The TV and film star starred in Home Alone, Schitt’s Creek, Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas
Hollywood legend Catherine O’Hara’s cause of death has been confirmed. .
Picture:
Alamy
Hollywood legend Catherine O’Hara’s cause of death has been confirmed.
O’Hara, who played Kevin McCallister’s mother Kate in the Home Alone film series, passed away last month “following a brief illness,” her agency said at the time.
The TV and film legend also starred in Schitt’s Creek, Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Now, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has confirmed the beloved actress died from a pulmonary embolism, with rectal cancer also listed as the underlying cause of death.
TMZ reports she was cremated and her remains were given to her husband, Robert “Bo” Welch.
Tributes poured in for the actress following news of her death at the age of 71 on January 30.
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O’Hara played Kevin McCallister’s mother Kate in the Home Alone film series (pictured).
Picture:
Alamy
Paying tribute to his on-screen mother, Macaulay Culkin, who played Kevin in Home Alone, said: “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. I love you. I’ll see you later.”
Born in Canada in March 1954, O’Hara started her career in sketch and improv comedy.
She shot to global stardom after starring alongside Culkin in the first two Home Alone films, as well as appearing in all 80 Schitt’s Creek episodes, playing the part of Moira Rose.
She skipped the Golden Globes awards earlier this month after receiving a nomination for Best Supporting Performance by a Female Actor for her role in the Apple+ series, The Studio.
She was last seen publicly in September 2025, posing on the red carpet with her husband, Bo Welch, at an Emmys bash.
Schitt’s Creek co-creator Dan Levy described O’Hara as “family before she ever played my family” after his co-star’s death.
Levy said on Instagram he would “cherish every funny memory I was fortunate enough to make with her”.
“What a gift to have gotten to dance in the warm glow of Catherine O’Hara’s brilliance for all those years,” he wrote.
“Having spent over fifty years collaborating with my Dad (Schitt’s Creek co-star and co-creator Eugene), Catherine was extended family before she ever played my family. It’s hard to imagine a world without her in it.
Catherine O’Hara in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
Picture:
Alamy
Meryl Streep, who acted alongside O’Hara in the 1986 comedy Heartburn, said in a statement: “Catherine O’Hara brought love and light to our world, through whipsmart compassion for the collection of eccentrics she portrayed… such a loss for her family and friends, and the audience she graced as friends.”
Michael Keaton said: “We go back before the first Beetlejuice. She’s been my pretend wife, my pretend nemesis and my real life, true friend.
“This one hurts. Man am I gonna miss her.”
Alec Baldwin described O’Hara as “one of the greatest comic talents in the movie business” who possessed “a quality that was all her own”.
O’Hara also starred in the second season of The Last Of Us, alongside Pedro Pascal, who paid tribute to her in an Instagram post, saying: “Oh, genius to be near you. Eternally grateful.
“There is less light in my world, this lucky world that had you, will keep you, always.”
O’Hara is survived by her husband Bo Welch and sons Matthew and Luke.