Catherine O’Hara has passed away at the age of 71. Disney fans will quickly recognize her as the voice of Sally in Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. She also appeared as Kevin’s mom in Home Alone. She passed away in her home after a brief illness. Her onscreen son in the Home Alone films posted the following on Instagram:

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.

O’Hara had a career that spanned 5 decades. She began as a sketch artist with The Second City before going on to star in SCTV with other comedic greats like John Candy, Harold Ramis, Dave Thomas, Martin Short, and Eugene Levy in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She continued to consistently appear on screens big and small in the coming decades.

One of her regular collaborations was with comedic filmmaker Christopher Guest. She appeared in multiple mockumentaries that Guest created, including Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), and For Your Consideration (2006). One of her most iconic roles was that of Kate McCallister in Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992). She reprised the role of the mother to Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin in recent years for holiday commercials. She also appeared in Beetlejuice (1988) and its sequel in 2024.

Throughout her career, she has been consistently busy. In recent years, she reunited with Eugene Levy in Schitt’s Creek and recently appeared in The Studio with Seth Rogan.

O’Hara collaborated with Disney multiple times throughout her career. This includes Texie Garcia in Dick Tracy, Gloria Henner in Betsy’s Wedding, April Simon in A Simple Twist of Fate, and Calamity Jane in Tall Tale. She also voiced Sally and Shock in Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, Tina in Chicken Little, Kata in Brother Bear 2, and Susan Frankenstein, Weird Girl, and the Gym Teacher in Frankenweenie. Additionally, she voiced Morgana in Sofia the First, narrated the 2020 Circle-Vision 360° film Canada: Far and Wide at EPCOT, and voiced Brook Ripple in Pixar’s Elemental.

Catherine O’Hara is survived by her husband, Bo Welch, and their sons, Matthew and Luke.