Canadian comedy giant Catherine O’Hara dead at 71

Canadian comedy giant Catherine O’Hara, known for over-the-top performances in “Schitt’s Creek” and “SCTV” and a memorable turn as a stressed-out mom in “Home Alone,” has died at 71.

She died at her home in Los Angeles Friday “following a brief illness,” her agency said in a written statement. Further details on her cause of death weren’t immediately available.

She’s being remembered as a titan of her field, who used her high profile to uplift Canada along with her.

“It is a very sad day for comedy and for Canada. She was one of the greatest comedy artists in history, an inspiration for millions and above all a very elegant lady,” comedian Mike Myers said in a written statement.

Prime Minister Mark Carney wrote on social media that O’Hara “earned her place in the canon of Canadian comedy,” while Gov.-Gen. Mary Simon called her “a cultural trailblazer and acting legend whose creative genius helped define the Canadian artistic consciousness.”

O’Hara got her start at Second City Toronto, working as a waitress, before joining the sketch comedy troupe’s cast and later its television adaptation, where she did impressions of everyone from Meryl Streep to Brooke Shields to Lucille Ball.

Former Second City CEO Andrew Alexander said O’Hara served as an inspiration for generations of young actresses.

“Her legacy — not only in Canada, it’s a worldwide thing — is her remarkable influence in the kind of work that she was doing,” he said. “She was an inspiration, both as an actress, a comedic actress, and as a human being,” he told The Canadian Press.

Nick Davis, who directed a recent documentary about the 1972 production of “Godspell,” which helped spawn “The Second City,” noted her death came as a shock to many.

“It’s shocking because she was still at the height of her powers,” he said. “She was just so consistently fascinating, and herself, and she had range.”

O’Hara earned an Emmy in 1982 for her writing on “SCTV Network.” She landed her second Emmy statuette nearly 40 years later for playing the outlandish matriarch Moira Rose in “Schitt’s Creek,” as well as a Golden Globe for that role in 2021.

She also received numerous Canadian Screen Awards for the scene-stealing portrayal of the egomaniacal fashionista, a swaggering former soap star bedecked in feathers and sequins despite her family’s fall from fortune.

Dan Levy, who co-created the show alongside his father, Eugene, said it was a “gift to have gotten to dance in the warm glow of Catherine O’Hara’s brilliance for all those years.”

“Having spent over fifty years collaborating with my Dad, Catherine was extended family before she ever played my family,” Levy said of his “Schitt’s Creek” co-star in an Instagram post.

“It’s hard to imagine a world without her in it. I will cherish every funny memory I was fortunate enough to make with her.”

The show was one of O’Hara’s many onscreen collaborations with Eugene Levy, her fellow “SCTV” alum.

The duo had previously teamed up for the 2006 jab at Hollywood awards culture “For Your Consideration,” co-written by Levy and Christopher Guest, and directed by Guest.

She starred as Marilyn Hack, a fading B-list actress who becomes obsessed with the prospect of winning an Oscar. At the time, O’Hara said she preferred to keep out of the awards race.

“I don’t want to get caught taking it seriously. It’s too sad. It’s too sad,” she said. ”You get embarrassed even talking about it.”

O’Hara received two SAG-ACTRA Awards for “Schitt’s Creek” — since renamed the Actor Awards — and is currently nominated for one.

Though she may not have participated in self-aggrandizing campaigns, she was nominated for 10 Emmys over the course of her career.

That includes two last year — one for guest actress in a drama for an appearance on “The Last of Us” and one for supporting actress in a comedy for her role in Seth Rogen’s “The Studio,” for which she also received Golden Globe and Actor Award nominations.

Rogen posted on social media that he was devastated by O’Hara’s death.

“‘Home Alone’ was the movie that made me want to make movies,” he wrote. “Getting to work with her was a true honour. She was hysterical, kind, intuitive, generous … she made me want to make our show good enough to be worthy of her presence in it,” he wrote.

O’Hara played the savvy executive ousted from the studio’s top job but determined to stay in the game. She acted alongside Sarah Polley in that series, who wrote on Instagram that she was lucky to have had the chance to spend time with O’Hara.

“She was the kindest and the classiest. How could she also have been the funniest person in the world? And she was at the very top of her game,” Polley wrote. “There won’t be another like her.”

Ron Howard, who directed O’Hara in the 1994 film “The Paper,” called news of O’Hara’s death “shattering.”

“What a wonderful person, artist and collaborator,” he wrote on social media. “I was lucky enough to direct, produce and act in projects with her and she was simply growing more brilliant with each year.”

O’Hara received the Order of Canada in 2018 and a Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards lifetime achievement award in 2021.

She was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2007, displaying trademark humility.

“‘I’m a proud Canadian, and more than a little embarrassed about all this attention turned my way,” she said. ”And as a proud Canadian I’ll say: ‘Sorry, eh? Sorry for taking up so much of your time.”’

O’Hara is survived by her husband Bo Welch — a production designer she met on the set of “Beetlejuice” in 1987 — and two adult sons, Matthew and Luke.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 30, 2026.

Nicole Thompson and Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press