Actress Catherine O’Hara, a legendary comedian best known for her roles as Kevin McAllister’s mom in “Home Alone” and as Moira in “Schitt’s Creek,” died Friday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 71.
O’Hara’s manager confirmed her death to People magazine. Variety reported that she died after a brief illness.
Early life
O’Hara was born in Toronto in 1954, and was the second youngest of seven children. That didn’t stop her from finding the spotlight, however.
She started her acting career playing the Virgin Mary in a Nativity play. When she graduated high school, she took a waitressing job with the Second City Theater in Toronto.
When she auditioned to join the company, she was told to stick to her day job, waitressing. But, O’Hara was not deterred. She auditioned again and made the company, where she met comedian Eugene Levy, who would go on to play her husband in “Schitt’s Creek.”
She won her first Emmy for her work on the sketch comedy show “Second City Television” and later appeared in director Christopher Guest’s mockumentary comedies “Best in Show,” “For Your Consideration,” “Waiting for Guffman” and “A Mighty Wind.”
“Catherine is one of not many actresses that can pull off both sides of this, where she’s incredibly funny but can also shift into an emotional area that surprises people and it’s just amazing, that transition,” Guest once said.
O’Hara, who also appeared in 1988’s “Beetlejuice” and its 2024 sequel, won her second Emmy for “Schitt’s Creek” and appeared in HBO’s “The Last of Us.”
“Oh, genius to be near you,” Pedro Pascal, her co-star on “The Last of Us,” wrote Friday on Instagram. “Eternally grateful. There is less light in my world, this lucky world that had you, will keep you, always. Always.”
Most recently, O’Hara portrayed a former Hollywood studio executive in the Apple TV series “The Studio.”
Iconic work
Despite her extensive credits, O’Hara was most identified with her work in two “Home Alone” movies and on “Schitt’s Creek.”
In 2020, O’Hara told People magazine that fans used to ask her to scream “Kevin!” all the time, as she did in “Home Alone.” However, that changed when “Schitt’s Creek” came out.
“Now it’s mostly Schitt’s Creek,” she told People. “It’s amazing. CBC [Canadian Broadcasting Corporation] made sure everyone in Canada saw the show, then Pop TV did a great job in the U.S. promoting it, and then Netflix just served it to the world. And then our lovely viewers, who watch our show, forced everyone they know to love to watch our show.”
O’Hara played a very quirky mother with unusual dialogue, wild outfits, and plenty of wigs. And the wigs? They were O’Hara’s idea.
She suggested that her character wear different wigs based on her mood during the scene.
“I suggested, or actually begged for it,” O’Hara said. “When we were all developing our characters, I said, ‘I’d like to wear a wig depending on my mood.’ It kind of scared everyone at the beginning, like ‘Wait a minute, how much work are you asking the hair department to do and how much planning is there?’ And I said, ‘No, it’s according to how she feels that day.’”
O’Hara is survived by her husband, Bo Welch, and two sons, Luke and Matthew Welch.
