Catherine O’Hara, ‘Schitt’s Creek’ and ‘Home Alone’ Star, Dies at 71

Catherine O’Hara, the actor whose blend of precision, warmth, and fearless absurdity reshaped modern screen comedy, has died at the age of 71. Her representatives at Creative Artists Agency stated that she died on Friday following a brief illness. Additional details surrounding her death have not been publicly confirmed.

Over a career spanning five decades, O’Hara built a body of work that influenced how comedy functioned on screen by insisting that even the broadest characters be grounded in emotional truth. Rather than relying on punchlines alone, she portrayed people whose humor emerged from insecurity, longing, and contradiction. That approach allowed her performances to endure across eras, formats, and genres, from sketch comedy to studio films and award-winning television.

O’Hara first rose to prominence as a founding member of the Canadian sketch series Second City Television, where she worked closely with longtime collaborator Eugene Levy. The series favored character-driven comedy over rigid structure, relying heavily on improvisation and psychological detail. That environment helped shape O’Hara’s performance style and earned her early Emmy recognition, establishing her as a performer capable of anchoring chaos with discipline.

In film, she became closely associated with a series of maternal roles that avoided sentimentality without sacrificing emotional weight. In Beetlejuice, she portrayed Delia Deetz as a performative and self-absorbed artist, turning grief into spectacle and narcissism into comedy. In Home Alone, she transformed a single shouted name into a shorthand for panic, guilt, and devotion, grounding a high-concept family comedy in recognizable emotion. Those performances helped solidify her reputation as an actor who could elevate heightened material into something personal and lasting.

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, O’Hara became a cornerstone of director Christopher Guest’s mockumentary films, including Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind. These productions depended on restraint and trust, asking performers to construct entire inner lives with minimal exposition. O’Hara excelled in that format, often revealing desperation or vulnerability through quiet moments rather than overt jokes. Guest later described her as one of the great comic talents of her generation.

Her career took a notable turn in her 60s with Schitt’s Creek, where she played Moira Rose, a former soap star grappling with irrelevance after sudden financial collapse. The performance blended satire with vulnerability, allowing O’Hara to explore aging, ambition, and identity without irony or apology. The role earned her a second Emmy Award and a Golden Globe and contributed to broader industry conversations about opportunity and visibility for women later in their careers.

That momentum continued into her final years. She appeared in HBO’s The Last of Us and starred in Apple TV’s The Studio, portraying a displaced Hollywood executive navigating internal power shifts within the entertainment industry. In interviews, O’Hara spoke candidly about how streaming platforms and internet culture had reshaped Hollywood, describing an industry that felt more anxious but still driven by people who wanted to create meaningful work.

Beyond her performances, O’Hara maintained close personal relationships with many of her collaborators. She remained connected with Macaulay Culkin, appearing at his Walk of Fame ceremony in 2023 and later becoming the subject of a public tribute from him following her death. Colleagues, including director Chris Columbus and actor Pedro Pascal, shared statements praising her generosity, emotional presence, and creative fearlessness.

Born in Toronto, O’Hara later became a beloved figure in Los Angeles, where she was named honorary mayor of Brentwood in 2021. She is survived by her husband, production designer Bo Welch, their sons Matthew and Luke, and several siblings. According to her representatives, a private celebration of life will be held by the family.