As is the ritual, the 78th Emmy Awards hosted an In Memoriam segment for all the film and television personalities the world lost over the past year. These included actors Catherine O’Hara, Sam Neill, producer Ted Turner, singer Dolly Parton, director James Burrows, and actor-writer-producer Rob Reiner. Singer Noah Kahan rendered a live tribute of Simon & Garfunkel’s 1970 folk rock song “Bridge Over Troubled Water”.

Catherine O’Hara’s onscreen children pay tribute

Catherine’s onscreen children from two of her most enduring works came together to pay her a tribute. Macaulay Caulkin, her onscreen son from the first two instalments of Chris Columbus’ blockbuster comedy franchise Home Alone, said on the stage, “She wasn’t just a wife to Bo (Welch) and mother to Matthew and Luke. She was my mom. She was our mama, and by extension, she’s all of our mama.”

Culkin urged viewers to call their mothers, and recalled how Catherine continued to show up for him decades after they starred together in the two Home Alone movies, in 1990 and 1992 respectively. She played Kate McCallister, the frantic mother of Culkin’s Kevin. “This is the best that we can do for her tonight. We’re showing up for her. She may have forgotten me — twice — but we will always remember her,” he added.

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Culkin’s speech was followed by that of Annie Murphy and Dan Levy, who played Alexis Rose and David Rose, the children of Moira Rose, the iconic character played by Catherine in Dan and his father Eugene Levy’s Emmy Award-winning Netflix show Schitt’s Creek. “Catherine’s laugh was a perpetual ‘yes, and’. It challenged anyone who heard it to join in and be as delighted as she was, and she spread that delight everywhere,” said Murphy.

She then quoted instances of getting consolation from strangers on a flight, at a petrol pump, and at a grocery store across Canada while doing her daily chores. “These are only a very few of the interactions I’ve been lucky enough to have that remind me how profoundly Catherine has impacted the world. And it’s because she brought us joy,” added Murphy.

Dan then added that the greatest lesson he learnt from Catherine was to say yes. “Say yes to helping her build a TV character over the age of 60 that wears leather miniskirts and 8-inch heels, and speaks in a strange, sometimes unintelligible transatlantic accent,” he said. “Say yes to giving her space to experiment and create. It will amaze you on a daily basis, and it will change your life,” continued the actor-writer.

“Say yes to her dinner invites and her stories and her wisdom and her generosity,” he said. “Those are the things you will hold on to the tightest. Always say yes to any opportunity to revel in the presence of greatness,” he concluded. Catherine died at the age of 71 in January earlier this year, from a pulmonary embolism, with rectal cancer listed as the underlying cause.

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Jamie Lee Curtis remembers Rob Reiner

After the In Memoriam segment, actor Jamie Lee Curtis took to the stage to deliver a teary-eyed tribute to Rob Reiner. She shared screen space with him in Elizabeth Meriwether’s popular sitcom New Girl, where they played the parents of the protagonist, Jess (Zooey Deschanel). Jamie’s husband Christopher Guest, also an actor, has worked with Reiner in multiple films like This Is Spinal Trap (1984), its 2026 sequel Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, The Princess Bride (1987), and A Few Good Men (1992).

Hailing Reiner as a “cherished legend”, Jamie said, “He was generous and kind and funny as hell and a friend to all. We all miss Rob and Michele and all those we lost this year.” Rob and his wife Michele Reiner died of a homicide, as they were found dead in their Los Angeles home in December last year. Their son, Nick Reiner, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

Reiner also won a posthumous Emmy Award last week for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his “beautiful” role in season 4 of FX’s popular show The Bear. He last won an Emmy back in 1978 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for Norman Lear’s sitcom All in the Family.

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This makes Rob Reiner, who was 78 at the time, hold the record for the “longest gap (48 years) between acting Emmys”, as revealed by Jamie. In the process, Rob has broken the record of none else but his father, legendary actor Carl Reiner, who had 35 years between his two Emmys for Caesar’s Hour (1958) and Mad About You (1995).