Who Was Catherine O’Hara?
Catherine O’Hara, the beloved actress who won an Emmy for playing Moira Rose on Schitt’s Creek and starred in Home Alone and Beetlejuice, died on January 30, 2026 at age 71.
She passed away at her Los Angeles home after a brief illness, leaving behind her husband of 34 years and two sons.
Catherine O’Hara died on January 30, 2026 at her home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. She was 71 years old. According to records from the Los Angeles Fire Department, paramedics were called to her residence at 4:48 a.m. for a medical emergency. Despite a quick response, she passed away later that day.
Her representatives at Creative Artists Agency confirmed the news, saying she died after a “brief illness.” They didn’t share specific details about what caused her death, only that it was natural and happened at home.
The news hit fans hard. O’Hara had just wrapped filming on two major TV shows and seemed to be at the top of her game even in her 70s. TMZ broke the story first, followed by confirmation from People magazine and the Associated Press.
From Moira Rose to Hollywood Icon
Most people know Catherine O’Hara as Moira Rose from Schitt’s Creek, the comedy that became a surprise hit when it landed on Netflix. Moira, with her wild wigs and even wilder accent, became one of TV’s most quotable characters. O’Hara didn’t just play the role. She created it.
She designed Moira’s strange way of talking, which mixed different accents and emphasized random syllables. She worked with the costume department to pick out every single wig Moira wore. Each one represented how the character refused to accept her new reality as a broke former soap star.
In 2020, Schitt’s Creek made history at the Emmy Awards by sweeping every comedy category. O’Hara won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, her second Emmy overall and her first for acting. She also won a Golden Globe and a SAG Award for the role.
The Movies That Made Her Famous
Before Schitt’s Creek made her a household name with younger audiences, O’Hara had already spent decades making people laugh in movies.
She’s probably best known for playing Kevin McCallister’s mom in Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992). Her frantic performance as a mother desperate to get back to her forgotten son became iconic.
O’Hara also worked with director Tim Burton multiple times. In Beetlejuice (1988), she played Delia Deetz, a pretentious New York artist. The role is famous for the dinner party scene where she gets possessed and performs “Day-O.”
That movie set changed her life in another way too. She met production designer Bo Welch on set, and they married in 1992.
She returned to voice Sally in The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and came back as Delia Deetz in last year’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024), one of her final film roles.
The Eugene Levy Partnership
One of the most important relationships in O’Hara’s career was her 50-year partnership with Eugene Levy. The two met in the 1970s at Second City Theatre in Toronto, where they briefly dated before becoming lifelong creative partners.
They starred together in the groundbreaking sketch comedy show SCTV in the late 1970s and early 1980s. O’Hara won her first Emmy in 1982 for writing on that show. They later appeared together in four Christopher Guest mockumentaries, including Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), and A Mighty Wind (2003).
Schitt’s Creek, created by Levy and his son Dan Levy, reunited the pair one more time. O’Hara said the partnership lasted so long because of Levy’s “kindness and thoughtfulness,” which gave her a safe space to take risks with her characters.
Her Final Roles
O’Hara didn’t slow down in her final years. In 2025, she appeared in two major TV shows that showed she could still surprise audiences.
In HBO’s The Last of Us Season 2, she played Gail, a therapist in the Jackson commune who had lost her husband to the show’s main character, Joel. The role earned her a 2025 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. It was a darker, more serious performance than fans were used to seeing from her.
At the same time, she starred in Apple TV+’s The Studio alongside Seth Rogen. She played Patty Leigh, a powerful entertainment executive described as wearing “power suits that mask a never-ending sense of panic.” That role got her another Emmy nomination in 2025, this time for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.
Having two Emmy nominations in the same year at age 71 proved O’Hara was still at the peak of her abilities right up until her death.
A Rare Medical Condition
O’Hara had a rare condition called dextrocardia with situs inversus, which meant her heart and other organs were reversed. Her heart was on the right side of her chest instead of the left. The condition affects about 1 in 10,000 people.
Most people with this condition live normal, healthy lives with no symptoms. O’Hara talked about it publicly over the years, and some critics said her ability to see the world differently matched her “mirrored” anatomy. She also caught COVID-19 in May 2025 while filming The Studio but recovered and finished production.
Family and Private Life
Despite playing over-the-top characters on screen, O’Hara kept her personal life quiet and grounded. She’s survived by her husband Bo Welch, whom she was married to for 34 years, and their two sons, Matthew (31) and Luke (29).
The family planned a private celebration of life. O’Hara once said she loved the “joy of shared showing off” with her fellow actors, but she saved her real self for her family.
A Canadian Comedy Legend
Born on March 4, 1954 in Toronto, O’Hara was the sixth of seven children in an Irish Catholic family. She started her career as a waitress at Second City Theatre in Toronto, watching performers like Dan Aykroyd and Gilda Radner work their magic.
When Radner left for Saturday Night Live, O’Hara auditioned and got her spot in the comedy troupe in 1974. It was there she developed her philosophy: “when in doubt, play insane.” That approach became her signature, allowing her to create characters who were completely convinced of their own logic, no matter how absurd.
In Canada, she was considered a national treasure. She received the Order of Canada and the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, cementing her place as one of the country’s most important cultural exports.
Industry Reactions
Tributes poured in from across Hollywood. Pedro Pascal, her co-star in The Last of Us, called her a “genius to be near” and said there was “less light in the world” after her death. Her old colleagues from SCTV, including Martin Short and Andrea Martin, were remembered as part of the groundbreaking group she helped lead in the 1970s.
Critics often called her characters “beloved kooks” and “amiable wackos,” terms that captured her special talent for making crazy people lovable. From the frantic Delia Deetz to the delusional Moira Rose, O’Hara found the humanity in characters that could have easily been just punchlines.
Catherine O’Hara’s death marks the end of a five-decade career that proved insanity could be an art form. She showed audiences that the most over-the-top characters often tell the most honest truths about being human.
Her work lives on through countless performances that will continue to make people laugh and cry for generations to come.
