Tributes to Catherine O’Hara keep coming: “Sad day for everyone who loves to laugh”

Tributes continued to pour in for Canadian comedy giant Catherine O’Hara, who died Friday at 71.

Eugene Levy, who worked with O’Hara on multiple projects over five decades, said he cherished their friendship.

“Words seem inadequate to express the loss I feel today. I had the honor of knowing and working with the great Catherine O’Hara for over fifty years,” Levy said in a statement. “From our beginnings on the Second City stage, to SCTV, to the movies we did with Chris Guest, to our six glorious years on Schitt’s Creek, I cherished our working relationship, but most of all our friendship.”

O’Hara died in her Los Angeles home following a brief illness, her agency said.

O’Hara was nominated for 10 Emmys over her career, and won twice. She earned one in 1982 for her writing on “SCTV Network” and a second nearly 40 years later for playing Moira Rose in “Schitt’s Creek.” She also received numerous Canadian Screen Awards for that role, as well as a Golden Globe in 2021.

O’Hara got her start at Second City Toronto, working as a waitress. She later joined the sketch comedy troupe’s cast and then its television adaptation.

Dave Thomas worked with O’Hara primarily at Second City and “SCTV.” He said he wasn’t doing interviews as “this is all too sad for words,” but offered a statement about O’Hara.

“The best that can be said about any of us in this life is that we left the world a better place after having been here. That can certainly be said of my dear friend Catherine O’Hara,” Thomas wrote.

“She brought joy to so many, lighting every room with her mischievous twinkling eyes and relentlessly playful desire to laugh and make everyone else laugh. This is a sad day for everyone who loves to laugh.”

Her acting credits included a number of memorable characters, including key roles in “Home Alone,” “Beetlejuice,” “For Your Consideration” and more recently ‘The Studio.”

The cast and producers of the “The Studio,” for which she received Golden Globe and Actor Award nominations, also issued a statement.

“She was a hero to all of us, and we pinched ourselves every day that we got to work with her on The Studio,” it said.

On top of her acting awards and nominations, O’Hara was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2007, was named to the Order of Canada in 2018 and received a Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards lifetime achievement award in 2021.

–With files from Nicole Thompson and Alex Nino Gheciu

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 31, 2026.

The Canadian Press