Catherine O’Hara, the singular comic actor whose performances blended absurdity, warmth, and aching humanity, has died at the age of 71. Her manager confirmed her death on Friday, Jan. 30. No cause was disclosed. TMZ first reported the news.

Born in Toronto in 1954, O’Hara was the second youngest of seven children. Her father worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway and her mother was a real estate agent. Her earliest brush with performance came in childhood, when she played the Virgin Mary in a Nativity play — an unlikely beginning for someone who would later redefine modern screen comedy.

After high school, O’Hara worked as a waitress at Toronto’s Second City Theatre, quietly absorbing the work of performers who would become comedy legends, including Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, and Joe Flaherty. Though initially discouraged, she persisted and officially joined Second City in 1974. One of her fellow performers was Eugene Levy, beginning one of the most enduring creative partnerships in comedy.

When Second City launched its television offshoot, Second City Television, O’Hara became one of its defining stars. She was fearless onstage, crafting both razor-sharp celebrity impressions and fully original characters who felt strange, vulnerable, and deeply human. As a writer on the show, she earned five Emmy nominations and won one.

Though she briefly accepted a spot on Saturday Night Live in 1981, O’Hara ultimately returned to SCTV when it was renewed, a decision that shaped her career on her own terms. When SCTV ended in 1984, she welcomed the chance to grow beyond sketch comedy and seek roles that frightened her creatively.

Her film career unfolded with quiet confidence. After early appearances in Double Negative and After Hours, O’Hara reached a wider audience as Delia Deetz in Beetlejuice, later reprising the role in the 2024 sequel. In 1990, she became unforgettable as Kate McCallister in Home Alone, grounding the film’s chaos with genuine maternal panic and love.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, O’Hara built a career defined not by volume but by precision. She voiced Sally in The Nightmare Before Christmas, appeared in Wyatt Earp, and reunited repeatedly with Christopher Guest in mockumentaries including Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind. In these films, she perfected a uniquely bittersweet comic register — characters who were funny because they were trying so desperately to be taken seriously.

In 2015, O’Hara reached an entirely new generation as Moira Rose on Schitt’s Creek, created by Dan Levy. With her baroque diction, theatrical grief, and ever-changing wigs, Moira became an instant cultural landmark. The role earned O’Hara an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and a SAG Award, and cemented her status as a once-in-a-generation performer.

Beyond comedy, O’Hara continued to surprise. She appeared on Six Feet Under, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and 30 Rock, earned an Emmy nomination for Temple Grandin, voiced characters in animated films including Frankenweenie and Elemental, and appeared as recently as 2024 in Argylle and season two of The Last of Us.

O’Hara married production designer Bo Welch in 1992 after meeting on Beetlejuice. They shared two sons, Matthew and Luke. She often spoke about their marriage as one built on humor, deflection, and mutual respect.

Catherine O’Hara leaves behind a body of work that reshaped comedy by refusing cruelty and embracing vulnerability. She made people laugh not by punching down, but by revealing how fragile, ridiculous, and yearning people can be. She is survived by her husband and children — and by generations of audiences who saw themselves, uncomfortably and joyfully, in her work.