{"id":443936,"date":"2026-01-30T22:53:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T22:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/443936\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T22:53:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T22:53:07","slug":"catherine-ohara-home-alone-star-dead-at-71-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/443936\/","title":{"rendered":"Catherine O\u2019Hara, \u2018Home Alone\u2019 star, dead at 71"},"content":{"rendered":"

Catherine O\u2019Hara<\/a>, the Toronto-born actor and comedian who got her start waitressing at the Second City comedy club and became a movie and TV<\/a> legend with titles like \u201cHome Alone\u201d and \u201cSchitt\u2019s Creek,\u201d has died at the age of 71.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Hara died at her home in Los Angeles \u201cfollowing a brief illness,\u201d according to a statement from her agency, CAA. Further details were not immediately available.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Hara\u2019s profile had never been higher since starring in the Canadian TV comedy \u201cSchitt\u2019s Creek.\u201d The series, which ran from 2015 to 2020, swept the comedy categories at the 2020 Primetime Emmy Awards, earning O\u2019Hara the trophy for outstanding lead actress.<\/p>\n

Remembering Catherine O\u2019Hara<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was her second Emmy but only her first for acting; she won in 1982 as a writer for the beloved Canadian sketch comedy series \u201cSCTV.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Hara was back in Emmys contention this past September as a double nominee: for best supporting actress for comedy juggernaut \u201cThe Studio\u201d and for guest actress in the drama \u201cThe Last of Us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her \u201cStudio\u201d role, playing the former head of a movie company alongside fellow Canadian Seth Rogen, also earned O\u2019Hara a 2026 Golden Globe nomination.<\/p>\n

\"catherine<\/p>\n

Catherine O\u2019Hara as Moira Rose in a scene from \u201cSchitt\u2019s Creek.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

AP<\/p>\n

During a 2023 interview<\/a> with the Star, when she won the Canadian Screen Awards\u2019 Academy Icon Award, O\u2019Hara marvelled at all the attention \u201cSchitt\u2019s Creek\u201d had brought her.<\/p>\n

She had recently attended a Dior fashion show in Paris.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was the first time I\u2019d ever been invited to go to Paris, first (time) to get dressed in some beautiful, beautiful clothes, get flown to Paris, put in this amazingly beautiful hotel, and attend the fashion show and sit between Daniel (Levy, her \u201cSchitt\u2019s Creek\u201d co-star) and Anna Wintour,\u201d O\u2019Hara said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom there, my husband and I went to Abu Dhabi for the Forbes 30\/50 global women\u2019s summit, where we got to meet Gloria Steinem and Billie Jean King and Hillary Clinton.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Hara may have been star-struck at the company she was keeping, but she made an indelible mark on the entertainment world going back to the 1970s, when she joined a troupe of fellow Canadian comedians in the irreverent \u201cSCTV.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that comedy series, O\u2019Hara created memorable characters like lounge singer Lola Heatherton and the risqu\u00e9 Dusty Towne, and impersonated celebrities, including Katharine Hepburn.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n \"Catherine
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

O\u2019Hara stayed with \u201cSCTV\u201d throughout the \u201970s and into the early \u201980s, before moving on to beloved roles in \u201cBeetlejuice\u201d and as the harried mother who leaves her child (Macaulay Culkin) behind in \u201cHome Alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was a staple of Christopher Guest\u2019s mockumentary movies, including \u201cWaiting for Guffman,\u201d \u201cBest in Show,\u201d \u201cA Mighty Wind\u201d \u2014 in which she and Eugene Levy played folksinging ex-lovers \u2014 and \u201cFor Your Consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSCTV\u201d producer Andrew Alexander was one of the earliest champions of O\u2019Hara\u2019s talent when she joined his Second City comedy theatre in the mid-1970s. In a Friday interview with the Star, Alexander said O\u2019Hara\u2019s commitment to building characters was evident from the start, pointing to her streetwise persona, Moneypenny, as an early memorable bit on the improv comedy scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had such an instinct to play it as real as possible,\u201d Alexander said in a phone interview. \u201cShe hadn\u2019t had a ton of training; she just had it. Every show that would go by onstage, you\u2019d see her confidence increase.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alexander said O\u2019Hara\u2019s sincerity and self-deprecating humour never faded as her popularity took off. \u201cThat Irish Catholic always shone through,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Tributes began rolling in for O\u2019Hara on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Culkin, who starred alongside O\u2019Hara in two \u201cHome Alone\u201d movies, posted photos of the duo on Instagram<\/a>\u00a0with the caption,\u00a0\u201cMama. 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\u2019ll see you later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney posted<\/a> on X, \u201cCanada has lost a legend.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Instagram, Sarah Polley<\/a> wrote, \u201cShe was the kindest and the classiest. How could she also have been the funniest person in the world? And she was at the very top of her game. There won\u2019t be another like her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pop crooner Michael Bubl\u00e9 posted on X that \u201cheartbroken doesn\u2019t even begin to cover it\u201d about O\u2019Hara\u2019s passing.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe wasn\u2019t just a legendary artist, actor and comedian. She was an ambassador for Canada in the truest sense: brilliant, fearless, deeply original, and so full of humanity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Director Ron Howard called O\u2019Hara\u2019s death \u201cshattering news,\u201d in a post on X. \u201cWhat a wonderful person, artist and collaborator,\u201d he wrote. \u201cShe was simply growing more brilliant with each year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"catherine<\/p>\n

Catherine O\u2019Hara, left, and Andrea Martin at the 1982 ACTRA Awards in Toronto.<\/p>\n

