Catherine O’Hara, a Comedy Great from ‘SCTV’ to ‘Schitt’s Creek,’ Dead at 71

Catherine O’Hara, the comic actress best known for her work on SCTV, films like Home Alone and Best In Show, and the hit sitcom Schitt’s Creek, has died. She was 71.

A rep for O’Hara confirmed her death to Rolling Stone, saying she died at her home in Los Angeles after a brief illness.

O’Hara was one of several prominent performers to emerge from the fabled Second City improv comedy troupe in Toronto, alongside the likes of Martin Short, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, and Eugene Levy. Her work on the troupe’s hit sketch show, SCTV, earned her an Emmy Award for writing. Decades later, she took home the trophy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her turn as Moira Rose, the outlandish and loveably out-of-touch former soap opera star she played on Schitt’s Creek. 

In between SCTV and Schitt’s Creek, O’Hara appeared in an array of films and TV shows. To many, she was remembered as Kate McCallister, mother of Kevin in the Home Alone series, while she also popped up in movies like Beetlejuice and Martin Scorsese’s After Hours. O’Hara was also one of filmmaker Christopher Guest’s go-to actresses, appearing in many of his celebrated comedies, like Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration. 

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Speaking with Rolling Stone in 2020, O’Hara credited her home country of Canada for shaping her sense of humor. Though frequently stereotyped as overly nice, O’Hara argued that Canadians “not only have a sense of humor about others, but also about themselves — which I think is the healthiest and best kind of sense of humor to have.” She continued: “And there’s an edge to it — but with compassion and love — but it’s a good, dark sense of humor, too, in there just because of awareness of the world around you.”

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