It is with great sadness we bring you news that Canadian comedy icon Catherine O’Hara, star of Schitt’s Creek, Home Alone, Beetlejuice, and The Studio among many other films and TV shows, has sadly died at the age of 71. The two-time Emmy award-winning actor died at her home today, Friday 30th January, following a brief illness, Variety reports.
Born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Catherine O’Hara’s remarkable, five-decade spanning career in show business started in her hometown as a cast member of Toronto-based The Second City, the legendary improv theatre troupe responsible for creating sketch comedy series Second City Television — aka SCTV. Writing and starring alongside SCTV OGs including John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Harold Ramis, O’Hara — whose impeccably observed impressions of the likes of Katharine Hepburn and Brooke Shields, sharp writing, and distinctive mannerisms made her an instant hit — featured in every one of the series’ six seasons, rubbing shoulders with Rick Moranis and Martin Short in that time and earning herself a richly deserved first Primetime Emmy in 1982. Right from the start however, it was clear O’Hara was destined to light up screens both small and big.
Having broken into cinema in the early to mid-eighties with supporting roles in the likes of Donald Sutherland led rom-com Nothing Personal, Martin Scorsese’s After Hours, and Mike Nichols’ Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep starrer Heartburn, O’Hara saw out the decade and ushered in a new one with two iconic turns. First up, O’Hara shone as matriarch and modern artist Delia Deetz in Tim Burton’s 1988 classic Beetlejuice (a role she’d later winningly reprise in 2024 sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice); and in 1990’s Home Alone and its 1992 follow-up Home Alone 2: Lost In New York, she somehow managed to bring pathos, warmth, and unparalleled shrieking to the role of film’s most irresponsible parent — and one of its most doting mothers — Kate McCallister.
Throughout the 1990s and heading into the noughties, O’Hara continued on prodigious form, lending her vocal stylings to The Nightmare Before Christmas’ Sally (and Shock), making memorable appearances in Ron Howard’s star-studded workplace comedy The Paper and Lawrence Kasdan’s Wyatt Earp, and enjoying an astonishing run with mockumentary specialist Christopher Guest working on four of the maestro’s funniest movies — Waiting For Guffman, Best In Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration. And that’s not even accounting for O’Hara’s further adventures in voice acting, lending her inimitable cadence to everything from Chicken Little and Over The Hedge to Monster House and Where The Wild Things Are. It wouldn’t be inaccurate to suggest that there’s a whole generation of kids born around 2000 who grew up with Catherine O’Hara without probably yet realising it.
Talking of inimitable cadence and modern generations’ relationship to O’Hara’s body of work, for a great many hearing today’s tragic news, Catherine O’Hara will forever be remembered as fashion maven, matriarch, and master of erratic inflection Moira Rose in Schitt’s Creek, the groundbreaking sitcom that reunited O’Hara with old SCTV chum Eugene Levy and won the actor her second Emmy award. In fact, in the last decade of her life, rather than slowing down as such a prolific screen presence would’ve been well within her rights to do, O’Hara worked harder than ever: just last year she could be seen breaking hearts and keeping us on our toes with her appearance as psychiatrist Gail in The Last Of Us Season 2, and reminding us of her comedic prowess to Emmy and Golden Globes nominated effect as brilliantly bullish, ousted movie exec Patty Leigh in The Studio.
It is hard to quantify the significance of O’Hara’s loss to the film and TV industry, and to the world at large, and it’s unsurprising to see so many of her collaborators and loved ones coming forwards in the hours since news of her death broke to remember a true one-off. Macaulay Culkin, who O’Hara inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame just months ago, shared photos of himself and his on-screen mother on Instagram with the poignant caption: “Mama. I thought we had time. I wanted more. I wanted to sit in a chair next to you. I heard you. But I had so much more to say. I love you. I’ll see you later.” O’Hara’s The Last Of Us screen partner Pedro Pascal also took to Instagram to pay tribute, writing: ““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.” Added her The Paper director Ron Howard on X: “This is shattering news. What a wonderful person, artist and collaborator. I was lucky enough to direct, produce and act in projects with her and she was simply growing more brilliant with each year.”
When Empire spoke to Catherine O’Hara for the Pilot TV Podcast last year during The Studio’s press tour, the actor — acknowledging the precarious times Hollywood and the creative arts are facing today — shared her reason for still loving her work after over five decades in the business. “It’s wonderful, thrill-seeking, lovely, collaborative work,” O’Hara told us. “You get to meet people, and you get to express your ideas and be inspired every day,” she continued, before quipping with a hearty laugh, “There are worse jobs!”
Catherine O’Hara leaves behind a body of wonderful, thrill-seeking, lovely, and indeed collaborative work — and a legacy of laughter, warmth, and a loving spirit that emanated from the screen and will continue to enamour and enchant audiences young and old for generations to come. She will be deeply, deeply missed and the whole Empire team’s thoughts are with her friends, family, and loved ones at this very difficult time.