Catherine O’Hara — who died Friday at age 71 — was one of the greatest comic actors of her lifetime, giving us unforgettable turns in “Home Alone,” “Schitt’s Creek,” “Beetlejuice,” and many more films and TV shows across half a century. But she wasn’t showing any signs of slowing down. In fact, her final TV role was one of her best, playing former studio head Patty Leigh on “The Studio.”

Debuting last year on Apple TV, “The Studio” is a savage showbiz parody starring co-creator Seth Rogen as newly crowned studio head Matt Remick, who tries to keep his artistic integrity intact while scrambling to keep his film studio afloat in an era of franchises and reboots. (The series premiere finds Matt fielding pitches for a movie based on… the Kool-Aid Man.)

O’Hara co-starred as Patty, the former head of Matt’s studio who served as a mentor to Matt — and who was fired right before he took over. Patty was a survivor, though, and managed to score a lucrative producing deal from Matt’s studio in exchange for saving his bacon on a doomed project. Patty served as Matt’s executive guru for the rest of the season, guiding him with her wealth of industry wisdom, and O’Hara was fantastic in the role, offering a steady hand along with tiny glimpses of the inspired lunacy on which she built her comedy career.

The Studio went on to sweep awards season

Apple TV
Thanks in part to O’Hara’s stellar work, “The Studio” became an instant hit with critics and industry voters, earning a whopping 23 Emmy nominations for its freshman season, including one for O’Hara for best supporting actress in a comedy. It won 13 Emmys, a record for the most wins by a comedy in a single year, including best comedy series and best lead actor in a comedy for Rogen.

It later swept the Critics’ Choice Awards and the Golden Globes as well, with O’Hara earning a nod for best supporting actress at the Globes, too. But she didn’t attend this month’s Globes ceremony, which took place just two weeks before her death. At the time, Rogen told reporters that filming of Season 2 of “The Studio” would begin the following week.

But when filming began, O’Hara wasn’t there on set, reportedly due to “personal matters,” a source tells The Sun: “She was scheduled to film, but they reworked the schedule to focus on scenes without her character.” It’s believed that O’Hara did not film any scenes for Season 2 before her death. (TVLine has reached out to Apple TV for confirmation.)

Rogen offered a heartfelt tribute to O’Hara on Instagram: “I told O’Hara when I first met her I thought she was the funniest person I’d ever had the pleasure of watching on screen. ‘Home Alone’ was the movie that made me want to make movies. Getting to work with her was a true honor. She was hysterical, kind, intuitive, generous… she made me want to make our show good enough to be worthy of her presence in it. This is just devastating. We’re all lucky we got to live in a world with her in it.”