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Catherine O'Hara, Moira Rose of 'Schitt's Creek' and the 'Home Alone' mother, dies at 71

Catherine O'Hara, the Canadian comedian known for Schitt's Creek, Home Alone and Beetlejuice, has died at 71. Reuters, in a report republished by Interaksyon, says she died at her home in Los Angeles on Friday, January 30, after a brief illness, citing a statement from Creative Artists Agency reported by the BBC.

Born in Toronto in 1954, O'Hara joined the improv troupe The Second City in 1974 and co-created the sketch show SCTV. She played Moira Rose in Schitt's Creek, which won her the 2020 Emmy for best comedy actress, and Kate McCallister, the mother in Home Alone. Her last series role was Patty Leigh in The Studio in 2025.

“Mama. I thought we had time.” — Macaulay Culkin, via Reuters

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he joined fans in “mourning the loss of Catherine O'Hara”, and former prime minister Justin Trudeau called her “a beloved Canadian icon with a rare gift for comedy and heart”.

How each outlet framed it

• Reuters — her Toronto roots and the Canadian tributes alongside her Hollywood career.
• Fox 13 — a short entry calling her the star of “Beetlejuice,” “Home Alone” and “Schitt's Creek”, who died after a “brief illness”.
• BuzzFeed — a later year-in-review list with the cause from her death certificate.

What happened next: a BuzzFeed list published in late February, carried by Yahoo, reports that the cause was a pulmonary embolism, with rectal cancer listed on the Los Angeles County death certificate as an underlying cause. The first reports had said only that she died after a brief illness.