Macaulay Culkin Says ‘I Thought We Had Time’ in Heartbreaking Tribute to Home Alone ‘Mama’ Catherine O’Hara

Catherine O’Hara’s Home Alone costar Macaulay Culkin is reacting to the sad news of her death. 

The Emmy-winning actress’s manager confirmed to PEOPLE on Friday, Jan. 30, that she has died at age 71. A cause of death has yet to be revealed. 

In Home Alone, the 1990 holiday classic, O’Hara played a mom who accidentally leaves her son (played by Culkin) at home. They also starred together in the 1992 sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.

“Mama. I thought we had time,” the star’s onscreen son said in a sweet tribute on his Instagram.

“I wanted more. I wanted to sit in a chair next to you. I heard you but I had so much more to say,” he captioned side-by-side photos of himself and O’Hara in Home Alone and in 2023. “I love you. I’ll see you later.”

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Culkin, 45, has previously called O’Hara a mother figure when recalling his time working with her on Home Alone, when he was only 10 years old, and its 1992 sequel.

The Canadian star supported Culkin at his Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in December 2023, marveling at how he was “older than I was when I played his mother.”

O’Hara and her husband, Bo Welch, once had a real Home Alone-like scare with their sons Matthew and Luke (who are now adults.) “We were in New York once; I think it was New York,” the Schitt’s Creek star told PEOPLE in January 2024. 

“Bo and I got on the subway, we turned around, the doors are closing, and they weren’t on… I screamed and people screamed with me,” she recalled. The doors then reopened, and the boys joined their parents. “It makes me sick to think what could have happened,” said O’Hara. 

No further details have been shared about O’Hara’s death. She is survived by her husband and children.