lit a candle 5d agoWatched her in everything from SCTV reruns to The Last of Us. Range like that doesn't come around twice.
Their story
Catherine Anne O'Hara was born on 4 March 1954 in Toronto into a Catholic family of Irish descent, the sixth of seven children of Margaret Ann (née Meehan) and Marcus Charles O'Hara. She grew up in the city and graduated from Burnhamthorpe Collegiate Institute in 1974 (future Mississauga mayor Carolyn…
Catherine Anne O'Hara was born on 4 March 1954 in Toronto into a Catholic family of Irish descent, the sixth of seven children of Margaret Ann (née Meehan) and Marcus Charles O'Hara. She grew up in the city and graduated from Burnhamthorpe Collegiate Institute in 1974 (future Mississauga mayor Carolyn Parrish was among her teachers). Her elder sister Mary Margaret became a musician and actress; a brother, Marcus, also performed with The Second City.
She entered comedy in 1974 at The Second City in Toronto, first as an understudy (including for Gilda Radner before Radner's move to Saturday Night Live) and then as the company's leading female comic. In 1976 Second City launched Second City Television (SCTV). O'Hara's writing and performances there, including on SCTV Network 90 after the NBC pickup, earned her a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding writing and lasting Canadian fame. She briefly accepted a Saturday Night Live hire in 1981 during an SCTV gap, then quit without appearing on air to return when SCTV moved to NBC; she later denied long-running rumours that writer Michael O'Donoghue drove her out, citing dislike of living in New York.
Feature work followed: After Hours (1985), Heartburn (1986), and Tim Burton's Beetlejuice (1988) as sculptor Delia Deetz. In 1990 she played Kate McCallister in Home Alone, then again in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), anchoring the frantic mother half of a global hit. She voiced Sally (and Shock) in The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and built a parallel career in Christopher Guest's mockumentaries (Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration). A Genie Award for The Life Before This (1999) marked Canadian film recognition; voice roles continued through Frankenweenie, Elemental, and The Wild Robot (2024, her final film credit). Industry tallies put her films' worldwide gross above US$4.3 billion.
From 2015 to 2020 she co-starred as Moira Rose opposite longtime collaborator Eugene Levy in CBC / Pop TV's Schitt's Creek. The final season brought a rare television sweep: TCA, Primetime Emmy (Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series), Golden Globe, Critics' Choice, and SAG Award for the role, plus multiple Canadian Screen Awards across the run. She also appeared in Temple Grandin (Emmy-nominated), Netflix's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Six Feet Under, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024), HBO's The Last of Us (season 2), and Apple TV+'s The Studio (2025).
She met production designer and director Bo Welch on Beetlejuice; they married in 1992. Sons Matthew and Luke were born in 1994 and 1997. She held dual Canadian and American citizenship, was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2017 (invested 2018), and was named honorary mayor of Brentwood, Los Angeles, for 2021. She had dextrocardia with situs inversus. In 2025 she said she contracted COVID-19 while filming The Studio and did not tell coworkers so the location shoot could finish.
On 30 January 2026 Los Angeles Fire Department responders were called to her Brentwood home for a woman with difficulty breathing. She was taken in serious condition to Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica and died that day, aged 71. Representatives initially described a brief illness. A Los Angeles County death certificate released on 9 February 2026 listed pulmonary embolism as the immediate cause, with rectal cancer as the underlying cause; the certificate indicated she had been cremated. A private funeral was held on 14 February 2026. In March 2026 she received a posthumous Actor Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series for The Studio; Seth Rogen accepted and called her proof that "you could be a genius and you could be kind." Tributes came from Macaulay Culkin, Eugene and Dan Levy, Pedro Pascal, Michael McKean, Tim Burton, and Canadian public figures.
Biography adapted from EN Wikipedia Catherine O'Hara (CC BY-SA 4.0); Variety Ethan Shanfeld 2026-01-30; NBC News; The Guardian; Deadline; PEOPLE; New York Times Derrick Bryson Taylor / Matt Stevens 2026-02-09 (death certifi.
In their own words
“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.”
Macaulay Culkin, Instagram tribute, 2026-01-30
“Words seem inadequate to express the loss I feel today. I had the honor of knowing and working with the great Catherine O'Hara for over fifty years. I cherished our working relationship, but most of all our friendship.”
Eugene Levy, statement to press, 2026-01-30
“What a gift to have gotten to dance in the warm glow of Catherine O'Hara's brilliance for all those years. It's hard to imagine a world without her in it.”
Dan Levy, Instagram tribute, 2026-01-30
“She showed that you could be a genius and you could be kind.”
Seth Rogen, accepting her posthumous Actor Award, March 2026
“Only one Catherine O'Hara, and now none. Heartbreaking.”
Michael McKean, X, 2026-01-30
“Social networking is a desperate attempt to try to control what others think of you.”
Catherine O'Hara to Vulture, 2019
“Pretty much a good Catholic girl at heart.”
Catherine O'Hara to Rolling Stone, 1983
She really was one of a kind. The warmth underneath all that comedy.