Actor Catherine O’Hara, celebrated for her roles in Home Alone, Beetlejuice and Schitt’s Creek, has died at the age of 71, according to a statement from her agency, Creative Artists Agency (CAA).
O’Hara died at her home in Los Angeles following a brief illness, the agency said. A private celebration of life will be held by her family.
Born in Canada, O’Hara began her career at Toronto’s Second City theatre, where she helped create the influential sketch comedy series SCTV. She won an Emmy Award for her writing on the show and received four additional nominations.
She later became one of North America’s most recognisable comic actors. Her best-known film roles included Delia Deetz in Beetlejuice and its sequel Beetlejuice, and Kate McCallister in Home Alone and Home Alone II: Lost in New York. Other film credits included For Your Consideration and After Hours.
O’Hara also appeared in a wide range of television series, including Six Feet Under, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Temple Grandin. She received an Emmy nomination for her performance in Temple Grandin.
In 2015, she reunited with longtime friend and SCTV colleague Eugene Levy in the comedy series Schitt’s Creek. The pair first met in Toronto in 1970 and went on to appear together in seven films, including four mockumentaries directed by Christopher Guest.
More recently, O’Hara appeared in the Apple TV comedy The Studio and HBO’s The Last of Us, earning Emmy nominations for both roles.
In 1992, she married production designer Bo Welch, whom she met on the set of Beetlejuice. They had two sons, Matthew and Luke.
She is survived by her husband, her children, and her siblings Michael O’Hara, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Maureen Jolley, Marcus O’Hara, Tom O’Hara and Patricia Wallice.
Tributes poured in from colleagues and friends. Macaulay Culkin, who played her son in Home Alone, shared a message on Instagram alongside photos from the film and from his Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in 2023, which O’Hara attended.
“Mama. I thought we had time,” Culkin wrote. “I wanted more. I love you. I’ll see you later.”
Dan Levy, her Schitt’s Creek co-star, described O’Hara as “extended family” and said it was hard to imagine a world without her. He extended his condolences to her husband and children.
Seth Rogen, who worked with O’Hara on The Studio, called her “hysterical, kind, intuitive and generous”, adding that she raised the standard of everyone around her.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney also paid tribute, saying O’Hara had earned her place in the canon of Canadian comedy. “Canada has lost a legend,” he wrote.
