{"id":24868,"date":"2026-02-04T11:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T19:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=24868"},"modified":"2026-04-02T11:12:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T19:12:36","slug":"a-legend-passes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/a-legend-passes\/","title":{"rendered":"A legend passes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
A graphic posted by Film Zone following the announcement of O\u2019Hara\u2019s death. | Photo from @thefilmzone on Instagram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Feb. 4, 2026 |\u00a0Jaylin Emond-Hardin | Entertainment Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

It was announced Friday, Jan. 30, that actor Catherine O\u2019Hara passed away at age 71, \u201cfollowing a brief illness.\u201d Currently, there is no other information surrounding the actor\u2019s death.<\/span><\/p>\n

Best known for her roles as Kevin McCallister\u2019s mother in two \u201cHome Alone\u201d films and as Moira Rose in \u201cSchitt\u2019s Creek\u201d \u2014 a role for which she won an Emmy, a Golden Globe and two SAG Awards \u2014 O\u2019Hara was known as one of the greats of comedy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Hara\u2019s first appearance was in the 1970s on \u201cSCTV\u201d \u2014 short for \u201cSecond City Television\u201d \u2014 and saw her working with the likes of Martin Short, Joe Flaherty and Eugene Levy. Levy and O\u2019Hara would later collaborate on multiple projects, including \u201cSchitt\u2019s Creek.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In her early days in Hollywood, casting directors didn\u2019t always know what to do with O\u2019Hara\u2019s \u201cscattershot style,\u201d with the actor often playing eccentric side-characters. In 1984, she played Gail in Martin Scorsese\u2019s \u201cAfter Hours\u201d and in 1988 played Delia Deetz in Tim Burton\u2019s \u201cBeetlejuice,\u201d which she reprised in the 2024 sequel \u201cBeetlejuice Beetlejuice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Roles were rare following the success of the \u201cHome Alone\u201d films, though O\u2019Hara collaborated with Levy on a series of mockumentaries directed by Christopher Guest \u2014 best known for \u201cThe Princess Bride\u201d and \u201cNight at the Museum.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am devastated,\u201d Guest said in a statement to the AP. \u201cWe have lost one of the comic giants of our age.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Macaulay Culkin also paid tribute to O\u2019Hara\u2019s passing in an Instagram post shared Friday morning.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMama, I thought we had time,\u201d he said, sharing a still from \u201cHome Alone,\u201d alongside a recent recreation of the still. \u201cI wanted more. I wanted to sit in a chair next to you. I heard you. But I had so much more to say. I love you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Hara is survived by her husband, Bo Welch, sons Matthew and Luke, and siblings Michael O\u2019Hara, Mary Margaret O\u2019Hara, Maureen Jolley, Marcus O\u2018Hara, Tom O\u2019Hara and Patricia Wallice.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Feb. 4, 2026 |\u00a0Jaylin Emond-Hardin | Entertainment Editor It was announced Friday, Jan. 30, that actor Catherine O\u2019Hara passed away at age 71, \u201cfollowing a brief illness.\u201d Currently, there is no other information surrounding the actor\u2019s death. Best known for her roles as Kevin McCallister\u2019s mother in two \u201cHome Alone\u201d films and as Moira Rose […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1645,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"A legend passes","_seopress_titles_desc":"Actor Catherine O\u2019Hara dies at 71","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3648,3652,9418,9429,9428,9423,9427,9419,9426,9420,9432,9425,9421,9431,9422,238,9424,9430,3656,684,1556,608,39],"class_list":["post-24868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-beetlejuice","tag-beetlejuice-beetlejuice","tag-catherine-ohara","tag-christopher-guest","tag-delia-deetz","tag-emmys","tag-eugene-levy","tag-home-alone","tag-joe-flaherty","tag-kevin-mccallister","tag-macaulay-culkin","tag-martin-short","tag-moira-rose","tag-night-at-the-museum","tag-sag-awards","tag-schitts-creek","tag-sctv","tag-the-princess","tag-tim-burton","tag-western","tag-western-oregon","tag-western-oregon-university","tag-wou"],"modified_by":"saragerrick","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1645"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24868"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24876,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24868\/revisions\/24876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}