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Emmys 2026: In Memoriam segment honors Catherine O'Hara, Rob Reiner and more

Peter Larsen, The Orange County Register on

Published in Entertainment News

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Catherine O’Hara and Rob Reiner bookended the Emmys remembrance on Monday of the actors, producers, writers, directors and other TV notables who died over the last year.

Macaulay Culkin, Annie Murphy and Dan Levy opened the segment with warm, heartfelt and often funny memories of O’Hara, who starred as Culkin’s mother in “Home Alone” and Murphy and Levy’s mother in “Schitt’s Creek.”

“We remember her as the forgetful mother, right, but we will never forget about her,” Culkin said. “There are all kinds of words I could use about Catherine. She was encouraging, she was warm, she was funny. But the word I think about her is ‘mama.’

“She wasn’t just a wife and mother to Bo and Matthew and Luke; she was my mama,” he continued. “She was my mama, and by extension she was all of our mamas. By the way, call your mother tonight. For real.

“She may have forgotten me,” Culkin said, adding “Twice,” in reference to the two “Home Alone” films they starred in. “But we will always remember her.”

Murphy and Levy talked about her laugh, her terrific instincts for comedy, and more.

“The greatest lesson I learned from Catherine, both personally and professionally, was to always say yes,” Levy said. “Yes to her instincts, all of them, as radical as they may be.

 

“Say yes to the concept of a wig wall,” he continued, referencing something O’Hara brought to “Schitt’s Creek.” “Say yes to her asking to wear a wig as a hat. Say yes to her naming that wig.”

As an orchestra backed singer-songwriter Noah Kahan, he sang Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” as photographs of those who have died flashed onscreen: James Van Der Beek, June Lockhart, Anthony Head, Isaiah Whitlock Jr., Tim Curry, Sid Krofft, Ted Turner, Bob Mackie and Dolly Parton, who was earlier in the telecast remembered by Sally Field, her co-star in “Steel Magnolias,” and Reba McEntire sang Dolly’s “Appalachian Memories.”

At the end of the photo gallery, actress Jamie Lee Curtis came out to praise the late director James Burrows for his many contributions to comedy TV series and deliver a heartfelt remembrance of the late Rob and Michelle Reiner.

“Last week, Robbie won an Emmy for guest actor for his beautiful work on ‘The Bear,’ Curtis said. “And he now holds the record of 48 years for the longest gap between acting Emmys, which was previously held by his father at 37 years.

“He was generous and kind and funny as hell. And a friend to all. We all miss Rob and Michelle and all those we lost this year.”


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