Steve Martin and Martin Short Pause Comedy Show to Honor Catherine O’Hara: ‘The Greatest, Most Brilliant, Kindest, Sweetest Angel’

Steve Martin and Martin Short paid tribute to the late Catherine O’Hara Friday night, raising a glass to the star during their “The Best of Steve Martin and Martin Short” comedy show in Austin, Texas.

“Catherine O’Hara, I met when she was 18 years of age, and all these years later, she has been the greatest, most brilliant, kindest, sweetest angel that any of us worked with,” said Short alongside Martin. “So god bless Catherine,” he added while toasting.

As the two stood on stage, a large image of the actress was on the screen behind them. The tribute came just hours after O’Hara’s death was announced on Friday. Her agency, CAA, confirmed she died at her home in Los Angeles following a brief illness. She was 71.

A longtime friend and collaborator, Short first met O’Hara on the Canadian sketch comedy series “Second City Television,” which ran from 1976 to 1984. Martin previously worked with the “Best in Show” and “Schitt’s Creek” actor on the 1994 film “A Simple Twist of Fate,” directed by Gillies MacKinnon.

Since O’Hara’s death, a number of stars have shared heartfelt messages. “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,” O’Hara’s “Home Alone” co-star Macaulay Culkin wrote on Instagram. “I love you. I’ll see you later.”

Seth Rogan, who co-starred with O’Hara on “The Studio,” also shared his thoughts on Instagram. “Really don’t know what to say… 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,” Rogen wrote. “Getting to work with her was a true honour. 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.”