©Courtesy of Twenty Century Studio

Canadian-born comedic actor and screenwriter Catherine O’Hara died today at her home in Los Angeles following a brief illness. She was 71.

During her five-decade career, which began with the Canadian comedy series Second City Television, O’Hara won two Primetime Emmy awards and a Golden Globe. Among her film and television credits include Home Alone, After Hours, Beetlejuice, and Schitt’s Creek. O’Hara also appeared in some of Christopher Guest’s mockumentary films, including Best in Show, For Your Consideration, Waiting for Guffman, and  A Mighty Wind.The versatile actor also lent her voice to a number of animated features such as The Nightmare Before Christmas, Where the Wild Things Are, Frankensweenie, and Chicken Little.

O’Hara was perhaps best known for portraying the role of Moira Rose in the CBC sitcom Schitt’s Creek, starring with Eugene and Dan Levy and Annie Murphy. At the time, she praised the Levys for “bestowing me the opportunity to play a woman of a certain age, my age, who gets to fully be her ridiculous self.” O’Hara subsequently appeared in HBO’s The Last of Us. Her most recent role was in Seth Rogen’s The Studio, a satirical program for Apple TV.

In a 2025 interview, she told Variety that the film world “must be a much more nervous business now than in the past,” given the advent of the Internet and streaming services. She admitted nonetheless that “most people are trying to do and want to do good work. And most people want to be entertained.”

O’Hara was born in Toronto and for many years lived in Los Angeles. In 2021, she was named the honorary mayor of Brentwood. She is survived by her husband, Bo Welch, a production designer, and by her sons Matthew and Luke and six siblings. A memorial service is planned at a later date.

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