A source has told the Daily Mail that Catherine O'Hara looked 'super skinny' at her final public appearance before her shock death in late January 2026. The actress attended the Angela Awards at the Proper Hotel Santa Monica on October 16, 2025, where guests noted her strikingly slender appearance.
Details from the Angela Awards
'She looked very slender, it was noticeable,' said a guest at the charity gala. 'Her face was almost gaunt, but she still looked very pretty - she is a striking-looking woman - and she had a touch of glam going on. She hid her figure in a bulky green pinstriped suit.'
Despite her appearance, the source emphasised that O'Hara seemed to be in great spirits. 'She was very friendly and upbeat and lovely,' the guest added. The actress was seen posing with friends and her longtime husband, Bo Welch. At one point, she and Welch were photographed sitting at a table as she held up her auction paddle.
Charity Event Background
The Angela Awards is Project Angel Food's annual gala in Los Angeles. This organisation prepares and delivers healthy meals to feed people impacted by serious illness. Also involved with the event was Upward Bound House, which provides homeless families with housing assistance and volunteer opportunities in Los Angeles.
Final Public Engagements
O'Hara's last red carpet appearance prior to the Angela Awards was at the Emmy Awards on September 14, 2025. The actress, best known for her roles in the Beetlejuice and Home Alone film franchises, died aged 71 on Friday, January 30, 2026. Her manager confirmed the news to People magazine, though no further details about her death have been shared.
Career Highlights and Legacy
Born in Toronto, Canada, O'Hara was one of seven children. Her first acting experience came when she played the Virgin Mary in a Nativity play. After leaving high school, she worked as a waitress at the Second City Theater in Toronto, where she encountered comedians like Dan Aykroyd and Joe Flaherty. 'I was lucky enough to watch everybody,' she told People in 2024.
O'Hara joined the Second City company in 1974, though she later confessed to feeling anxious on stage. 'My crutch was, in improvs, when in doubt, play insane. Because you didn't have to excuse anything that came out of your mouth. It didn't have to make sense,' she admitted to The New Yorker in 2019.
Her breakthrough came with the TV sketch show Second City Television, which aired on NBC in the 1980s, where she became famous for impressions of celebrities like Meryl Streep and Brooke Shields. O'Hara made her film debut in 1980's Double Negative, starring alongside John Candy and Eugene Levy.
Her iconic roles include Delia Deetz in Beetlejuice (1988) and Kate McCallister in Home Alone (1990), which she reprised in the 1992 sequel. 'It's a perfect movie, isn't it?' she said of Home Alone to People. Other notable films include Best in Show (2000) and A Mighty Wind (2003), and she returned for the Beetlejuice sequel in 2024.
In 2020, O'Hara won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her performance in Schitt's Creek, created by Eugene and Daniel Levy. During her acceptance speech, she said, 'I will forever be grateful to Eugene and Daniel Levy for the opportunity to play a woman of a certain age, my age, who gets to fully be herself.' She also won a Golden Globe and a SAG Award for the role.
Personal Life and Survivors
Catherine O'Hara is survived by her husband, Bo Welch, and their two sons, Matthew and Luke. Her passing marks the end of a celebrated career that spanned over four decades, leaving a lasting impact on comedy and film.
