Forgotten Home Alone star returns to spotlight to honor ‘mom’ Catherine O’Hara with never-before-seen photos

One of the child stars of Home Alone who vanished from Hollywood has resurfaced to pay a heartfelt tribute to Catherine O’Hara.

Hillary Wolf Saba, who played Meghan, the sister of Macaulay Culkin’s character in the 1990 classic and its 1992 sequel, shared a touching throwback photo of the cast – including O’Hara, who sadly passed away on January 30 in a Los Angeles hospital at 71 from a pulmonary embolism.

‘My onscreen mom was so good to all of us kids on the sets of Home Alone 1 & 2. She was sweet and she was hilarious! RIP Catherine O’Hara,’ Saba wrote.

Now a mom of two, Saba left acting shortly after the 1992 sequel and turned her focus to athletics, competing nationwide in judo before making the U.S. Olympic team in 2000. 

Despite her career shift, she recently reflected on her Home Alone days on social media, writing over the holiday season: ‘I only use my IG account for highlighting the deserving rescue pups I volunteer with every week, but I’ll make an exception since it’s Home Alone season.’

She even penned a 2021 essay for Newsweek, calling O’Hara ‘one of the best things about that movie set.’ 

Hillary Wolf Saba, who played Meghan, the sister of Macaulay Culkin ’s character in the 1990 classic and its 1992 sequel, shared a touching throwback photo of the cast – including O’Hara, who sadly passed away on January 30 in a Los Angeles hospital at 71 from a pulmonary embolism; (Devin Ratray, O’Hara, Saba, Culkin and John Heard)

Now a mom of two, Saba left acting shortly after the 1992 sequel and turned her focus to athletics, competing nationwide in judo before making the U.S. Olympic team in 2000

‘She was funny, great with kids, and just a wonderful person. I actually had a lot of fun filming the scene we did running through O’Hare airport, and that was because I was with Catherine,’ Saba recalled.

She added, ‘As a whole, my memories of Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost In New York are that it was a very fun set. Between the McCallisters and the cousins, there were a lot of children, so it was a very kid-friendly environment.’

On working with Macaulay Culkin, she said, ‘He was a typical little boy having fun and his personality really shone through.’

Saba also shared some behind-the-scenes fun from filming the sequel, recalling that she and Culkin would sometimes visit Chicago’s Navy Pier and lip-sync to music videos – including Michael Jackson’s Black or White, which featured Culkin himself.

‘One day during filming in Chicago, a car with blacked-out windows drove up to the set, and I remember hearing somebody say, “Oh, there’s a Michael Jackson lookalike here!” It was actually him,’ she wrote. 

‘The whole situation was surreal and weird, it was like, “holy s***, that’s Michael Jackson!” I’m not impressed by famous people often, but Michael Jackson was next level.’

Reflecting on leaving Hollywood, Saba told Newsweek that stepping away from acting was easier than leaving athletics. 

‘I never wanted anyone to think that I considered myself really cool because I was in those movies, so I didn’t really tell anybody I met. 

Saba recently reflected on her Home Alone days on social media, writing over the holiday season: ‘I only use my IG account for highlighting the deserving rescue pups I volunteer with every week, but I’ll make an exception since it’s Home Alone season.’

‘My onscreen mom was so good to all of us kids on the sets of Home Alone 1 & 2. She was sweet and she was hilarious! RIP Catherine O’Hara,’ Saba wrote

‘She was funny, great with kids, and just a wonderful person. I actually had a lot of fun filming the scene we did running through O’Hare airport, and that was because I was with Catherine,’ Saba recalled of O’Hara

‘I was so private about it that it’s almost like I didn’t embrace the joy and the fun oddity of being in Home Alone movies.’

Her dedication to sports was impressive. 

She won the 1994 World Junior Judo Championships in her weight class and went on to compete in the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000, cementing her as one of America’s top judokas. 

Like Saba, Culkin also paid tribute to the beloved actress, remembering her not just as a co-star but as a parent figure on set.

As news of O’Hara’s tragic death spread, he led the tributes on Instagram with a heartbreaking post. 

He shared a split image: one from the classic Home Alone film and another from a more recent reunion at his Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in 2023.

‘Mama. I thought we had time. I wanted more. I wanted to sit in a chair next to you. I heard you. But I had so much more to say. I love you. I’ll see you later,’ he wrote.

Director Chris Columbus described himself as ‘heartbroken’ in an Instagram post following O’Hara’s death.

‘One day during filming in Chicago, a car with blacked-out windows drove up to the set, and I remember hearing somebody say, “Oh, there’s a Michael Jackson lookalike here!” It was actually him,’ Saba wrote in another post

‘Today we lost Catherine O’Hara. I’m stunned and heartbroken, along with the rest of the world,’ he wrote.

He added that he had long been a fan of her work: ‘I was an obsessive fan of Catherine’s brilliant comedic work on SCTV and was thrilled when she agreed to play Kevin’s Mom in Home Alone.’

Columbus went on to praise her unforgettable performance in the 1990 classic. ‘What most people don’t realize is that Catherine carries the weight of 50% of that film. The movie simply would not work without her extraordinary performance.’

He continued, ‘Catherine grounds the picture with a profound emotional depth. I will miss her greatly.’

There was, he said, a small comfort in imagining her reunited with fellow Home Alone co-star John Candy. ‘Yet there is a small sense of comfort, realizing that two of the finest human beings I’ve ever known, Catherine and John Candy, are together again, brilliantly improvising, making each other laugh.’

Candy, who also starred in Home Alone, passed away in 1994 at the age of 43 from a heart attack.

Columbus also shared a photo of himself with O’Hara and Culkin, which appeared to have been taken last March.