Catherine O’Hara in Los Angeles in 2025. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP hide caption toggle caption Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP Canadian born actress and screenwriter Catherine O’Hara has died at her home in Los Angeles, following a brief illness, according to her agent and manager. She was 71 years old and was known for absurdist comedy. She enjoyed a six-decade career in TV and film playing sometimes over-the-top, but endearing characters. In one of her most memorable roles, O’Hara played the freaked-out mom of rascally son Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) in two Home Alone movies. Later, she portrayed the self-centered, whiny matriarch in the riches-to-rags TV sitcom Schitt’s Creek — a role for which she earned an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award in 2020. Catherine O’Hara and Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone. Don Smetzer/20th Century Fox/Alamy hide caption toggle caption Don Smetzer/20th Century Fox/Alamy She won her first Emmy in 1982 for writing on the Canadian sketch comedy TV series Second City Television, or SCTV. She cofounded the show, and created characters such as the show biz has-been Lola Heatherton. …