Legendary Actress Catherine O’Hara Has Died at 71

3 min read

THE RUNDOWN

• The actress and comedian passed away at age 71, her manager confirmed.

• No further details were shared.

• In 2024, O’Hara spoke to ELLE Canada about her career and how she was approaching her 70s.

Legendary Canadian actress Catherine O’Hara has passed away at 71, the star’s manager confirmed to People. No further details were shared.

O’Hara is survived by her husband, Bo Welch, and their two sons.

The star had many standout roles throughout her decades-long career, from Home Alone’s Kate McCallister to Schitt’s Creek’s Moira Rose. She appeared in The Studio, The Last of Us, Beetlejuice (and its 2024 sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice), The Nightmare Before Christmas, among many other TV and film projects. She also famously collaborated with Christopher Guest on some of his most famous mockumentaries, including Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind.

O’Hara was born on March 4, 1954, and grew up in a suburb of Toronto. She was one of seven children in a large Irish Catholic family. Her older brother, Marcus, dated Gilda Radner, an original Saturday Night Live cast member, who introduced O’Hara to the world of professional improv at Second City Theater in Toronto.

O’Hara initially worked as a waitress there after high school before auditioning and landing a spot in the troupe in 1974. “Improv is just so freeing,” she told ELLE Canada in its September 2024 issue. “And if you let go, everything feeds you—every person, every character, and everything you’ve ever experienced in your life. I just love to be surrounded by really talented people and feed off of them.”

Her role as Delia Deetz in Tim Burton’s 1988 film Beetlejuice marked a turning point in her career. “You never know how something’s going to be received,” she said in her ELLE Canada interview. “I mean, that’s the magic. That’s the scariest thing. But if you’re lucky enough to work with people who make each day exciting, creative and stimulating, that’s the best, because you really don’t know where it’s gonna go from there. So much of it is luck and timing.”

O’Hara worked closely with Eugene Levy, who was also a member of Canada’s theater scene, for years. When he and his son, Dan Levy, came to her with Schitt’s Creek, which ran from 2015 to 2020, O’Hara didn’t anticipate the TV series, which won her an Emmy in 2020, becoming as big as it did. “You know how we were just saying that there’s no predicting how something’s going to be accepted?” she asked ELLE Canada. “Schitt’s Creek is a freaky example of that, because we did this little show for ourselves.”

During the interview, the then-70-year-old star reflected on what was next for her. “When [you turn] 70—this is advice [I read] for anybody turning any older age—imagine that you’re going to live a minimum of another 20 years,” she said. “What are you going to do with those years? If you look at it that way, you look at it as a challenge. Like, instead of ‘Oh no, I’m going to downsize’ or ‘I’m going to slow down,’ imagine that you are going to live to 90. What are you going to do? You look forward.”