Catherine O’Hara, the singular Hollywood force whose chameleonic brilliance defined a generation of comedy and improv across SCTV, Home Alone, Best in Show, and Schitt’s Creek, has died at the age of 71.
TMZ reports that O’Hara passed away on Friday. A representative for O’Hara confirmed she died after a brief illness.
Born in Toronto, Ontario on March 4th, 1954, O’Hara’s five-decades-long career began in 1974 as a member of the sketch and improv comedy group Second City. There, she was an understudy for Gilda Radner until Radner joined Saturday Night Live. O’Hara was part of the originating cast of Second City Television alongside her future frequent co-star Eugene Levy and the likes of John Candy, Harold Ramis, Andrea Martin, Joe Flaherty, and Dave Thomas.
In 1981, O’Hara had her own shot at SNL, as she was brought on to replace Ann Risley. However, she ended up quitting before ever getting screentime, opting instead to return to SCTV when the show got picked up by NBC. She received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series in 1982; SCTV made up four of the five nominated episodes that year. SCTV also took all five nominations the following year, though the winning episode did not feature O’Hara as a credited writer.
She had a series of roles in Canadian film productions like Nothing Personal, Double Negative, and the adult animation feature Rock & Rule in the early ’80s before her first Hollywood break came along. She was cast in a bit role in After Hours, Martin Scorsese’s 1985 neo-noir black comedy film starring Griffin Dunne. She played Gail, an ice cream truck driver who leads a mob in hunting down the Dunne’s character when he’s wrongly accused of being a neighborhood burglar.
O’Hara continued making TV appearances throughout the ’70s and ’80s (1978’s Witch’s Night Out, a number of CBC holiday animated specials including Intergalactic Thanksgiving and Easter Fever, the 1980 miniseries You’ve Come a Long Way, Katie). After appearing in Nora Ephron’s 1986 movie Heartburn with Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson, O’Hara’s breakout Hollywood role came in 1988’s Beetlejuice. She replaced a sick Anjelica Huston as Delia Deetz, mother to Winona Ryder’s Lydia, and her performance became one of the most iconic in her career. She would later reprise the role in the 2024 sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
1990 was a busy year for the rising star, with roles in Dick Tracy, Betsy’s Wedding, and Little Vegas. Fans most fondly remember her as Macaulay Culkin’s mom in the classic Home Alone. She returned as Kate McCallister in 1992’s Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and her frantic screaming of “KEVIN!” remains one of the most referenced moments of ’90s cinema. She reunited with Culkin when she gave a speech during his 2023 Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony.
She reteamed with Beetlejuice mastermind Tim Burton in 1993 by voicing and singing for both Sally and Shock in the Henry Selick-directed stop-motion classic The Nightmare Before Christmas. She would later make frequent appearances at Nightmare Before Christmas Live performances at The Hollywood Bowl, singing “Sally’s Song” and “Kidnap the Sandy Claws.”
The ’90s saw O’Hara work with acclaimed directors like Lawrence Kasdan (Wyatt Earp) and Ron Howard (The Paper), and act alongside Steve Martin (A Simple Twist of Fate) and Drew Barrymore (Home Fries). Perhaps most significantly, the decade saw her begin a long-lasting collaboration with filmmaker Christopher Guest. First came 1996’s Waiting for Guffman, which reunited O’Hara with her SCTV co-star Eugene Levy; she played Sheila Albertson alongside Fred Willard’s Ron Albertson, married travel agents who frequently star in amateur theater productions.
O’Hara would star in three other mockumentary features with Guest and Levy: 2000’s Best in Show, 2003’s A Mighty Wind, and 2006’s For Your Consideration. Best in Show earned her American and Canadian Comedy Awards, and she won a Best Supporting Actress award from the National Board of Review for For Your Consideration.
Roles in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, Surviving Christmas, Orange County, and Away We Go followed in the ’00s and ’10s, while O’Hara also worked regularly as a voice actor. She lent her vocal talents to Chicken Little, Over the Hedge, Monster House, Brother Bear 2, Where the Wild Things Are, and The Addams Family. She also reunited with Burton again, voicing Susan Frankenstein, the Gym Teacher, and Weird Girl in 2012’s Frankenweenie, a full-length adaptation of Burton’s landmark stop-motion short.
In 2020, she became the narrator for the movie attraction Canada: Far and Wide at Disney World’s Epcot. She appeared in Matthew Vaughn’s Argyle in 2024, and voice parts in Pixar’s ’23 movie Elemental (Brook Ripple) and DreamWorks’ acclaimed ’24 animated feature The Wild Robot (Pinktail).
Throughout her entire career, she made frequent appearances in TV shows, ranging from Tales from the Crypt and The Outer Limits to Whose Line Is It Anyway? and MAD TV. She also hosted SNL twice, once in a 1991 episode with musical guest R.E.M., and again in 1992 with 10,000 Maniacs. The 2000s saw her appear in episodes of Six Feet Under, Curb Your Enthusiasm, 30 Rock, and Modern Family, while her role as Aunt Ann in the television movie Temple Grandin earned her a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie.
O’Hara experienced a full career resurgence by once again collaborating with Eugene Levy, this time on the smash Pop TV sitcom Schitt’s Creek. Her role as the charmingly delusional ex-soap opera star Moira Rose, delivered with an impossible faux accent making meals out of an outrageously extensive vocabulary, will likely be remember as the defining performance of her career for a generation of fans. Her precise ability to bring warmth through Moira’s put-upon glamour and eccentricity exemplified the show’s elevation of comedy and heart.
O’Hara was awarded both the 2020 Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy, the later of which was part of Schitt’s Creek’s clean sweep of the seven major comedy awards. Her Moira Rose turn also won her two 2021 SAG Awards (Ensemble in a Comedy Series and Female Actor in a Comedy Series), as well as the Canadian Screen Awards’ Best Actress in a Continuing Leading Comedic Role every year between 2017 and 2021. The institution also awarded her a Legacy Award in 2016 and a Academy Icon Award in 2023.
Last year, she continued her TV dominance with acclaimed roles in both HBO’s The Last of Us Season 2 and Apple TV’s The Studio. Both performances earned her Emmy nominations (Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for The Studio, Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for The Last of Us), while she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the 2026 Golden Globes for The Studio. The Studio, which won Best Comedy or Musical TV Series at the Globes and a record-breaking 13 Emmys, reportedly began filming for Season 2 just last week. O’Hara was expected to reprise her role as Patty Leigh, mentor to Seth Rogen’s Matt Remick.
O’Hara is survived by her husband, Bo Welch, and their two sons, Matthew and Luke. O’Hara and Welch met when he worked as a production designer on Beetlejuice.
