Catherine O’Hara, the comedic actress best known for her starring roles in the Home Alone and Beetlejuice films, as well as her Emmy-winning turn in Schitt’s Creek, has died aged 71.
The Canadian star rose to fame through Toronto’s Second City improvisation troupe and on SCTV, before making a name for herself in the US in 1988’s Beetlejuice and as the matriarch in the holiday classic Home Alone.
O’Hara, whose colleagues remembered her as a “wonderful person, artist and collaborator”, most recently appeared in the Emmy-winning comedy The Studio and HBO’s The Last of Us.
O’Hara’s agent said she died on Friday at her home in Los Angeles following a brief illness.
O’Hara had a late-career surge thanks to the Canadian comedy series Schitt’s Creek, which became one of the biggest hits of the Covid lockdown.
The fish-out-of-water comedy show followed the wealthy Rose family as they abruptly lose their money and mansion, and are forced to move into a shabby motel in a deadbeat town they bought as a joke.
O’Hara’s character Moira was a particular delight, with her wildly fluctuating accent, outlandish fashion sense, and brilliant one-liners.
