Posted on 01/31/2026 9:56:58 AM PST by fidelis
Catherine O'Hara, the comedic actress best known for her starring roles in the Home Alone and Beetlejuice films, as well as her Emmy-winning turn in Schitt's Creek, has died aged 71.
The Canadian star rose to fame through Toronto's Second City improvisation troupe and on SCTV, before making a name for herself in the US in 1988's Beetlejuice and as the matriarch in the holiday classic Home Alone.
O'Hara, whose colleagues remembered her as a "wonderful person, artist and collaborator", most recently appeared in the Emmy-winning comedy The Studio and HBO's The Last of Us.
In a statement to the BBC, O'Hara's agent said she died on Friday at her home in Los Angeles following a brief illness.
O'Hara had a late-career surge thanks to the Canadian comedy series Schitt's Creek, which became one of the biggest hits of the Covid lockdown.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
I can only imagine the grief Eugene Levy must feel. To him I’m sure it’s like losing a family member, as far back as they went.
She’ll be missed. I still remember her from SCTV.
She looked ok for her age in The Last of Us but she didn’t look that good in The Studio.
I do hope she didn’t die at home alone and up schitt’s creek.
I see what you did there.
For sure. And she wasn't a disappointment like his son.
I was laughing so hard watching Eugene playing Alex Trebek on Half-Wits on SCTV, he totally blew away Will Ferrell’s Trebek.
She is the only reason to watch that Beetlejuice sequel that came out recently. It seems like she was having a better career as an older actress than when she was younger.
Blame it on a condition known as CRS. Crappy Irish Skin. It's real, and it's really sad.
RIP Catherine O’Hara. She made us laugh.
Schittz Creek was not a bit funny. She was OK in Home Alone. My wife watched the Schitz Creek program on Netflix and she somehow thought it was hilarious but I thought it was funny in an NPR sort of way. She has a much higher tolerance for stupid than I do. The only reason to name a show shits creek is so they can say shit a lot. A comedian will usually try being funny before going to the toilet but shits creak starts at the toilet. The poor woman would have been much better off doing a different show.
Going to her beginnings, check out SCTV from the early 1980s. She was brilliant!
So many sketch comedians came from that short lived Canadian show.
I have Irish skin also...lol Want to hear something funny. I’ve been watching Foundation on Apple tv and an actress in it that was also in 24 was someone that I felt was in my family line just based off her looks...so today I looked her family up and sure enough she’s in my Irish line...lol
I put Catherine right up there with Gilda. And that’s saying something.
I also loved her. Meant to say that in earlier post.
Before I'd ever heard of her or seen her before, she was in a Second City tour, and finished the show (which was purportedly an improv) talking about how she'd worked with and knew Belushi et al, and that she hoped we'd someday see her in movies like them. 😁
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