Highlights
- O’Hara died Jan. 30 at 71 from a pulmonary embolism, with rectal cancer as underlying cause.
- Culkin says he “owed her a favor” and hated leaving that debt unpaid before her death.
- Culkin posted a raw Instagram tribute: “Mama. I thought we had time. I wanted more.”
Macaulay Culkin isn’t ready to say goodbye.
The 45-year-old Running Point actor is opening up about the death of his beloved Home Alone co-star Catherine O’Hara — and the grief hits different when you feel like you never got to settle the score.
“When Catherine passed away in January, that hit me,” Culkin revealed to The Gentleman’s Journal. “That hit me pretty good, ’cause, you know, it was just too soon. And I felt that we had unfinished business.”
He didn’t stop there.
“I definitely feel like I had unfinished business with her, you know? I feel like I owed her a favor — and I don’t like having an outstanding debt,” the actor told the publication.
O’Hara died Jan. 30 from a pulmonary embolism, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Rectal cancer was listed as the underlying cause of death. She was 71.
Her career spanned more than 50 years, beginning on the Canadian sketch show Second City Television and continuing through film classics like Home Alone and Beetlejuice, as well as award-winning TV roles such as Schitt’s Creek and The Studio.
The bond between Culkin and O’Hara clearly extended far beyond the set. In December 2023, the two shared an emotional reunion when Culkin received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and O’Hara delivered a speech at the ceremony. “Macaulay — this beautiful, dear little 10-year-old boy — was called a superstar, a moneymaker, one of the hottest leading young men in Hollywood by the world over. How does anyone survive that?” O’Hara said.
She had an answer. “I believe you’d have to possess a certain quality, a gift that dear John Hughes obviously recognized in you, Macaulay: your sense of humor. It’s a sign of intelligence in a child, and a key to surviving life at any age.”
At the ceremony, O’Hara also said of his Home Alone performance: “I know you worked really hard, I know you did. But you made acting look like the most natural thing in the world.”
After O’Hara’s death, Culkin turned to Instagram to pour out what words in an interview couldn’t fully hold. “Mama. I thought we had time. I wanted more. I wanted to sit in a chair next to you,” he wrote. “I heard you. But I had so much more to say. I love you. I’ll see you later.” He later added in the comments: “I’m mad about this.”
Culkin also used the Gentleman’s Journal profile to reflect on the broader losses he has faced from his child-star era. He acknowledged the death of his on-screen father John Heard in 2017, as well as losing co-stars including John Candy, Burt Lancaster, and Farrah Fawcett.
“I’m not the tip of the sphere,” he said. “I’m the butt of the sphere. I’m the caboose.”
He added: “My life is unique to me. I don’t really have that many contemporaries when it comes to this stuff. I can’t look left and right and think, ‘Oh, those people have had a similar experience to me.’ But I try to cherish that as much as I can. I feel like I’m living a really uniquely wonderful life.”
For Macaulay Culkin, the debt to Catherine O’Hara may be one that can never fully be repaid — but the love behind it is crystal clear.
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