Schitt’s Creek star Dan Levy broke their silence after Catherine O’Hara‘s shocking death at age 71.
“What a gift to have gotten to dance in the warm glow of Catherine O’Hara’s brilliance for all those years,” Dan, who is the costar and co-creator of the Emmy-winning series with father Eugene Levy, wrote via Instagram on Friday, January 30. “Having spent over fifty years collaborating with my Dad, Catherine was extended family before she ever played my family. It’s hard to imagine a world without her in it. I will cherish every funny memory I was fortunate enough to make with her.”
He concluded his tribute, in which he shared photos of the pair together over the years, by sending best wishes to O’Hara’s family. “My heart goes out to Bo, Matthew, Luke and every member of her big, beautiful family,” he added.
News of O’Hara’s death broke on Friday, January 30, with no cause of death immediately revealed. Her final public appearance was four months prior at the Emmys, where her show The Studio won four awards.
Before The Studio, O’Hara’s most memorable TV role was as Moira on Schitt’s Creek. The sitcom, which premiered in 2015, introduced a wealthy family that suddenly ends up broke. After losing their fortune, the Roses relocate to a town they once purchased as a joke. Johnny (Eugene), Moira and their adult children — David (Dan) and Alexis (Annie Murphy) — subsequently have to adjust to a new normal without wealth.
Schitt’s Creek, a Canadian production, originally aired on CBC and became a hit when the first three seasons started streaming on Netflix Three more seasons were released, which earned Schitt’s Creek 19 Emmy nominations. Following the 2020 series finale, creators Eugenie and Dan have often been asked about a potential revival.
“My hope is that one day we can all get together. I see these people all the time. We’re in constant contact with each other. So the love is there. The desire to work together is there, and the desire to tell more stories is there,” Dan, 42, told People in 2022. “I think it just comes down to making sure that it’s the right story to tell. And I think we’re also proud of the work we did on Schitt’s. And when you end on such a high, it really forces you to think very carefully about what the next step is.”
Dan continued: “I think when you have an audience that’s paid attention to you for 80 episodes of a television show, the last thing you want is to put something out that makes them think this feels like a cash grab. And that’s not what we’re about. So TBD, but a TBD with an exclamation mark on the end.”
O’Hara, meanwhile, remained hopeful about reuniting with her costars on screen.
Simply the best! After the hit show’s iconic television run, the potential for a Schitt’s Creek movie looks brighter than ever. The series originally ran for six seasons starting in 2015, and its finale aired in April 2020. The show was created by father-son duo Eugene Levy and Dan Levy, and it slowly rose to […]
“I would love to,” she told People in 2024. “We did a bit of a tour after we finished the show, and it was so much fun. I’d love to just be with them all again. Doing a movie would be wonderful. Yeah, I hope it happens.”
The actress shared her gratitude to Dan and Eugene, 79, for “giving me that role, or giving me that opportunity to develop the role with them and to collaborate.”
“It’s such a gift to work with people with whom you can collaborate. And they wrote such great scripts, and it was just so fun and so lovely,” she shared. “And really, I hate to say COVID was good for anything, but we really lucked out with Netflix showing the show. Then so many families being holed up, parents and adult children being holed up under the same roof.”
O’Hara concluded: “So many people were going through that. So it turned out that [it was] just the timing. … You can’t predict these things. It was the scripts, the idea of working with Eugene and Daniel, and then to have such a lovely experience with all of them.”
