumentaries like Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman, and A Mighty Wind. She would go on to voice characters in The Nightmare Before Christmas and Chicken Little, before having another career revival as Moira Rose on mid 2010s breakout Schitt’s Creek, which she starred in with frequent collaborator Eugene Levy, his son Dan, and Annie Murphy. In 2020, she won her second Emmy, this time for Best Lead Actress, for the role.
O’Hara was later nominated for two Emmys in 2025 for two very different roles: her dramatic turn as a post-apocalyptic therapist on HBO’s The Last of Us, and a comedic turn as a Hollywood executive on Seth Rogen’s The Studio on Apple TV.
O’Hara married Beetlejuice production designer Bo Welch in 1992, and the couple had two sons.
On Instagram, Culkin mourned O’Hara, writing: “Mama. I thought we had time. I wanted more. I wanted to sit in a chair next to you. I heard you. But I had so much more to say. I love you. I’ll see you later.”
Dan Levy wrote: “What a gift to have gotten to dance in the warm glow of Catherine O’Hara’s brilliance for all those years. Having spent over fifty years collaborating with my Dad, Catherine was extended family before she ever played my family. It’s hard to imagine a world without her in it. I will cherish every funny memory I was fortunate enough to make with her. My heart goes out to Bo, Matthew, Luke and every member of her big, beautiful family.”
O’Hara’s Last of Us co-star Pedro Pascal paid tribute on Instagram, too, writing, “Oh, genius to be near you. Eternally grateful. There is less light in my world, this lucky world that had you, will keep you, always. Always. The one and ONLY Catherine O’Hara.”
Rogen shared that Home Alone was the film that made him want to make movies, adding on Instagram, “We’re all lucky we got to live in a world with her in it. She was hysterical, kind, intuitive, generous … she made me want to make our show good enough to be worthy of her presence in it.”
On X, Brooke Shields shared a compilation of clips where O’Hara impersonated her on S.C.T.V., writing: “What an honor it was to be spoofed by Catherine O’Hara. What an unfathomable loss. We love you, Catherine. Comedy won’t be the same without her. Sending love to Catherine’s family, friends, castmates, and fans today. Truly beloved.”
Fellow Canadian Michael Bublé wrote: “She was an ambassador for Canada in the truest sense: brilliant, fearless, deeply original, and so full of humanity. She made the world laugh, but she also made people feel seen.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney added that “Canada has lost a legend.”
More to come.
