For millions of viewers, Catherine O’Hara will always be remembered as the unforgettable mother who frantically searched for her missing son in Home Alone.
But to Macaulay Culkin, she was much more than the actress who played his mother.
She was “mama.”
That relationship became the emotional center of the 2026 Emmy Awards, when Culkin reunited with O’Hara’s Schitt’s Creek family members, Dan Levy and Annie Murphy, to honor the late actress during the ceremony’s In Memoriam segment.
The tribute brought together three actors from two of O’Hara’s most beloved screen families: Culkin, who played her son Kevin McCallister in the Home Alone films, and Levy and Murphy, who played her children David and Alexis Rose in Schitt’s Creek.
Standing together on the Emmy stage, they remembered an actress whose career stretched across more than five decades and whose work had touched several generations of audiences.
For Culkin, however, the tribute was deeply personal.
He did not simply remember O’Hara as a celebrated actress.
He remembered her as the woman who had played his mother — and who, he said, continued to show up for him long after their Home Alone movies had ended.
“She was encouraging. She was warm. She was funny,” Culkin said before identifying the word that mattered most to him:
“mama.”
He then delivered a line that connected their real-life bond to one of the most enduring jokes from the Home Alone movies.
“She may have forgotten me twice, but we will always remember her.”
The reference was to the central premise of the first two Home Alone films, in which O’Hara's character, Kate McCallister, accidentally leaves Kevin behind during two separate family trips.
At the Emmys, however, the joke carried a much more emotional meaning.
The fictional mother who repeatedly forgot her son had become, in real life, someone Culkin said he would never forget.
A Reunion of Three On-Screen Children
The tribute was especially meaningful because of who stood beside Culkin.
Dan Levy and Annie Murphy played O’Hara's children on Schitt’s Creek, where she portrayed the eccentric and unforgettable Moira Rose.
Together with Culkin, they effectively represented two different chapters of O’Hara's career.
For Culkin, she was Kate McCallister, the anxious but loving mother at the center of the Home Alone movies.
For Levy and Murphy, she was Moira Rose, the flamboyant former soap opera star whose vocabulary, wigs, dramatic reactions and eccentric personality became central to Schitt’s Creek.
The three actors therefore knew O’Hara in very different ways.
But their memories converged around the same idea: she was a nurturing, generous and deeply influential presence.
The Los Angeles Times described Culkin, Levy and Murphy as O’Hara's “kids” and reported that they opened the In Memoriam segment together at the 78th Emmy Awards.
The Associated Press similarly reported that Culkin joined O’Hara's Schitt’s Creek co-stars for the emotional tribute, remembering her as more than an onscreen mother.
The reunion gave the tribute a special emotional quality.
It was not simply an awards-show presentation.
It felt like three children coming together to say goodbye to the same beloved mother.
“She Was Our Mama”
Culkin's speech focused on O’Hara's warmth away from the cameras as much as her accomplishments on screen.
He explained that she was not only a wife and mother to her own family, but that she had also become a mother figure to him.
Looking toward Levy and Murphy, he described her as “our mama.”
That choice of words was particularly powerful because of the roles O’Hara played.
For decades, audiences had watched her portray mothers, wives and eccentric matriarchs.
But for Culkin, her importance went beyond the characters.
Their connection began while Culkin was still a child.
O’Hara played Kate McCallister in Home Alone, released in 1990, when Culkin was only 10 years old. She returned for Home Alone 2: Lost in New York in 1992.
The two films became enormous holiday favorites and established a relationship between Culkin and O’Hara that remained part of both of their public identities for decades.
Even after the movies ended, they remained connected.
That history made Culkin's appearance at the Emmys particularly poignant.
The “Home Alone” Joke Took on a Different Meaning
One of the most recognizable jokes in Culkin's tribute came near the end.
He referenced the central running gag of the Home Alone movies: Kate McCallister somehow manages to leave Kevin behind not once, but twice.
In the first film, the McCallister family accidentally leaves Kevin at home while traveling for Christmas.
In the sequel, Kevin becomes separated from the family again and ends up in New York City.
The idea that Kate could lose track of the same child twice became one of the defining jokes of the franchise.
Culkin transformed that familiar joke into a farewell.
“She may have forgotten me twice, but we will always remember her.”
The Los Angeles Times reported the line in its account of the Emmy tribute, while the Associated Press likewise highlighted the reference to the two Home Alone films.
The line worked because it allowed the audience to laugh while also acknowledging the sadness of the moment.
That combination was very much in keeping with O’Hara's career.
She was celebrated for making people laugh, often through characters who were eccentric, exaggerated or completely unpredictable.
Even her farewell tribute contained humor.
But beneath that humor was genuine affection.
A Career That Spanned Generations
Catherine O’Hara's career was much larger than Home Alone.
She began performing in Canada and became associated with Toronto's Second City comedy scene before joining the cast of the influential sketch series SCTV.
That experience helped establish her as a performer with an extraordinary gift for character comedy.
She could change her voice, mannerisms and personality completely from one role to another.
Her career eventually expanded into film, television and voice acting.
She worked with filmmakers such as Tim Burton and Christopher Guest and appeared in movies including Beetlejuice, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind and The Nightmare Before Christmas.
She also became a new-generation favorite through Schitt’s Creek.
The series introduced O’Hara to audiences who may not have grown up watching SCTV or the Home Alone films.
As Moira Rose, she created a character whose eccentric vocabulary, dramatic personality and elaborate wardrobe became instantly recognizable.
Her performance was so distinctive that Moira eventually became one of the defining characters of the series.
O’Hara won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for playing Moira in 2020.
According to reporting following her death, she received 10 Emmy nominations during her career and won twice.
From SCTV to Moira Rose
O’Hara's career is unusual because she succeeded across multiple generations of comedy.
She was already an established comedy performer when many younger audiences first discovered her in Home Alone.
Then, decades later, she became a central figure in Schitt’s Creek.
That longevity was one of the defining features of her career.
She did not depend on one particular role.
Instead, she repeatedly reinvented herself.
On SCTV, she was known for her sketch-comedy work.
In Beetlejuice, she played Delia Deetz, an eccentric artist with an exaggerated sense of style and self-importance.
In Home Alone, she became Kate McCallister, a frantic but loving mother whose panic became one of the emotional anchors of the movie.
In Christopher Guest's mockumentaries, she demonstrated her ability to improvise and create bizarre but believable characters.
And in Schitt’s Creek, she transformed Moira Rose into one of modern television comedy's most recognizable personalities.
That range helps explain why her death affected such a broad audience.
Different generations knew her for different reasons.
Some remembered Kate McCallister.
Others remembered Moira Rose.
Others knew her from SCTV, Beetlejuice or Christopher Guest's films.
For many people, however, she was simply the actress who had been making them laugh for decades.
Her Death in January 2026
O’Hara died on January 30, 2026, at her home in Los Angeles.
She was 71.
Her representatives initially confirmed that she had died following a brief illness.
Later, Reuters reported that her death certificate listed a pulmonary embolism as the immediate cause of death, with rectal cancer listed as an underlying cause.