Catherine O’Hara was a beloved woman by many people for many years. She was most known for her roles in Home Alone, Schitt’s Creek, and Beetlejuice.
Born March 4, 1954 in Toronto, Canada, O’Hara was the sixth of seven children in a Catholic family. O’Hara held dual citizenship in the United States and Canada, and described herself growing up as “pretty much a good Catholic girl at heart”. She graduated from Burnhamthorpe Collegiate Institute in 1974. Her career started as a comedy career that same year with The Second City in Toronto, along with her brother Marcus. O’Hara started as an understudy, then got her big break when she replaced Rosemary Radcliffe in the lead female part while her touring group was in Chicago. By 1976, she was the leading female.
In the mid 1970s, O’Hara began to expand to television with roles as a maid in Wayne and Shuster, The Rimshots, children’s television special Coming Up Rosie, and more. These performances quickly gained traction in Canada and she rose to stardom. Shortly following after, she won her first Emmy and three Emmy nominations.
In the late 1970s, O’Hara began doing voiceovers for cartoons and continued to do so throughout her career. Her feature debut was made in 1980, the film Double Negative
She was later hired by Saturday Night Live to replace Ann Risley but left before the show aired due to her dislike for living in New York City. In 1988, she met her husband on the set of Beetlejuice, who was also the director. They married in 1992 and had two sons.
During the 1990s O’Hara made a number of guest appearances in several popular shows and films, such as Six Feet Under, Tales from the Crypt, Oh Baby, and more. She also starred in a favorite that we all know and love, the Home Alone movie and sequel. Her role in Temple Grandin in 2010 led to three more nominations: a Primetime Emmy Award, a Satellite Award and a Screen Actors Guild award. Child star Macaulay Culkin often called O’Hara “Mom” and she called him “Son”, something that continued throughout her life.
Her career continued to soar. O’Hara received roles in four of Christopher Guest’s mockumentary films. Three of those earned her nominations and awards for her performances. In 1999, she won a Genie Award for Best Performance for her role in The Life Before This. She also served as a voice artist in a few animated films such as The Nightmare Before Christmas, Chicken Little, Frankenweenie, and Where the Wild Things Are.
In 2015, O’Hara started her role as Moira Rose in the popular television series Schitt’s Creek alongside her previous coworker Eugene Levy. She was in this role until 2020. This performance led to her winning six Canadian Screen Awards for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. In the sixth and final season, she won five awards: a TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy, a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress- Television Series Musical or Comedy, a Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series.
Her films and appearances grossed a cumulative $4.3 billion worldwide, and in 2017, she was made an Officer of the Order in Canada. In 2021, she was named honorary mayor of Brentwood, Los Angeles. It’s safe to say that she was an impressive woman.
On January 30th, 2026, the Los Angeles Fire Department received a call from O’Hara’s home in Brentwood regarding a woman having trouble breathing. She was later hospitalized in serious condition and died that day in Santa Monica at the age of 71. Her cause of death was revealed to be a pulmonary embolism with rectal cancer as the underlying cause. A private memorial service was held by her loving family. She is survived by her husband, Bo Welch, and their two sons, Matthew and Luke Welch.
