Actress Catherine O’Hara, best known for Home Alone and Schitt’s Creek, dies at age 71 Catherine O’Hara

Catherine O’Hara, the actress known for Schitt’s Creek, Home Alone and Best Show, has died at the age of 71.

Her manager confirmed the news to Variety magazine. She died after a short illness.

O’Hara began her comedy career in the 1970s and helped create the Canadian sketch show SCTV. She entered the world of film in the 1980s with her first big screen credit in the romantic comedy Nothing Personal with Donald Sutherland, and in 1985 she had a role in Martin Scorsese’s black comedy After Hours.

In 1988, O’Hara starred in Tim Burton’s horror-comedy Beetlejuice and later reprized the role in its 2024 sequel. On the set of the original, she met her husband, production designer Beau Welch, and they married in 1992.

O’Hara played Macaulay Culkin’s neglectful mother in the 1990 comedy Home Alone, a role she also reprized in the 1992 sequel.

“It’s a perfect movie, isn’t it?” She said of Home Alone to People in 2024. “It was beautiful. All those kids playing with our kids were amazing,” she added of the experience.

She began working with Christopher Guest in 1996, starring in the mockumentary Waiting for Goffman and starring in three of his other films: Best in Show, A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration in 2006.

Guest praised O’Hara for her ability to master both comedy and drama in their latest collaboration together. “Catherine is one of the few actresses who can pull off both sides, where she’s incredibly funny but can also shift into emotional territory that surprises people, which is really amazing, that shift,” he said.

O’Hara has also lent her voice to numerous animated films including Chicken Little, Over the Hedge, Monster House, Frankenweenie, and most recently, The Wild Robot.

On the small screen, she had roles on The Larry Sanders Show, Six Feet Under, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and 30 Rock before reuniting with another guest actor, Eugene Levy, on the hit sitcom Schitt’s Creek.

“It’s always more fun to work with someone you know,” she told The Guardian in 2021. “I get very nervous doing solo parts – it’s too much pressure and it feels like showing off. With someone else, you get to share the brag.”

The show, about a wealthy family forced to downsize, ran for six seasons and won O’Hara an Emmy Award.

Her recent television roles have also included A Series of Unfortunate Events and The Last of Us, which earned her an Emmy nomination.

Her Last of Us co-star Pedro Pascal paid tribute on Instagram. “What a genius to be near you,” he wrote. “Forever grateful. There is less light in my world, this lucky world that had you, will always keep you.”

O’Hara was most recently seen in the award-winning comedy series The Studio with Seth Rogen. The role earned her Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.

Ron Howard, who directed O’Hara in the 1992 comedy-drama The Paper, paid his respects on social media today.

“This is disturbing news,” he wrote. “What an amazing person, artist and collaborator. I’ve been fortunate enough to direct, produce and star in projects with her and she simply shines more with every year.”

Rita Wilson also described her as “authentic and honest in everything she did” on Instagram.

“I’m always drawn to characters who have no idea what impression they make on others,” she said in 2021. “We’re all really delusional, and I love that about us humans and I love playing it.”