The great Catherine O’Hara died on Jan. 30 at the age of 71. Here’s how you can watch « Schitt’s Creek » and more to celebrate her life and career.
The entertainment world has lost another one of the greats.
Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress Catherine O’Hara died Friday, Jan. 30, at the age of 71. Her agency CAA confirmed to Variety that she died at her home in Los Angeles after a brief illness.
O’Hara got her start in sketch comedy as a cast member on the Canadian sketch series Second City Television (SCTV); she earned her first Emmy for writing on the series.
She went on to star in films like Beetlejuice, Home Alone and four Christopher Guest mockumentaries, before experiencing a career resurgence thanks to the hit comedy Schitt’s Creek, for which she won her first acting Emmy. In 2025, O’Hara appeared in The Last of Us and The Studio, receiving Emmy nominations for both.
SCTV isn’t streaming online, but these are 11 other O’Hara projects worth checking out to celebrate a tremendous life and career.
O’Hara starred as Delia Deetz, the artsy stepmother to Winona Ryder’s Lydia, in Beetlejuice, which marked the first of her four collaborations with director and screenwriter Tim Burton. She went on to reprise her role in the 2024 sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
Stream Beetlejuice on: Prime Video (buy or rent)
Stream Beetlejuice Beetlejuice on: HBO Max
For many generations, this was the entry point to O’Hara’s work, as Home Alone has become a Christmas-season classic. In the Chris Columbus film, she played Kate McCallister, the mother who accidentally leaves her son Kevin (Macauley Culkin) at home when the family takes off for a holiday trip to Paris.
She reprised the role in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, where Kevin is left behind again — this time in New York City.
Stream both on: Disney+
O’Hara also lent her voice to numerous animated features, including the cult-classic Henry Selick and Tim Burton collaboration The Nightmare Before Christmas. In it, she voiced Sally, the psychic rag doll-like creation of Doctor Finkelstein and Jack Skellington’s love interest.
Stream on: Disney+
In the first of four film collaborations with director Christopher Guest, O’Hara starred as amateur performer Sheila Albertson (opposite Fred Willard) in the mockumentary about a group of untalented, enthusiastic midwesterners cast in a musical revue by a director hoping to return to former glory.
