Macaulay Culkin Chokes Up Honoring Catherine O'Hara at 2026 Emmys: "She Was My Mama"

Monday night at the 2026 Emmys, Macaulay Culkin, Annie Murphy, and Dan Levy took the stage together to honor Catherine O’Hara, and it didn’t take long for the room to go quiet. Culkin, who played her son in the Home Alone films, got visibly emotional as he called her his mama and said that like a good mother, she always showed up when he asked her to, because that was Catherine. He even slipped in a joke about her forgetting him a time or two, a nod to the very premise that made them famous together.

Murphy, who played her daughter on Schitt’s Creek, remembered how O’Hara spread light everywhere she went. Levy shared the lesson he learned from her, to always say yes, and he honored her on the red carpet with a black rose on his lapel. O’Hara died January 30 at 71 from a pulmonary embolism, and since then her former co-stars have kept her memory close, including Culkin’s Instagram tribute and Levy’s quiet gesture at the awards show. She also won a posthumous SAG-AFTRA award for The Studio, becoming the first woman ever to receive that honor.

For a lot of us, O’Hara wasn’t just an actress. She was the mom running through the airport in Home Alone, she was Moira Rose, and she was the kind of performer who could make you laugh and break your heart in the same scene. Her private memorial in Los Angeles this February was just that, private, but the Emmys gave the rest of us a moment to say goodbye too.

What’s your favorite Catherine O’Hara scene of all time? Let us know in the comments.