{"id":439969,"date":"2026-01-31T01:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T01:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/439969\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T01:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T01:49:08","slug":"catherine-ohara-home-alone-and-schitts-creek-actor-dies-at-71","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/439969\/","title":{"rendered":"Catherine O’Hara, ‘Home Alone’ and ‘Schitt’s Creek’ actor, dies at 71"},"content":{"rendered":"

In recent years, O\u2019Hara enjoyed a late-career renaissance and introduced herself to a new generation of television viewers as the daffy former soap opera star Moira Rose on \u201cSchitt\u2019s Creek,\u201d a defining role that earned her an Emmy Award in 2020.<\/p>\n

In her acceptance speech<\/a>, she thanked the show\u2019s co-creators \u2014 the father-and-son duo Eugene and Dan Levy \u2014 for \u201cthe opportunity to play a woman of a certain age, my age, who gets to fully be her ridiculous self.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also joined the supporting casts of the acclaimed Apple TV+ show business satire \u201cThe Studio\u201d and the post-apocalyptic HBO drama \u201cThe Last of Us,\u201d adapted from a popular video game franchise of the same name.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, genius to be near you. Eternally grateful,\u201d Pedro Pascal, the star of \u201cThe Last of Us,\u201d posted on Instagram in a tribute to O\u2019Hara. \u201cThere is less light in my world, this lucky world that had you, will keep you, always.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

In 2021, O\u2019Hara received the Governor General\u2019s Performing Arts Award, the most prestigious honor bestowed on Canadian performers. \u201cShe is a cultural trailblazer whose international success has inspired many artists and helped pave the way for the next generation of women in comedy,\u201d her citation read.<\/a><\/p>\n

Catherine Anne O\u2019Hara was born March 4, 1954, in Toronto. She launched her acting career with the famed Second City comedy troupe, a formative experience she later described as her personal \u201cuniversity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned writing, scene structure, character development,\u201d O\u2019Hara was later quoted as saying. \u201cEverything I\u2019m still tapping into, and I was fortunate to meet all those wonderful, talented people with whom I still get to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SaturdayCatherine O’Hara in 1981.NBC<\/p>\n

O\u2019Hara and her other Second City peers \u2014 including future stars such as John Candy, Eugene Levy, Rick Moranis and Martin Short \u2014 brought their sketch talents to television with the influential \u201cSCTV\u201d series, Canada\u2019s answer to NBC\u2019s \u201cSaturday Night Live.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSCTV\u201d brought O\u2019Hara her first Emmy Award, for outstanding writing, and served as her entr\u00e9e to Hollywood.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Hara picked up television work throughout the early 1980s before gaining wider notice with parts in mainstream Hollywood features, including Martin Scorsese\u2019s \u201cAfter Hours\u201d (1985) and Mike Nichols\u2019 \u201cHeartburn\u201d (1986). \u201cBeetlejuice\u201d (1988) gave her a signature role as the eccentric sculptor Delia Deetz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In recent years, O\u2019Hara enjoyed a late-career renaissance and introduced herself to a new generation of television viewers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88],"class_list":["post-439969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}