Catherine O’Hara has died at the age of 71. The Oscar-winning star and Schitt’s Creek actress was married to husband Bo Welch for over 33 years.
Bo Welch and Catherine O’Hara attend the 2025 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 02, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)(Image: Getty Images)
Catherine O’Hara’s marriage to her husband, Bo Welch, is celebrated as one of Hollywood’s longest-lasting romances. The couple first crossed paths in 1987 while working on the cult classic Beetlejuice, where Catherine played Delia Deetz and Bo worked as the production designer.
The actress has previously shared that Bo would chat to her daily by their lockers on set, though he never actually made a move.
“He talked to me all the time,” the star once revealed. “We’d hang out on the set, and we’d have some laughs. I thought, ‘He’s going to ask me out.'” However, she became puzzled by the circumstances and chose to speak with director Tim Burton, who stepped in and encouraged Bo to take Catherine on a date.
The actress revealed that eventually, Bo asked her to accompany the art department to a swap meet while they were filming on location in Vermont. She later joked that it seemed as though Bo had been “forced” into dating her – though it ultimately succeeded and resulted in them being married for more than 33 years.
As their romance developed, Catherine “moved for love” from Canada to Los Angeles to be with her other half. They wed in an intimate ceremony on April 25, 1992, before settling down in the Brentwood neighbourhood of Los Angeles, reports the Mirror.
As a wedding present, Tim organised a private tour of the Vatican, which the actress described as “crazy”. They were shown around the Pope’s private quarters, including his “closet”, by a priest who jokingly pretended to place a crown in Bo’s backpack for photographs.
The pair had two sons together – Matthew, 32, and Luke, 29 – who have both carved out careers behind the camera in the entertainment world, with credits including Schitt’s Creek.
Throughout their marriage, Catherine candidly discussed the ups and downs of a lasting relationship, acknowledging they’d weathered “rough times” while emphasising that their love for each other ultimately prevailed. She shared: “We’ve been through some dangerous times in our marriage, and thank God we both just really wanted to work on it and stay married.
“I have friends who’ve been divorced and one of them really wanted to work on it and the other didn’t. And you just can’t win. You can’t do anything that way. But thank God we both wanted to, when we went through rough times.”
She highlighted that shared laughter, mutual respect and open dialogue were fundamental to their enduring partnership. She mused: “People always say communicate, right? Tell them how you’re feeling.’ We do a lot of it with jokes. We’ll make fun of each other instead of yelling at each other. Sarcasm helps!”
Catherine died at her Los Angeles residence “following a brief illness” on January 30, her representatives at Creative Artists Agency confirmed. She leaves behind her husband, their two sons, and siblings Michael O’Hara, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Maureen Jolley, Marcus O’Hara, Tom O’Hara and Patricia Wallice.
Her career began with Toronto’s Second City comedy troupe during the 1970s. There, she forged her initial partnership with Eugene Levy, who would remain a constant creative companion – eventually becoming her Schitt’s Creek colleague.
Both were amongst the founding ensemble of SCTV, an abbreviation for Second City Television. The programme, which debuted on Canadian television in the 1970s before moving to NBC in America, cultivated an iconic roster of distinctive comedic talents that O’Hara frequently collaborated with, including Martin Short, John Candy, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis and Joe Flaherty.
O’Hara secured her inaugural Emmy for her contributions as a writer on the programme. Her second accolade, for outstanding actress in a comedy series, arrived four decades afterwards, for Schitt’s Creek.
She also played a distressed mother who inadvertently left her child behind in the two Home Alone films – and her co-star, Macaulay Culkin, shared a poignant tribute to her.
Posting an image from Home Alone alongside a recent recreation of the identical pose, the actor wrote: “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. I love you. I’ll see you later.”
