Catherine O’Hara, the Emmy-winning comic actor celebrated for her unforgettable performances in Schitt’s Creek and the Home Alone films, has died at the age of 71.
According to a statement released by her representatives at Creative Artists Agency, O’Hara passed away Friday at her home in Los Angeles following a brief illness. No additional details were immediately disclosed.
A Canadian-born performer, O’Hara began her career in Toronto during the 1970s with the Second City comedy group. During this period, she formed a lasting professional partnership with Eugene Levy, who would remain one of her closest collaborators throughout her life. Both later became founding members of the influential sketch series SCTV (Second City Television), which aired in Canada before gaining a U.S. audience on NBC. The show introduced a generation of distinctive comedic voices, including Martin Short, John Candy, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis, and Joe Flaherty. O’Hara earned her first Emmy Award for writing on the series.
Decades later, her career reached a new peak with Schitt’s Creek, the small CBC comedy created by Levy and his son Dan Levy. O’Hara portrayed Moira Rose, a former soap opera star whose exaggerated accent and ornate vocabulary became central to the character’s identity. The role earned her an Emmy for best actress in a comedy series, along with a Golden Globe and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. The show’s sixth and final season went on to dominate the Emmys, bringing O’Hara renewed attention and a new generation of fans.
Before that success, Hollywood often struggled to categorize her unique comedic style. She appeared in offbeat supporting roles in After Hours and Beetlejuice, later returning for the 2024 sequel. In contrast, she played a more straightforward role as the frantic mother of Macaulay Culkin in the first two Home Alone movies, which became massive box-office hits and enduring holiday television staples.
Culkin paid tribute on Instagram, sharing an image from Home Alone alongside a recent recreation of the same pose. “Mama, I thought we had time,” he wrote. “I wanted more… I love you.”
O’Hara also became closely associated with director Christopher Guest, joining his ensemble of improv performers in a series of mockumentaries beginning with Waiting for Guffman, followed by Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration. Best in Show proved especially memorable, featuring O’Hara and Levy as a married couple competing in a dog show while repeatedly encountering the wife’s former partners.
Guest said in a statement to the AP, “We have lost one of the comic giants of our age.”
Born in Toronto, O’Hara grew up in a large Catholic family of Irish descent as the sixth of seven children. She attended Burnhamthorpe Collegiate Institute, an alternative high school, and joined Second City in her early 20s as an understudy to Gilda Radner. Although briefly hired for Saturday Night Live, she left before appearing on air.
In the later years of her career, O’Hara continued to earn acclaim. She appeared as Seth Rogen’s reluctant executive mentor and fixer on The Studio and delivered a dramatic performance as a therapist to survivors, including Pedro Pascal, on HBO’s The Last of Us. Both roles brought additional Emmy nominations, contributing to a total of ten over her career.
Pascal wrote on Instagram, “Eternally grateful. There is less light in my world.”
O’Hara is survived by her husband, Bo Welch, their sons Matthew and Luke, and her siblings Michael O’Hara, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Maureen Jolley, Marcus O’Hara, Tom O’Hara and Patricia Wallice.
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