&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Catherine O’Hara, comedy icon and Schitt’s Creek star, passes away at 71")
It’s truly the end of an era. Comedy icon Catherine O’Hara, known for her roles in The Studio, Schitt’s Creek and Home Alone, has died. She was 71.
So far, there is no information regarding the exact cause, nor has her team shared anything. The news comes less than a month after Catherine skipped the Golden Globes 2026, despite earning a nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Supporting Role for her portrayal as Patty Leigh alongside Seth Rogen, Kathryn Hahn and Ike Barinholtz in The Studio.
Catherine O'Hara's early beginnings
O’Hara was born in Toronto in 1954. She was the second youngest of seven children. Her father worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway, and her mother was a real estate agent. Her first acting gig was portraying the Virgin Mary in a Nativity play. After graduating from high school, she worked as a waitress at the Second City Theater in Toronto, which she joined in 1974.
“I was lucky enough to watch everybody,” she told PEOPLE in an interview of the theatre’s legendary talent, which included Dan Aykroyd, Joe Flaherty and family friend Gilda Radner.
One of her stagemates was comedian Eugene Levy, who would become one of her closest friends and collaborators. The two famously played a couple in the comedy series Schitt’s Creek years later.
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Catherine O’Hara’s prolific career
With a career spanning over four decades, Catherine was synonymous with comedy and comedic roles. She had famously played Delia Deetz in Beetlejuice and Macaulay Culkin’s mother in his beloved holiday franchise Home Alone. She saw a career resurgence in 2015 after featuring as the iconic Moira Rose in Schitt’s Creek.
“I just wanted to have a character that I wanted to live with,” Catherine had said about her role. “The fact that anyone else cares about her or finds her entertaining, or even thinks she's crazy, or some people actually talk about how they learn something from her.”
She won an Emmy Award in 2020 for Schitt’s Creek. Accepting the honour, O’Hara thanked creators Eugene and Dan Levy "for the opportunity to play a woman of a certain age -- my age -- who gets to fully be her ridiculous self," and said she would be "forever grateful" to the team behind the series.
While she was considered one of the stars of comedic roles, O’Hara also played dramatic roles with equal ease. She earned Emmy nominations for her performance in HBO's The Last of Us and for her recent role as a Hollywood producer in The Studio, which also earned her a Golden Globe nomination.
O'Hara is survived by her husband, production designer Bo Welch, and their two sons, Matthew and Luke.
