Canadian-American actress Catherine O’Hara passed away on January 30, 2026 at the age of 71. The cause of death has not yet been released to the public, though her agency stated that her death followed an undisclosed “brief illness.” It is unconfirmed whether or not this illness had anything to do with her situs inversus, which is a rare genetic condition.
O’Hara got her start on the Canadian comedy sketch show SCTV, for which she was also a writer. Some of her best known acting roles now include Kate McCallister in the beloved Christmas movies Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Moira Rose in the sitcom Schitt’s Creek, Delia Deetz in the horror comedy Beetlejuice and its 2024 sequel, and Cookie Fleck in the mockumentary Best in Show. Just last year she appeared in the award-winning television shows The Studio and The Last of Us. She also provided the voices for many animated characters such as both Sally and Shock in The Nightmare Before Christmas, Grandma Frump in the 2019 The Addams Family, and, most recently, Pinktail in The Wild Robot. She had been married to production designed Bo Welch since 1992 and the couple have two sons together.
In a short but touching Instagram post, Macaulay Culkin, who played O’Hara’s son Kevin in Home Alone, writes:
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.
We at Fandom Spotlite would like to express our condolences to her family, friends, and fans.
