Catherine O'Hara, ‘Home Alone’ and ‘Schitt’s Creek’ Actress, Dies at 71

Catherine O'Hara, the Emmy-winning comic actress known for roles in Home Alone and Schitt's Creek, died on Friday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 71, and Creative Artists Agency, which represented her, confirmed her death, saying she had been briefly ill but not citing a cause.

A native of Toronto, Ms. O'Hara began her career as an understudy to Gilda Radner with the Second City improvisational troupe and rose to prominence on the Canadian sketch show SCTV, alongside John Candy, Rick Moranis and Eugene Levy. On film, she was memorable in Beetlejuice (1988) as Delia Deetz and won widespread recognition for Home Alone (1990), directed by Chris Columbus and written by John Hughes, in which she played a harried mother who leaves her youngest child behind.

She also appeared in After Hours (1985) and Heartburn (1986), and rejoined Levy in later projects. Ms. O'Hara was a frequent collaborator with Christopher Guest, appearing as Cookie Fleck in Best in Show (2000) and in Guest's Waiting for Guffman, A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration.

She told Parade in 2024 that working in collaborative ensembles felt like a safe and productive space for her craft. Her role as Moira Rose on Schitt's Creek, the Canadian sitcom created by Eugene and Dan Levy that ran for six seasons beginning in 2015, brought a late-career renaissance: she won a 2020 acting Emmy for the part and also received a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

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