Frank Lennon Frank Lennon<\/p>\n

O\u2019Hara told the Star her career was the result of happenstance rather than planning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never had this kind of foresight or ambition. I\u2019ve lived in the moment,\u201d she said. \u201cBut, you know, it makes me realize how lucky I am, and very grateful to still be working and still be working with someone like Eugene (Levy), who I met on my very first job.\u201d<\/p>\n

That job was waitressing at the Second City in Toronto, where Levy was part of the cast.<\/p>\n

But it was another legendary female comedian who sparked O\u2019Hara to seek her own career in comedy.<\/p>\n

Late American comedian Gilda Radner was dating O\u2019Hara\u2019s older brother, Marcus, and so was a visitor at the O\u2019Hara home. And Catherine got to watch her perform at Second City and in a now revered 1972 production of \u201cGodspell\u201d in Toronto.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never would have seen being silly, funny, playing characters, doing impersonations, which I did with my friends and family, as maybe a possible job, let alone a career, without Gilda,\u201d O\u2019Hara said.<\/p>\n

\"catherine<\/p>\n

Catherine O\u2019Hara in \u201cHome Alone\u201d (1990), one of her most iconic roles.<\/p>\n

Twentieth Century Fox<\/p>\n

O\u2019Hara followed Radner to Second City where, besides waitressing, she understudied Radner and Rosemary Radcliffe before replacing Gilda in the company when the latter left for New York to become a founding cast member of \u201cSaturday Night Live.\u201d (Radner died of ovarian cancer in 1989.)<\/p>\n

Second City, O\u2019Hara told the Star, became her \u201cuniversity of comedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was also where she made contact with a comedian who would play a formative role throughout her career, particularly in the latter stages.<\/p>\n

Eugene Levy, who went on to become O\u2019Hara\u2019s \u201cSCTV\u201d cast mate and her co-star in the Guest mockumentaries, had to talk her into doing \u201cSchitt\u2019s Creek,\u201d which he cocreated with his son, Daniel.<\/p>\n

But Moira Rose, the overly dramatic former soap opera star forced to move into a rundown motel in a small town with her husband (Levy) and their two kids, became O\u2019Hara\u2019s defining role \u2014 beloved for everything from her affected way of speaking to her multitude of wigs to the outrageous designer fashions she continued to wear despite the family\u2019s straitened circumstances.<\/p>\n

In an interview with the Star in 2019, O\u2019Hara said she would \u201cdefend (Moira) to the death.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI really think (Moira is) making the best of a bad situation and being totally courteous to everyone, as courteous as a human being can be under the circumstances,\u201d O\u2019Hara said when it was suggested that Moira was selfish. \u201cAt the same time I think she\u2019s been a very good wife, not bringing (the loss of their fortune) up to Johnny (Levy) every day, which I might do in real life.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cI feel so grateful to be getting a chance to still work hard and be ridiculous at my age.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patty Leigh, the character O\u2019Hara played in multiple Emmy-winning comedy \u201cThe Studio,\u201d was very different than Moira: pragmatic, canny and not at all flashy. After being replaced by Seth Rogen\u2019s character as movie studio head, Patty carves out a niche for herself as a producer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just went by the script and how these things would make me feel if I ever was in that kind of position of power and lost it overnight, and then tried to scrooch my way back in and get to do something I really dreamed of doing,\u201d O\u2019Hara told Star writer Max Gao last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Studio,\u201d which won a record 13 Emmy Awards for its first season, is an affectionate satire about Hollywood co-written by two Canadians, Rogen and Evan Goldberg.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Hara said that \u201cCanadians have an extra special sense of humour \u2026 because they\u2019re able to make fun of themselves\u00a0\u2026 The greatest gift is to be able to laugh at yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

And laugh at herself O\u2019Hara did, refusing to take seriously the adulation that came from her many roles.<\/p>\n

In fact, O\u2019Hara said she wasn\u2019t even the funniest person in her large Irish-Catholic family when she grew up in Toronto.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents had just the beautiful gift of always finding the humour in everything,\u201d O\u2019Hara said in the 2023 interview. And they were both really funny.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom \u2026 went into the dog-eat-dog world of real estate. But she came home with great characters, and my dad would go to the office at CPR and come back with great jokes.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody in my family\u2019s funny and I think you\u2019re really fortunate if that\u2019s encouraged from childhood, because it\u2019s such a great way to survive in this world is to find a way to laugh at yourself and others.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Hara added that her upbringing and her faith had given her \u201ca healthy sense of myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for her accolades \u2014 which included the Order of Canada and a Governor General\u2019s Performing Arts Award for lifetime achievement \u2014 O\u2019Hara was modest. She called the Academy Icon Award, for instance, \u201ca lovely gift. Very kind strangers, for some reason, decided to give it to me, so thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though O\u2019Hara had lived in the U.S. for years, she considered herself a proud Canadian \u201cand I mention it probably too often to anybody who will listen. I wear my Order of Canada pin proudly.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Hara leaves behind her husband, production designer Bo Welch \u2014 whom she met on the set of \u201cBeetlejuice\u201d \u2014 sons Matthew and Luke, and her siblings Michael O\u2019Hara, Mary Margaret O\u2019Hara, Maureen Jolley, Marcus O\u2019Hara, Tom O\u2019Hara and Patricia Wallice.<\/p>\n

A statement from her representatives said the family will hold a private celebration of her life.<\/p>\n

With files from David Friend, the Canadian Press and the Associated Press.<\/p>\n