Catherine O'Hara's On-Screen Kids Reunite at the Emmys to Honor Her – What They Had to Say and How They Look Now

Long after the cameras stopped rolling, the late icon's relationships with the actors who played her children clearly endured. Their emotional reflections reveal just how deeply she remains woven into their lives off-screen.

For decades, Catherine O'Hara played unforgettable mothers, including two women whose children became permanently woven into pop culture. At the 2026 Emmys, three of those on-screen kids stood together, and one seemingly simple word turned their tribute into something much more personal.

The emotional moment brought Macaulay Culkin, Annie Murphy, and Dan Levy onto the same stage to remember O'Hara, who died at her Los Angeles home on January 30, 2026, following a brief illness, according to Variety. She was 71.

O'Hara's remarkable career stretched across five decades, but for millions of viewers, some of her most beloved work involved playing a mother.

She was the frantic but fiercely determined Kate McCallister opposite Culkin in "Home Alone" and "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York." Years later, she reinvented television motherhood as the gloriously eccentric Moira Rose alongside Levy and Murphy on "Schitt's Creek." And at the Emmys, those two very different fictional families suddenly collided.

Catherine O'Hara's On-Screen Children Stand Together

As the trio stepped onto the stage, their appearances immediately highlighted just how much time had passed since the roles that connected them to O'Hara.

Culkin appeared in a light cream suit with a coordinating shirt, his hair cropped short and a neatly trimmed beard framing his face. Standing beside him, Murphy wore her dark hair swept into a sleek high bun and a floor-length black, semi-sheer dress covered in intricate sparkling detailing.

Levy completed the trio in an elegant black double-breasted suit, paired with a black tie, glasses, and a large floral detail on his lapel.

Together, they looked worlds removed from the younger characters audiences first associated with O'Hara, but what followed made it clear that their connection to her had never simply disappeared when the cameras stopped rolling.

Culkin spoke first. During the Emmys tribute, he opened with a knowing reference to the role that connected him and O'Hara more than three decades earlier.

"Catherine O'Hara. We remember her as the forgetful mother, right?" he began. Then came the turn. "But we'll never forget about her."

The line drew directly from one of the most famous running jokes in "Home Alone": Kate McCallister accidentally leaving Kevin behind not once, but twice.

Yet Culkin quickly moved away from the joke, and toward the woman he remembered when there were no scripts involved.

Culkin Reveals the Word He Associates with O'Hara

"There are all kinds of words I could use to describe Catherine," Culkin said. "She was encouraging, she was warm, she was funny." Then, after decades of publicly referring to O'Hara as his movie mother, Culkin revealed the word that still came to him first.

"But the word that I think of is mama." The moment became even more poignant as he explained exactly what he meant.

"She wasn't just a wife and mother to Beau and Matthew and Luke," he continued. "She was my mom. She was our mama."

And Culkin went one step further. "By extension, she's all of our mama." It was a striking declaration from the former child star, particularly because his relationship with O'Hara had endured for more than 30 years after their first "Home Alone" movie.

Culkin then briefly turned the moment toward everyone watching. "By the way, call your mother tonight, for real." The tribute was emotional, but Culkin also seemed determined to honor the humor that had always been part of their relationship.

He remembered how O'Hara continued supporting him whenever he reached out. "Like a good mama, she always showed up when I asked her to," Culkin said. "Because that was Catherine. That's what she did. She showed up."

That thought ultimately became the heart of his goodbye. "And this is the best that we can do for her tonight. We're showing up for her." Then came one last "Home Alone" callback. "So she may have forgotten me. Twice," Culkin joked, before adding, "But we will always remember her."

Why Culkin Calling Her 'Mama' Meant So Much

The wording was especially meaningful because their mother-son relationship had continued long after Kevin McCallister grew up. More than three decades after "Home Alone" arrived in theaters, O'Hara appeared alongside Culkin again when he received his Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2023.

During the ceremony, O'Hara proudly celebrated the actor who had once played her mischievous eight-year-old son.

As recalled in a Parade report, she credited Culkin with helping make "Home Alone" something families continued returning to.

"Home Alone was, is, and always will be a beloved global sensation," she said, adding that families continued loving the movie "because of Macaulay Culkin."

She also praised how naturally he had performed as a child. "I know you worked really hard, I know you did, but you made acting look like the most natural thing in the world to do. Macaulay, congratulations." O'Hara eventually acknowledged the unusual fictional history they shared.

"You so deserve your star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And thank you for including me, your fake mom, who left you home alone not once but twice, to share in this happy occasion. I'm so proud of you," she said, according to People.

But "fake mom" clearly never described the full relationship. During a 2024 "Home Alone" screening in Chicago, Culkin revealed that he and O'Hara had remained close since their movies were released in 1990 and 1992.

