The Catherine O’Hara Emmys tribute brought together Macaulay Culkin, Dan Levy and Annie Murphy on Monday, September 14, to remember an actor who played a mother to each of them on screen and became something close to one off screen.
The three appeared during the 2026 Emmy Awards’ In Memoriam segment, sharing personal memories of O’Hara and the influence she had on their lives and careers. Culkin played her son Kevin McCallister in Home Alone, while Levy and Murphy portrayed David and Alexis Rose, the children of O’Hara’s wonderfully theatrical Moira Rose in Schitt’s Creek.
Culkin said he called his former co-star “mama,” explaining that her maternal warmth extended well beyond her own family. “She was encouraging. She was warm,” he recalled. It was a brief description, but also a fairly complete one.
How her on-screen children remembered her
Dan Levy and Annie Murphy spoke about O’Hara’s lasting effect on them and the absence left by her death. Their remarks focused not only on her comic talent, which rarely needed additional advertising, but also on the generosity and support she offered colleagues behind the scenes.
The broadcast cut to Martin Short and Steve Martin during the tribute, showing both actors visibly emotional as O’Hara’s television family spoke. The segment kept the attention on personal memories rather than turning the occasion into a catalogue of career achievements, although there were plenty available.
