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Catherine O’Hara reportedly experienced breathing issues before her death at age 71.
According to 911 dispatch audio obtained by Page Six on Friday, January 30, O’Hara suffered from “breathing difficulty” before being taken to the hospital.
A Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson confirmed to Us Weekly on Friday that paramedics were called to O’Hara’s Brentwood home at 4:48 a.m. that morning for a medical aid call. O’Hara was then transported to a hospital in “serious condition.”
The Creative Arts Agency, who represented O’Hara, confirmed on Friday that the actress died at her home in Los Angeles “following a brief illness.”
O’Hara is survived by her husband, Bo Welch, and their two sons, Matthew and Luke. An official cause of death has not yet been revealed.
The actress was best known for her iconic roles in Home Alone, Beetlejuice, Schitt’s Creek and more. She most recently starred on the AppleTV series The Studio, which was recently renewed for a second season.
Several of O’Hara’s friends and former costars paid tribute to to the Emmy-winning actress following her death.
“Mama. I thought we had time,” Macaulay Culkin, who played O’Hara’s son in the Home Alone franchise, wrote via Instagram on Friday alongside a photo of the pair. “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. I’ll see you later.”
Catherine O’Hara Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Michael Keaton, who starred as the titular character in Beetlejuice alongside O’Hara, also honored his former costar.
“We go back before the first Beetlejuice,” Keaton wrote via Instagram. “She’s been my pretend wife, my pretend nemesis and my real-life, true friend. This one hurts. Man, am I gonna miss her.”
Keaton, 74, expressed his sympathies to Welch, who worked on the Tim Burton film as a production designer.
“Thinking about Beau as well,” he added to the post.
Prior to her death, O’Hara opened up about how lucky she felt to be alive and continuing to act as she approached her 70s.
“I’m lucky [I get] to keep doing things like this at my age — I can’t believe it,” O’Hara told Elle Canada in August 2024, promoting her appearance in that year’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. “Over the past few years, when I’ve gotten scared or nervous or if I start grousing about something, I’ve tried to really practice turning it around and being grateful. Like, ‘How lucky are you right now to be alive? And then to have this opportunity right here in this moment?’”
O’Hara also reflected on how she copes with aging.
“I do think of age, but otherwise, I rarely look in the mirror,” she continued. “I feel that now, stories about people my age usually have to do with death and divorce and disease. So I’m really fortunate [to] have people around me who respect aging people and who give me new experiences. I’d like to think that the kind of roles I’m getting to play now are roles that people are getting to play in life.”
