Catherine O’Hara death latest: Macaulay Culkin and Eugene Levy lead tributes from Home Alone and Schitt’s Creek stars

O’Hara famously starred in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice in 1988, and returned for the sequel to the supernatural comedy in 2024.

On Instagram, the director wrote: “Catherine, I love you . This picture shows how much light you gave to all of us. You were a special part of my life and after life.”

Meryl Streep and O’Hara worked together in 1988’s Heartburn, the Mike Nichols movie based on Nora Ephron’s semi-autobiographical novel.

Remembering her late co-star, Streep said in a statement to the Associated Press: “Catherine O’Hara brought love and light to our world, through whipsmart compassion for the collection of eccentrics she portrayed... such a loss for her family and friends, and the audience she graced as friends.”

While filling in the Proust questionnaire for Vanity Fair in 2013, O’Hara said she hoped to die “laughing, surrounded by my old grandchildren who are telling me to ‘let go, already, Grandma!”

O’Hara is survived by her sons, Matthew and Luke Welch, who also work in Hollywood as set designers.

In a 2007 interview with Toronto Star, the Argylle star opened up about her sons' senses of humour.

“They’re very funny, and we encourage it,” O'Hara said.

“The older one does Warners cartoon bits, really old-fashioned, cheap-a** funny vaudeville stuff. And the little one does word play.”

She continued, “I’m proud to say, we all make each other laugh. In my home, growing up. I learned that from my parents. They made each other laugh to the end, God bless ‘em. How great is that?”

Dan Levy, who created Schitt's Creek with his father Eugene and played David Rose in the show, has said O’Hara was “extended family” long before she played his mother in the much-loved sitcom.

“What a gift to have gotten to dance in the warm glow of Catherine O'Hara's brilliance for all those years,” Levy said.

“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.”

O’Hara’s Beetlejuice co-star Alec Baldwin has shared some kind words about the star in a statement.

“Catherine O’Hara was one of the greatest comic talents in the movie business,” Baldwin told Page Six.

“She had a quality that was all her own and my sympathy goes out to Bo and their family.”

Baldwin’s wife Hilaria also paid tribute to the star and called O’Hara a “legend”.

O’Hara suffered from “breathing difficulty” and was rushed to hospital in a “serious condition” before her death, 911 dispatch audio obtained by Page Six has revealed.

Emergency responders from the Los Angeles Fire Department were dispatched to the actor’s Brentwood home address after receiving a call at 4.48am on Friday (30 January).

The 71-year-old had been expected to begin filming for the second season of Seth Rogen’s Hollywood satire The Studio, in which she plays executive Patty Leigh, in mid-January.

However, O’Hara pulled out of the show to deal with “personal matters” and episodes were “reworked…to focus on scenes without her character” per The Sun.

“It was not widely known she was dealing with any health or major issues,” a source told the newspaper.

Reese Witherspoon, who worked alongside O’Hara in the 2006 romcom Penelope shared a photo of the actor to Instagram, with the caption: “Catherine was such an inspiration to me. I worked with her on a movie called Penelope back in 2006, and her creativity was boundless.

“She never ceased to amaze me with her generosity toward her fellow actors and filmmakers. In real life, she was just as warm and delightful as she seems on film — a pure delight.”

Eugene Levy, who starred in Schitt's Creek as O’Hara’s husband, Johnny Rose, has shared in a statement that “Words seem inadequate to express the loss I feel today.”

“I had the honour of knowing and working with the great Catherine O'Hara for over fifty years. From our beginnings on the Second City stage, to SCTV, to the movies we did with Chris Guest, to our six glorious years on Schitt's Creek, I cherished our working relationship, but most of all our friendship. And I will miss her.'

O’Hara recently won acclaim for her guest appearance in a dramatic role on The Last of Us.

The show’s star Pedro Pascal shared a photograph of the pair together on Instagram with the caption: “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.”

In an Instagram tribute, Keaton wrote of their decades-long friendship: “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.”