Catherine O’Hara death: ‘Home Alone’ co-star Macaulay Culkin leads tributes for beloved actress

WASHINGTON — Catherine O’Hara, a gifted Canadian comic actor and “SCTV” alum who starred as Macaulay Culkin’s harried mother in two “Home Alone” movies and created the dramatically ditzy character of Moira Rose in the Emmy-winning comedy “Schitt’s Creek,” died Friday.

O’Hara died at her home in Los Angeles “following a brief illness,” according to a statement from her agency, Creative Artists Agency. Further details were not immediately available.

Tributes began to pour in for the beloved comic and actor. 

“Mama. I thought we had time. 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. I’ll see you later.” 

“Really don’t know what to say… I told O’Hara when I first met her I thought she was the funniest person I’d ever had the pleasure of watching on screen. Home Alone was the movie that made me want to make movies. Getting to work with her was a true honour. She was hysterical, kind, intuitive, generous… she made me want to make our show good enough to be worthy of her presence in it. This is just devastating. We’re all lucky we got to live in a world with her in it.”

“Oh, genius to be near you. Eternally grateful.  There is less light in my world, this lucky world that had you, will keep you, always.  Always ♥️ The one and ONLY #CatherineOHara“

“Words seem inadequate to express the loss I feel today,” the actor said in a statement to People. “I had the honor of knowing and working with the great Catherine O’Hara for over fifty years.”

“From our beginnings on the Second City stage, to SCTV, to the movies we did with Chris Guest, to our six glorious years on Schitt’s Creek, I cherished our working relationship, but most of all our friendship,” Levy added. “And I will miss her. My heart goes out to Bo, Matthew, Luke, and the entire O’Hara family.””

“What a gift to have gotten to dance in the warm glow of Catherine O’Hara’s brilliance for all those years. Having spent over fifty years collaborating with my Dad, Catherine was extended family before she ever played my family. It’s hard to imagine a world without her in it. I will cherish every funny memory I was fortunate enough to make with her.”

“We go back before the first Beetlejuice. She’s been my pretend wife, my pretend nemesis and my real life, true friend. This one hurts. Man am I gonna miss her. Thinking about Beau as well.”

“Oh Catherine. You will be so so missed.”

“Catherine O’Hara brought love and light to our world, through whipsmart compassion for the collection of eccentrics she portrayed…such a loss for her family and friends, and the audience she graced as friends,” Streep said in a statement shared by the Associated Press.

“Bright, beautiful, and full of joy that touched so many.”

“This is shattering news.  What a wonderful person, artist and collaborator. I was lucky enough to direct, produce and act in projects with her and she was simply growing more brilliant with each year. My heart goes out to Bo & family.”

“Catherine O’Hara – a woman who was authentic and truthful in all she did. You saw it in her work, if you knew her you saw it in her life, and you saw it in her family. Bo, Luke and Matthew, our deepest sympathies. May Catherine rest in peace. May her memory be eternal.”

“BEST OF THE BEST IN SHOW!”

“Fell in love at first sight on SCTV and it only got stronger. Rest In Peace, Angel Catherine O’Hara” 

“Catherine O’Hara was one of a kind. A rare light in this world and her passing hits with a weight I can’t fully put into words.” 

O’Hara’s career was launched at the Second City in Toronto in the in 1970s. It was there that she first worked with Eugene Levy, who would become a lifelong collaborator — and her “Schitt’s Creek” costar. The two would be among the original cast of the sketch show “SCTV,” short for “Second City Television,” which spawned a legendary group of esoteric comedians including Martin Short, John Candy, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis and Joe Flaherty.

“Schitt’s Creek” would be a career-capping triumph and the perfect personification of her comic talents. The small show created by Levy and his son Dan about a wealthy family forced to live in a tiny town would dominate the Emmys in its sixth and final season. It brought O’Hara, always a beloved figure, a new generation of fans and put her at the center of cultural attention.

It also brought a career renaissance that led to a dramatic turn on HBO’s “The Last of Us” and a straitlaced role as a Hollywood producer in “The Studio,” both of which earned her Emmy nominations.

She is survived by her husband, Bo Welch, and sons Matthew and Luke.

Associated Press contributed to this report.