Catherine O’Hara, a renowned Toronto actor known for her roots on SCTV all the way to her award-winning run on Schitt’s Creek, has reportedly died.
According to TMZ, O’Hara died on Friday, though they stated the cause of death was unclear. Deadline has since reported that she died following a brief illness. She was 71.
An icon in Hollywood, the Canadian actor rose to fame on SCTV, a sketch comedy series that began in Toronto and launched the careers of fellow stars such as Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin and John Candy.
She was also recognized for her role as Macaulay Caulkin’s mother in the first two Home Alone movies, as well as for the role of Delia Deetz in the original Beetlejuice and 2024’s sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Other notable credits include mockumentary comedy films Best in Show and A Mighty Wind.
But, first in Canada, and then around the world, it was her character Moira Rose on the Canadian mega-hit Schitt’s Creek that quickly became her most beloved role. Widely recognized as one of the greatest comedic minds of this generation, her 80-episode run as the matriarch of the Schitt family in Schitt’s Creek (alongside SCTV co-star Eugene Levy and Dan Levy) earned her an Emmy, Golden Globe, Critics Choise Award, Screen Actor’s Guild Award and Television Critics Association Award for Individual Achievement. She became the fourth person in history to win all five major TV acting awards in one awards season in 2021.
Last year, her career saw two more Emmy nominations: one for her guest starring role in The Last of Us and another for her scene-stealing character Patty Leigh in The Studio. She also received a Golden Globes nomination for her role in The Studio this year.
“Catherine’s commitment to her craft results in incredibly memorable performances where she somehow is both instantly recognizable and simultaneously disappears completely behind her carefully inhabited characters,” is how actor Lara Jean Chorostecki described O’Hara in a tribute to her when she was named one of Streets of Toronto’s Most Inspiring Women of 2021.
O’Hara also received the TIFF Norman Jewison Career Achievement Award at the Tribute Awards in 2025.
Catherine O’Hara is survived by her husband and children.
