Hollywood legend Catherine O’Hara dead at 71 following brief illness

Catherine O’Hara, the beloved Canadian comedic actor, has died. She was 71.

Although she played a wide variety of characters in a career that spanned five decades, she was perhaps best known for playing mothers. She played Macaulay Culkin’s character Kevin’s mother, Kate McCallister, in the first two Home Alone films — spawning the viral “Kevin!” meme — before going on to play matriarch Moira Rose in hit TV series Schitt’s Creek.

She died Friday in Los Angeles following a brief illness, her manager told Variety. A cause of death has not been reported.

Culkin was among those leading the tributes to his late co-star, writing on Instagram: “Mama. I thought we had time. I wanted more.”

Also paying his respects was Pedro Pascal, who worked with O’Hara in The Last of Us. He wrote: “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.”

O’Hara recently earned Emmy nominations for her work on The Last of Us and The Studio — the ninth and tenth of her career.

Born in Toronto on March 4, 1954, O’Hara was the sixth of seven children. In 1974 she joined the cast of The Second City in Toronto, the improv comedy troupe that also helped launch the careers of John Candy, Dan Aykroyd and Gilda Radner.

open image in gallery

open image in gallery

In 1976, the company launched SCTV, a televised sketch comedy show, and O’Hara became a regular performer. After the show was picked up by NBC for broadcast in the U.S. it became known as SCTV Network 90, and O’Hara won her first Emmy in 1982 for Outstanding Writing on an episode titled “Moral Majority Show”.

During the 1980s, she landed a number of supporting roles in films including Martin Scorsese’s After Hours in 1985 and Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice in 1988. Decades later she reprised her role as Delia Deetz, mother to Winona Ryder’s Lydia Deetz, in the 2024 sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

In 1990, she appeared in Home Alone, the blockbuster comedy that has become a perennial festive favorite. She returned two years later for Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.

In 1996, she was part of the ensemble cast of Christopher Guest’s improvised mockumentary Waiting for Guffman. The film, which also starred Guest, Eugene Levy, Fred Willard and Parker Posey among others, was critically acclaimed and won a cult following. She reunited with Guest and the rest of the cast for follow-ups including Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003) and For Your Consideration (2006).

Along with her film career, O’Hara also appeared in guest roles in a variety of television shows including Committed, Six Feet Under, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Glenn Martin DDS, 30 Rock, and Modern Family.

open image in gallery

open image in gallery

In 2015, O’Hara made her debut as eccentric former TV star Moira Rose on Schitt’s Creek. For 80 episodes alongside cast members Dan and Eugene Levy and Annie Murphy, O’Hara would win over a new generation of fans — and win her second Emmy in 2020.

During her Emmys acceptance speech, held during the Covid-19 pandemic O’Hara said: “I will forever be grateful to Eugene and Daniel Levy for bestowing upon me the opportunity to play a woman of a certain age, my age, who gets to fully be her ridiculous self.”

In an interview with New York magazine in 2019, she reflected on how her early years at Second City had taught her to how to use everyday life to inspire her performance, and to fuel her social critique. “You’re kind of gathering all these little bits of information. And it’s all laughing at ourselves,” she said. “Not just others, but ourselves. Just behavior that human beings can’t help. We are ridiculous and great and lovely and sweet and innocent and scary.”

O’Hara met her husband, production designer Bo Welch, on the set of Beetlejuice in 1987. Welch is known for his collaborations with Tim Burton, dating back to Edward Scissorhands. They couple married in 1992.

O’Hara is survived by Welch and their two sons, Matthew and Luke.