O’Hara passed away on Friday at her Los Angeles home after a brief illness. She was 71.
On the big screen, O’Hara was known for playing Delia Deetz in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice and its 2024 sequel. She also voiced Sally and Shock in the 1993 animated classic The Nightmare Before Christmas. On television, O’Hara more recently portrayed the eccentric, extravagantly dressed Moira Rose on Schitt’s Creek, a role that earned her a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.
She is perhaps best known to mainstream audiences for her role as Kate McCallister, the mother of Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin McCallister, in the first two Home Alone films.
Culkin posted an Instagram tribute to his onscreen mother, featuring a still from Home Alone alongside a 2023 photo of the pair at his Hollywood Walk of Fame induction.
A post shared by Macaulay ‘Instagram’ Culkin (@culkamania)
“Mama. I thought we had time. I wanted more. I wanted to sit in a chair next to you. I heard you, but I had so much more to say,” the 45-year-old wrote alongside the images. “I love you. I’ll see you later.”
“Absolutely heartbroken for you and all of us,” one onlooker wrote in the comments section to the emotional post. “We’re sending her, her family and y’all so much love,” another top comment read.
O’Hara also recently appeared in Apple TV+’s The Studio and the second season of HBO’s The Last of Us.
Pedro Pascal, who starred alongside O’Hara in The Last of Us, also paid tribute. “Oh, genius to be near you. Eternally grateful,” Pascal wrote on Instagram.
“There is less light in my world, this lucky world that had you, will keep you, always. Always. The one and ONLY Catherine O’Hara,” he added.
Meanwhile, her BeetlejuiceBeetlejuice costar Justin Theroux also took to Instagram to pay tribute to O’Hara.
“Oh, Catherine. You will be so, so missed,” he wrote alongside a snapshot of her empty chair on the BeetlejuiceBeetlejuice set.
Ron Howard, who directed the actress in 1994’s The Paper, also took to social media to remember O’Hara.
“This is shattering news,” Howard wrote on X. “What a wonderful person, artist, and collaborator. I was lucky enough to direct, produce, and act in projects with her, and she was simply growing more brilliant with each year. My heart goes out to Bo & family. #RIPCatherineO’Hara.”