They paid tribute to the late “SCTV” and “Schitt’s Creek” actress in Austin after she died Friday at 71.

Martin Short and Steve Martin lead touching toast to former costar Catherine O’Hara at comedy show: ‘The greatest’

They paid tribute to the late "SCTV" and "Schitt's Creek" actress in Austin after she died Friday at 71.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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January 31, 2026 2:45 p.m. ET

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Martin Short and Steve Martin in Beverly Hills on Jan. 11, 2026; Catherine O'Hara in Los Angeles on Sept. 14, 2025. Credit:

Steve Granitz/FilmMagic; Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty

- Martin Short and Steve Martin led a touching toast to their former costar Catherine O'Hara at their Austin comedy show on Friday.

- "She has been the greatest, most brilliant, kindest, sweetest angel that any of us worked with," Short said.

- O'Hara died at 71 on Friday following a brief illness.

Martin Short and Steve Martin are remembering one of their favorite costars.

Following Catherine O'Hara's death at 71 on Friday, the *Only Murders in the Building* actors took a moment to pay tribute to the late *Beetlejuice* actress at their comedy show at the Bass Concert Hall in Austin.

"Catherine O'Hara I met when she was 18 years of age," Short said as he and Martin raised glasses of champagne in front of a projected photo of her. "And all these years later, she has been the greatest, most brilliant, kindest, sweetest angel that any of us worked with."

Steve Martin and Martin Short in Los Angeles on Sept. 14, 2025.

Kayla Oaddams/Getty

As the audience erupted into applause, Short said, "God bless."

Short first worked with O'Hara at Toronto's Second City improv theater in the 1970s. The actors previously crossed paths when she auditioned for the original Toronto production of *Godspell*, which Short ultimately starred in after O'Hara was passed over for a role. "I took the program home, and I remember kissing his picture because I thought he was so adorable," O'Hara later said of seeing Short in the play.

O'Hara began her time at Second City as a waitress before joining the comedy troupe after Gilda Radner departed for a gig on *Saturday Night Live* in 1975. Short joined the group in 1977.

Joe Flaherty, Martin Short, Andrea Martin, Catherine O'Hara, Dave Thomas, and Eugene Levy in Toronto.

Gail Harvey/Toronto Star via Getty

They then performed alongside their Second City costars on *SCTV*, which also featured John Candy, Eugene Levy, Rick Moranis, Harold Ramis, Joe Flaherty, and Andrea Martin. The show aired in various iterations from 1976 to 1984, with Short coming on board in its fourth season.

Short and O'Hara also costarred in the animated films *The Addams Family* and *Frankenweenie*, the latter of which reunited O'Hara with two of her *Beetlejuice* collaborators, director Tim Burton and actress Winona Ryder.

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Martin and O'Hara collaborated on NBC's short-lived *The New Show*, which Lorne Michaels created during his time away from *Saturday Night Live* in 1984. The comedians guest-starred together on multiple episodes of the sketch series, which also featured O'Hara's *SCTV* colleague Dave Thomas as one of its only regular cast members. Martin and O'Hara later costarred in director Gillies MacKinnon's *A Simple Twist of Fate, *a 1994 comedy-drama Martin wrote that was loosely based on the 1861 novel *Silas Marner* by George Eliot. Martin also worked with O'Hara's husband, Bo Welch, who served as the production designer for his 1991 movie *Grand Canyon*.

In a 2020 story about Catherine O'Hara's career renaissance at the peak of *Schitt's Creek*'s success, Short recalled the actress stealing the spotlight at a small dinner party with guests Tom Ford and Anjelica Huston. "Anjelica went completely still," he recalled of O'Hara's entrance to the gathering. "She said, 'Oh my God, oh my God, I've got to meet her, I've got to meet her.' It was like Paul McCartney walking in in 1965."

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O'Hara's death prompted a number of tributes from her former costars, including her lifelong collaborator Levy, who remembered her in a heartfelt statement shared with **.

"Words seem inadequate to express the loss I feel today," Levy said. "I had the honor of knowing and working with the great Catherine O'Hara for over 50 years. From our beginnings on the Second City stage, to *SCTV*, to the movies we did with Chris Guest, to our six glorious years on *Schitt's Creek*, I cherished our working relationship, but most of all our friendship. I will miss her."

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