Schitt’s Creek star Catherine O’Hara dies at 71

SCMP | Jan. 30, 2026, 2:48 p.m. | Original

Catherine O’Hara, a gifted Canadian comic actor and SCTV alum who starred as Macaulay Culkin’s harried mother in two Home Alone films and created the dramatically ditsy character of Moira Rose in the Emmy-winning comedy Schitt’s Creek , died on Friday.

O’Hara died at her home in Los Angeles “following a brief illness”, according to a statement from her agency, Creative Artists Agency. Further details were not immediately available.

O’Hara’s career was launched at the Second City in Toronto in the 1970s. It was there that she first worked with Eugene Levy, who would become a lifelong collaborator – and her Schitt’s Creek co-star.

The two would be among the original cast of the sketch show SCTV , short for Second City Television , which spawned a legendary group of esoteric comedians including Martin Short, John Candy, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis and Joe Flaherty.

Catherine O’Hara (far right) appears with fellow Schitt’s Creek cast members (from left) Eugene Levy, Annie Murphy and Daniel Levy in Pasadena, California, in January 2018. Photo: AP
Catherine O’Hara (far right) appears with fellow Schitt’s Creek cast members (from left) Eugene Levy, Annie Murphy and Daniel Levy in Pasadena, California, in January 2018. Photo: AP

Schitt’s Creek would be a career-capping triumph and the perfect personification of her comic talents.

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