Catherine O’Hara, Emmy-winning star of Schitt's Creek, Home Alone and Beetlejuice, dies at 71

The Canadian-born performer was beloved for roles in Home Alone, Beetlejuice and, more recently, Schitt’s Creek, which earned her an Emmy in 2020.

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Emmy-winning actress Catherine O'Hara, who starred in Schitt's Creek and Home Alone, has died at the age of 71, her management agency said Friday (Jan 30).

The Canadian-born performer also starred in Beetlejuice and recently Apple TV's Hollywood satire show The Studio.

A person who answered the phone at her manager Marc Gurvitz's office confirmed the actress's death to AFP, but did not give any further details.

O'Hara was born in Toronto in 1954, where she joined the legendary comedy theatre Second City, alongside Eugene Levy, with whom she would collaborate throughout her career, including on the smash TV series Schitt's Creek.

Her break into movies came in 1980 with Double Negative – also alongside Levy, and John Candy.

In 1988, she played Winona Ryder's stepmother in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice. She would later marry the film's production designer Bo Welch. The couple had two sons, Matthew and Luke.

But it was in 1990 that she became widely known to a global audience, as the mother of Macaulay Culkin's Kevin in Home Alone.

"It's a perfect movie, isn't it?" she told People in 2024.

"You want to be part of something good, and that's how you go," she said.

She would reprise the role in the film's sequel – Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, which featured a cameo from Donald Trump, decades before he would become US president.

In 1993 she collaborated again with Burton on The Nightmare before Christmas.

But she is perhaps best known by modern audiences for her role in Schitt's Creek, created by Eugene Levy's son, Dan Levy.

"I used to mostly get people named Kevin who'd come up to me and ask me to yell 'Kevin!' in their faces," O'Hara told People, in reference to her famous line in Home Alone.

"Now it's mostly about (her character) Moira and Schitt's Creek. I've never gotten this kind of attention in my life. It's crazy." 

The role brought her an Emmy for best lead actress in 2020. She was also awarded a Golden Globe and a SAG Award.

As news of her death percolated through Hollywood on Friday, fellow performers were quick to react.

"Mama. I thought we had time," Culkin wrote on Instagram, alongside a picture of the pair of them in Home Alone.

"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."

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