Home Alone and Schitt’s Creek star Catherine O’Hara dies aged 71

LOS ANGELES – Emmy-winning actress Catherine O’Hara, who starred in American comedy film Home Alone (1990) and Canadian sitcom Schitt’s Creek (2015 to 2020), has died at the age of 71, her management agency said on Jan 30.

The Canada-born performer also starred in American horror comedy Beetlejuice (1988) and Apple TV’s Hollywood satire show The Studio (2025 to present).

Her manager Marc Gurvitz’s office confirmed the actress’ death to AFP, without any further details.

American celebrity news website Page Six, citing a fire department spokesman, said O’Hara was rushed to hospital before dawn from her home in the swanky Brentwood area of Los Angeles.

AFP was not immediately able to confirm that.

O’Hara was born in Toronto in 1954. She joined the legendary comedy theatre Second City, alongside Canadian actor Eugene Levy, with whom she would collaborate throughout her career, including on the hit TV series Schitt’s Creek.

Her break into movies came in 1980 with Double Negative – also alongside Levy, and late Canadian actor John Candy.

In 1988, she played American actress Winona Ryder’s stepmother Delia in director Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice, which led to a recent sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024).

O’Hara would later marry Beetlejuice’s production designer Bo Welch. The couple had two sons, Matthew and Luke.

But it was in 1990 that she became widely known to a global audience, as the mother of then child actor Macaulay Culkin’s character Kevin in Home Alone. “It’s a perfect movie, isn’t it?” she told People magazine in 2024. “You want to be part of something good, and that’s how you go.”

She would reprise the role in the film’s sequel – Home Alone 2: Lost In New York (1992), which featured a cameo from businessman Donald Trump, decades before he would become United States President.

In 1993, she collaborated again with Burton on American stop-motion fantasy film The Nightmare Before Christmas, voicing the characters Sally and Shock.

O’Hara also appeared in British film-maker Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries that revel in silly spectacles of Americana, like zany dog handlers in Best In Show (2000), vain folk singers in A Mighty Wind (2003) and award-hungry actors in For Your Consideration (2006).

But the versatile actress is perhaps best known for her role as Moira in Schitt’s Creek, created by Levy’s son, actor-director Dan Levy.

“I used to mostly get people named Kevin who’d come up to me and ask me to yell ‘Kevin!’ in their faces,” she told People, in reference to her famous line in Home Alone. “Now, it’s mostly about Moira and Schitt’s Creek. I’ve never gotten this kind of attention in my life. It’s crazy.”

The role – about a wealthy woman whose family has fallen on hard times – brought her an Emmy for best lead actress in 2020. She was also awarded a Golden Globe and a SAG Award.

As news of her death spread on Jan 30, fellow performers and other luminaries were quick to pay their tributes.

“Mama. I thought we had time,” Culkin, 45, wrote on Instagram, alongside a picture of them in Home Alone. “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.”

Burton, 67, uploaded on social media a photo of himself and the late actress on the set of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice with Ryder, lead actor Michael Keaton and actress Jenna Ortega, who played Ryder’s daughter. 

“Catherine, I love you,” the film-maker wrote. “This picture shows how much light you gave to all of us. You were a special part of my life and after life.”

Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said he and other Canadians were mourning O’Hara’s death.

“Over five decades of work, Catherine earned her place in the canon of Canadian comedy,” he wrote on social media. “Canada has lost a legend. My thoughts are with her family, friends, and all those who loved her work on screen. She will be dearly missed.” AFP