The entertainment world lost one of its most beloved and versatile talents on January 30, 2026, when Catherine O’Hara passed away at her Los Angeles home following a brief illness. She was 71.
For those of us who grew up watching SCTV in the late ’70s and early ’80s, O’Hara was more than just a funny face on screen. She was part of a golden era of Canadian comedy that shaped what we find hilarious to this day. Alongside Eugene Levy, John Candy, Martin Short, Andrea Martin, and Rick Moranis, she helped create a sketch comedy show that rivaled anything coming out of Studio 8H in New York.
O’Hara got her start at Toronto’s Second City comedy troupe in 1974, where she served as an understudy to Gilda Radner before Radner left for Saturday Night Live. When SCTV launched in 1976, O’Hara’s gift for impressions and character work flourished. Her takes on Lucille Ball, Katharine Hepburn, and Brooke Shields were spot-on, but it was her original characters like the impossibly cheerful Lola Heatherton that truly showcased her genius. That Emmy she won for writing in 1982? Well deserved.
Then came the movies we all took our kids and grandkids to see. Tim Burton cast her as the delightfully dramatic Delia Deetz in Beetlejuice (1988), a role she reprised just recently in the sequel. But for many families, it was 1990’s Home Alone that made her unforgettable. As Kate McCallister, the frantic mother who realizes mid-flight that she’s left her son behind, O’Hara brought genuine heart to a role that could have been one-note in lesser hands.
Her collaborations with Christopher Guest gave us some of the funniest mockumentaries ever made. Who can forget Cookie Fleck in Best in Show, the Norwich terrier owner whose past romantic entanglements kept popping up at the dog show? Or her folk singer Mickey Crabbe reuniting with ex-partner Mitch (Eugene Levy) in A Mighty Wind?
And just when we thought her best work was behind her, along came Schitt’s Creek. As Moira Rose, the former soap opera star with an inexplicable accent and a closet full of wigs, O’Hara created her most iconic character yet. The show introduced her to a whole new generation of fans and earned her an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2020. At 66, she was proving that comedy has no expiration date.
O’Hara is survived by her husband, production designer Bo Welch, whom she met on the set of Beetlejuice, and their two sons, Matthew and Luke. She was the sixth of seven children in her Irish-Catholic Toronto family, and her sister Mary Margaret O’Hara is a noted singer-songwriter.
In an industry that often sidelines women of a certain age, Catherine O’Hara kept working, kept making us laugh, and kept reminding us why we fell in love with her in the first place. As her Schitt’s Creek co-star Pedro Pascal wrote: “There is less light in my world.”
Ours too, Pedro. Ours too.
Rest in peace, Catherine. Thanks for all the laughs.