Canadian comedy giant Catherine O’Hara dead at 71

By Canadian Press on January 30, 2026.

Canadian comedy giant Catherine O’Hara, known for her roles in “Home Alone” and “Schitt’s Creek,” has died at age 71.

Her agency says O’Hara died at her home in Los Angeles on Friday “following a brief illness.”

Further details were not immediately available.

O’Hara got her start at Second City Toronto, working as a waitress, before joining the sketch comedy company’s cast and eventually the television adaptation, “SCTV.”

Her role as the outlandish matriarch Moira Rose in “Schitt’s Creek” won her numerous Canadian Screen Awards, and an Emmy.

O’Hara received the Order of Canada in 2018 and a Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards lifetime achievement award in 2021.

-With files from The Associated Press and Nicole Thompson

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 30, 2026.

Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press

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