Emmy-winning comedian and actor Catherine O’Hara, whose career spanned five decades and ranged from sketch comedy classics to global television hits, died on Friday at the age of 71.
O’Hara passed away at her home in Los Angeles following a brief illness, her agency, Creative Artists Agency, said in a statement. No further details were disclosed.
Born and raised in Toronto, O’Hara emerged from the famed Second City comedy scene in the 1970s, where she forged creative partnerships that would define her career.
Among them was Eugene Levy, her longtime collaborator and later co-star in Schitt’s Creek.
Both were part of the original cast of SCTV (Second City Television), a groundbreaking sketch series that aired in Canada before gaining a cult following in the United States.
SCTV became a launchpad for a generation of influential comedians, including Martin Short, John Candy, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis and Joe Flaherty.
O’Hara distinguished herself with a distinctive, unpredictable style that blended sharp wit with emotional depth.
In film, she became widely known to audiences as the frantic but loving mother of Macaulay Culkin’s character in the Home Alone franchise, one of the most successful box office series of the early 1990s and a staple of holiday television programming.
Culkin paid tribute on Instagram, posting images from the film alongside a recent recreation and writing, “Mama, I thought we had time… I love you.”
O’Hara also appeared in a range of memorable supporting roles, including Martin Scorsese’s After Hours and Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice, a character she reprised in the 2024 sequel.
Her most celebrated film collaborations came through director Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries, beginning with Waiting for Guffman and continuing with Best in Show, A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration.
Best in Show, the most commercially successful of the series, paired O’Hara and Levy as a married couple navigating the absurd world of competitive dog shows.
Guest described her death as a profound loss, calling O’Hara “one of the comic giants of our age.”
Her career reached a new peak with Schitt’s Creek, created by Levy and his son Dan.
As Moira Rose, a former soap opera star clinging fiercely to her sense of grandeur, O’Hara delivered a performance that earned her an Emmy Award and introduced her work to a new generation of viewers.
The series went on to dominate the Emmys in its final season.
O’Hara often spoke about crafting Moira’s singular voice, marked by a theatrical accent and an idiosyncratic vocabulary drawn from obscure and archaic words.
She described the character as someone determined to remind the world that she was still special, even after losing her wealth.
The success of Schitt’s Creek sparked a late-career resurgence, leading to acclaimed dramatic and comedic roles, including appearances in HBO’s The Last of Us and The Studio, both of which earned her further Emmy nominations. Actor Pedro Pascal, her co-star on The Last of Us, wrote, “There is less light in my world.”
Meryl Streep, who worked with O’Hara in Heartburn, praised her for bringing “love and light to our world, through whipsmart compassion for the collection of eccentrics she portrayed.”
Catherine O’Hara is survived by her husband, production designer Bo Welch, their sons Matthew and Luke, and six siblings.
