Actress Catherine O’Hara, known for her roles in films and shows such as “Home Alone” and “Beetlejuice,” has passed away.
She was 71.
The cause of her death is unclear.
Breaking news: Catherine O’Hara, the actress and comedian who delivered deliciously silly performances in movies such as “Beetlejuice” and “Home Alone,” and gained a new generation of fans as Moira Rose on “Schitt’s Creek,” has died.
She was 71. https://t.co/ne4WoB63L0
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) January 30, 2026
TMZ has more:
Catherine famously played Macaulay Culkin’s mother in the first two ‘Home Alone’ movies … and she appeared as Moira Rose in 80 episodes of “Schitt’s Creek.”
Other notable movie credits include a couple mockumentaries in 2000’s “Best in Show,” and 2003’s “A Mighty Wind” … plus “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” and the OG “Beetlejuice.”
Catherine’s most recent work came opposite Seth Rogen in the Apple TV+ series, “The Studio.” She earned an Emmy nomination for her work.
She won an Emmy Award for her work in “Schitt’s Creek” in 2020 … it followed her first Emmy win way back in 1982 for her writing contributions to the sketch comedy TV series, “SCTV Network 90.”
O’Hara’s accolades include two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Fox News shared a breaking alert:
BREAKING: Emmy-winning actress Catherine O’Hara, known for her work in “Home Alone,” “Schitt’s Creek,” and more, has died. She was 71. pic.twitter.com/fLU0EBSQVc
— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 30, 2026
PEOPLE shared further:
O’Hara was born in Toronto in 1954. She was the second youngest of seven children; her father worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway, and her mother was a real estate agent. Her first acting gig was portraying the Virgin Mary in a Nativity play. After graduating from high school, she got a job as a waitress at the Second City Theater in Toronto.
“I was lucky enough to watch everybody,” she told PEOPLE in 2024 of the theater’s legendary talent, which included Dan Aykroyd, Joe Flaherty and family friend Gilda Radner. When she auditioned to become a member, Flaherty had some discouraging feedback.
“He said, ‘Keep up the good work. Your day job, I mean: waitressing,’” she told PEOPLE. She didn’t listen and landed a spot when she auditioned again.
She joined the company in 1974. One of her stagemates was comedian Eugene Levy, who would become one of her closest friends and collaborators. O’Hara told The New Yorker in 2019 that at first she was scared of being on stage.
“My crutch was, in improvs, when in doubt, play insane. Because you didn’t have to excuse anything that came out of your mouth. It didn’t have to make sense.”
In 1976, the theater began its own TV show, called Second City Television (and usually abbreviated as SCTV). O’Hara was a staple of the sketch program, which aired on NBC in the ‘80s. O’Hara became known not only for her impressions of celebrities, including Meryl Streep and Brooke Shields, but also for original characters that became fan favorites.
O’Hara was content with SCTV, but the show did not provide her with a consistent paycheck. “Our producer would get a deal with a network, and we’d have a show for a season or two, and then that deal would go away. There’d be a break, then we’d do the show again,” she told PEOPLE in 2024.
During one break in 1981, “I got asked to be on Saturday Night Live. And of course I said yes. Who doesn’t want to do that?” But then SCTV was picked up again and she went back to her home — before she’d ever done a single episode of SNL. Her best friend from high school, Robin Duke, took her SNL slot. “It all worked out the way it was supposed to,” she reflected. As part of the SCTV writing staff, she received five Emmy nominations, winning once.