Catherine O’Hara (born March 4, 1954, Toronto, Canada), best known for her performances in Beetlejuice (1988), Home Alone & sequel, Lost in New York (1990, 1992) as well as the TV sitcom Schitt’s Creek (2015-2020), has been well-acclaimed for her adroit suffusion of humour and humanity in a slew of off-kilter roles. On January 30, 2026, the Canadian-American actor passed away in Los Angeles, USA, aged 71, after a brief illness.
From understudy at the improvisational comedy club Second City Theatre to a cast member of their sketch comedy TV show SCTV, O’Hara was popular for celebrity impersonations and as a character actor. With SCTV rising to a late-night slot in the United States in 1981, O’Hara took on a brief stint at Saturday Night Live, before rejoining the former show and winning an Emmy for writing contributions in 1982. By the time of its end, SCTV had afforded O’Hara roles as secondary characters in a variety of films, notably Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice, in which she played Delia, the living landowner of a haunted house. She became famous as a pitiful parent via the classic Home Alone films, unintentionally abandoning her young son Kevin whilst off on holiday, not once but twice, in 1990 and 1992.
In 2015, O’Hara signed on for Eugene and Daniel Levy’s series Schitt’s Creek, giving rise to the most outrageous and endeared character she ever played. Moira Rose, a former soap opera star, finds herself exiled to a rundown motel in the titular town which has had no initiation to her sort of excess; her eccentric wardrobe, unworldly accent, many named and personified wigs as well as her perpetual and disobliging emotional honesty. O’Hara won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her performance in the series.
Perhaps, more importantly, through this role and many others, O’Hara set a precedent in championing a radical, thorough acceptance and wholehearted commitment to selfhood, taking up space despite pressures to shrink and shirk the former. Moira exists as a union of many contradictions. Her costume-ish style and bold personality signal performance where there is but absolute honesty. Furthermore, Moira’s love towards her family exists not at the erasure of herself–controversially, she loves them as herself. Yet, come to celebrate them, as at her son David’s wedding to his partner, Patrick, she shows up to officiate the union, dressed as a pope. She does this with no hesitation, only sincere love and great commitment. O’Hara made oddities comfortable, embracing and endearing—that is the message that reverberates through her artistry and legacy.
O’Hara’s later work included 2023’s Pain Hustlers, a drama on the opioid crisis, 2024’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, a sequel to the 1988 film also directed by Burton and several roles in acclaimed TV series. In 2017, O’Hara was deemed an Officer of the Order of Canada and in 2020, received the Governor General’s Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award. She is succeeded by her spouse Bo Welch and their children, and fondly remembered by colleagues and audiences in this hour of her passing.
“Catherine O’Hara-63919 (cropped 2)” by Harald Krichel is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
