The Incomparable Catherine O’Hara Has Passed On
If Catherine O’Hara was in a scene, even acting among other comedic geniuses (as she often was), you felt drawn to her. Her comedy chops are the stuff of legend, but she was no lightweight when it came to drama, either (she recently earned an Emmy nomination for her brief role in season 2 of The Last of Us). The year 2026 has gotten to a very, shall we say, glum start, and this was the news that nobody needed. But here we are.
O’Hara’s reps at CAA confirmed that she has passed away at her home in Los Angeles after a brief illness. She was 71.
O’Hara’s plentiful gifts received their share of accolades—she’s a two-time Emmy winner—but had her charms and abilities been requisitely rewarded, she’d have passed on with a ballroom’s worth of trophies. The Toronto native came of age alongside peers who would also go on to have brilliant careers. As part of SCTV, O’Hara shined in an ensemble that included John Candy, her longtime screen partner Eugene Levy, and Rick Moranis. Before launching her career, she was an understudy to another legend, SNL‘s iconic Gilda Radner, whom O’Hara joined at Second City in Toronto when she was 20.
When Second City launched the sketch comedy show SCTV in 1976, O’Hara’s career took off. Alongside Candy, the late, great Harold Ramis, Andrea Martin, Joe Flaherty, and eventually Martin Short and Moranis, the show aired on Canada’s Global network before being picked up by NBC to run in the U.S.
For those of us who came of age in the 1980s in America, O’Hara burst into our collective consciousness in Tim Burton’s 1988 classic Beetlejuice, playing Delia Deetz, the eccentric sculptor and second wife of Charles Deetz, and the foil to Winona Ryder’s Lydia. In a cast that also included Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis as the deceased occupants of the home the Deetz’s have moved into, and of course Michael Keaton as the chaos-loving spirit Beetlejuice, O’Hara still managed to stand out. “If you don’t let me gut this house and make it my own, I will go insane, and I will take you with me!” she screams. We believe her. She’s as scary as Beetlejuice. She was just as excellent in the sequel.
What made O’Hara a household name is arguably her role in Chris Columbus’s 1990’s Home Alone, playing Kate McCallister, the mother of Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin. While Kevin was, indeed, left all by his lonesome in a big suburban house, with two bumbling but still potentially dangerous burglars lurking in Joe Pesci’s Harry and Daniel Stern’s Marv, pour out a glass of Château Lafite Rothschild for poor Kate, who has to rush home from Paris when she realizes Kevin’s gone. If only she knew how fine Kevin would be (save for the aftershave bit).
Yet for O’Hara connoisseurs, it’s likely collaboration with Christopher Guest that stands apart. As excellent as Guest and his cast are, it’s hard to imagine these films singing as they do without her—Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), and For Your Consideration (2006).
O’Hara re-teamed with Eugene Levy in the beloved Schitt’s Creek, which swept the comedy categories at the 2020 Emmys, in which she won for her acting. Most recently, O’Hara was stellar in Seth Rogen’s The Studio, playing the deposed studio head Patty Leigh, who, despite her bitterness, still helps her replacement, Rogen’s Matt Remick, as she struggles to run the studio she shepherded (she gets her cut, of course). She was set to co-star in the second season, which just began filming.
O’Hara is survived by her husband, Bo Welch; her sons, Matthew and Luke; and her siblings, Michael, Mary, Marcus, Tom O’Hara, Maureen Jolley, and Patricia Wallace.
It’s a huge loss. She led a huge life. She will not be forgotten.
Featured image: The Hollywood Reporter’s 7th Annual Nominees Night – Arrivals BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 04: Catherine O’Hara attends The Hollywood Reporter 2019 Oscar Nominee Party at CUT on February 04, 2019, in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