According to The New York Times, Culkin said that whenever he encountered O'Hara, he called her "Mom." Her response? She would open her arms and say, "Son."

That history made his choice of "mama" at the Emmys feel less like a reference to a famous movie and more like the continuation of a relationship they had quietly carried through adulthood.

Annie Murphy Remembers the Joy O'Hara Left Behind

Murphy then took over the tribute, remembering a quality of O'Hara's that apparently followed her everywhere. "Catherine's laugh was a perpetual yes and," Murphy said. "It challenged anyone who heard it to join in and be as delighted as she was." "And she spread that delight everywhere."

Murphy also revealed how strangers had approached her in the aftermath of O'Hara's death, sharing their own grief. On an Air Canada flight, someone passed her a note reading, "She was so special. I hope you're doing OK."

Another encounter happened while Murphy was driving up north. She said an "extremely gruff-looking gas station attendant" hugged her because he, too, was grieving O'Hara's loss. Then came a far more theatrical tribute while Murphy was buying wine.

She recalled being treated to what she called a "very lively Catherine mashup," as a woman performed references to O'Hara's work, including, "Oh, David, where's the baby?" The stranger even apparently attempted O'Hara's memorable physicality from "Best in Show."

For Murphy, those unexpected encounters demonstrated something much larger than affection for one television show or movie. "These are only a very few of the interactions I've been lucky enough to have that remind me how profoundly Catherine has impacted the world," she said. "And it's because she brought us joy."

Dan Levy Shares the Lesson O'Hara Taught Him

Levy's remembrance focused on what it was actually like creating a character with O'Hara. "The greatest lesson I learned from Catherine, both professionally and personally, was to always say yes," he said.

That philosophy, according to Levy, meant trusting ideas that might initially seem unconventional. "Say yes to her instincts, all of them as radical as they may sometimes seem," he explained. "She is miles ahead of you, and you will learn to catch up."

Anyone familiar with Moira Rose could probably understand exactly what Levy meant. He recalled agreeing to help O'Hara create a television character over 60 who wore leather miniskirts, eight-inch heels, and spoke with a strange transatlantic accent that could occasionally be difficult to decipher.

"And know that she will not scare an audience away," he said. Instead, Moira became one of O'Hara's signature characters. Levy also remembered receiving late rewrites from his co-star, sometimes arriving the night before filming.

The emails would begin simply: "Dear Dan, some thoughts." "It will always improve the story," he said. Then came a series of distinctly Moira-worthy creative choices.

"Say yes to the concept of a wig wall," Levy continued. "Say yes to her asking to wear a wig as a hat. Say yes to her naming that wig." Most importantly, he said, creators needed to give O'Hara room. "Say yes to giving her space to experiment and create." "It will amaze you on a daily basis, and it will change your life."

The Memories Levy Said Matter Most

But Levy's tribute eventually moved beyond scripts, wardrobes and wigs. "Say yes to her dinner invites and her stories and her wisdom and her generosity," he said. "Those are the things you will hold on to the tightest."

He ended with perhaps the simplest summation of what working alongside O'Hara had meant to him. "Always say yes to any opportunity to revel in the presence of greatness."

The speeches then transitioned into the Emmys' remembrance of entertainment figures lost during the year, accompanied by a live orchestra and a performance by Noah Kahan as images appeared onscreen.

For Culkin, Murphy and Levy, however, the tribute had already shown something particularly moving: three grown actors standing together because the woman who once played their mother had continued to matter to them long after those fictional families wrapped.

O'Hara's Friends Had Already Begun Saying Goodbye

The Emmys tribute was not the first time O'Hara's friends and collaborators had publicly reflected on what she meant to them. Shortly after her death, Martin Short and Steve Martin honored her during their "The Best of Steve Martin and Martin Short" comedy show in Austin, Texas, earlier this year (2026).

Short recalled knowing O'Hara from an exceptionally young age. "Catherine O'Hara, I met when she was 18 years of age, and all these years later, she has been the greatest, most brilliant, kindest, sweetest angel that any of us worked with," he said, according to Variety.

"So God bless Catherine," he added as they raised a glass. Those words echoed much of what O'Hara's on-screen children would later say at the Emmys: warmth, generosity, brilliance and an ability to remain present for people long after the work itself was finished.

Yet Culkin's tribute arguably made that legacy feel especially personal. More than three decades after O'Hara raced across countries trying to get back to Kevin McCallister, the little boy she once called her "son" was now standing on an Emmys stage as a grown man.

And when it came time to explain who O'Hara had ultimately become to him, "co-star" was nowhere near enough; she was "mama."