Eugene Levy sat down to write a statement the day Catherine O'Hara died, and what came out was fifty years in a single paragraph. Not a eulogy. Not an industry tribute. Just a man listing the rooms where he'd stood next to the same person since 1974 — the Second City stage, the SCTV set, Chris Guest's films, six seasons of Schitt's Creek. 'I cherished our working relationship,' he wrote, 'but most of all our friendship. And I will miss her.'
Who's Who?
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Catherine O'Hara — Privately battled cancer for ten months. Almost nobody knew. -
Eugene Levy — Fifty years of shared stages — then sat down to write one paragraph that covered all of them. -
Dan Levy — Was planning a Schitt's Creek sequel. Went back to the filming location and broke down. -
Bo Welch — Tim Burton played matchmaker. Four Oscar nominations later, their sons worked on Schitt's Creek. -
Macaulay Culkin — Posted one word first: 'Mama.' Then: 'I thought we had time.' -
Martin Short — Stopped his comedy show in Austin to toast her from the stage. -
Christopher Guest — Called her one of the comic giants of our age. -
Seth Rogen — Accepted her posthumous SAG Award — the first given to a woman after death.
Catherine died January 30, 2026, at her Brentwood home in Los Angeles. She was 71. The cause was a pulmonary embolism brought on by rectal cancer she'd been quietly treating since March 2025. She told almost nobody. That's how she was — private about the hard things, generous with everything else.
The partnership with Levy started before either of them was famous. She was an understudy for Gilda Radner in the first Toronto Second City cast in 1974. Eugene was already in the company. From there they went to SCTV together, won Emmys together, improvised their way through four Christopher Guest films — Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration — and then, decades later, Eugene's son Dan called and asked if she'd play his mother on a show about a rich family that loses everything. She said yes. Moira Rose won her another Emmy and a Golden Globe in 2020.
Dan Levy grew up with Catherine around. 'Having spent over fifty years collaborating with my Dad, Catherine was extended family before she ever played my family,' he wrote on Instagram the day she died. He'd been thinking about a Schitt's Creek sequel. In April 2026, he went back to the filming location in Goodwood, Ontario, for a CBS Sunday Morning interview and broke down. Asked about continuing without her, he said: 'No, not now. You can't.'
Her real family was built on a Tim Burton set. She met production designer Bo Welch while filming Beetlejuice in 1988 — Burton introduced them. They married in 1992. Bo, a four-time Oscar nominee for films like The Color Purple, A Little Princess, and Men in Black, won the Art Directors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2025. Their two sons, Matthew and Luke, both worked behind the scenes on Schitt's Creek. It was that kind of family — everyone in the same rooms, everyone working.
Macaulay Culkin was eight when Catherine played his mother Kate McCallister in Home Alone. That was 1990. He became the biggest child star of the decade. In December 2023, Catherine gave a speech at his Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, and the two of them stood there looking like what they were — a movie family that had stayed in each other's lives. After she died, Culkin posted one word first: 'Mama.' Then: '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. I love you.'
Martin Short met her when she was 18 at Toronto's Second City. Hours after her death was announced, he was onstage in Austin with Steve Martin. He stopped the show. 'Catherine O'Hara has been the greatest, most brilliant, kindest, sweetest angel that any of us worked with,' he said. 'So god bless Catherine.' Christopher Guest, who'd directed her in all four of those improvised ensemble films, called her 'one of the comic giants of our age.' Seth Rogen, who'd cast her as former studio chief Patty Leigh in Apple TV's The Studio — her final role — accepted her posthumous SAG Award in March 2026. She was the first woman to receive the honor after death. 'She really showed that you can be a genius and be kind,' Rogen said, 'and one of those things does not have to come at the expense of the other.'
Eugene Levy is 79 now. He's hinted at winding down — 'I think there's still a few jobs in me left,' he told an interviewer. Dan shelved the Schitt's Creek sequel. The Studio canceled its press day. The Westminster Dog Show, of all things, put Best in Show clips on the jumbotron. The comedy family Catherine helped build across five decades — the Levys, the Guest ensemble, the SCTV alumni — is still here. Just smaller now. And quieter.