Legendary actress and comedian Catherine O’Hara was reportedly described as being noticeably frail in the final three months leading up to her death at the age of 71 last week.
O’Hara, best known for roles in Home Alone and Schitt’s Creek, Beetlejuice and Second City Television, among numerous others, was a guest at the 2025 Angel Awards in Los Angeles last October and, despite reportedly seemingly being upbeat, was described by another guest as having “looked very slender.”
“Her face was almost gaunt, but she still looked very pretty,” the insider told the Daily Mail. “She is a striking-looking woman — and she had a touch of glam going on. She hid her figure in a bulky green pinstriped suit.”
“She seemed to be in great spirits, however, and was very friendly and upbeat and lovely,” the source added.
The ceremony celebrated Los Angeles chefs who delivered food to those “facing critical and life-threatening illnesses,” according to Project Angel Food’s website. O’Hara’s cause of death has not yet been determined, however, the actress had publicly stated she was born with a rare genetic condition known as Situs Inversus in which her heart sat on the opposite side of her chest.
The Cleveland Clinic defines the condition as occurring “when the organs in your chest and belly develop in a reversed position of normal anatomy.” The Toronto native began her comedy career as a cast member of The Second City in her hometown in 1974, working as an understudy to the late Gilda Radner until Radner left for Saturday Night Live and was part of the theatre troupe’s sketch comedy show SCTV, which debuted in 1976, starring alongside numerous fellow comedy legends including John Candy, Martin Short, Rick Moranis, Harold Ramis, Joe Flaherty and her longtime collaborating partner Eugene Levy.
O’Hara made her film debut alongside Levy, Flaherty and Candy in Double Negative (1980) and had later roles in After Hours (1985) and Beetlejuice (1988) before playing Kate McCallister, the mother of Macaulay Culkin‘s Kevin McCallister, in Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992). O’Hara and Levy would share the silver screen numerous times before playing the married couple Johnny and Moira Rose, with Levy’s son Dan playing the Rose’s son David and Annie Murphy playing their daughter Alexis, on the sitcom Schitt’s Creek, which set records with all four winning major acting categories (Lead Actor/Actress and Supporting Actor/Actress), as well as sweeping all seven major comedy awards at the 72nd Prime Time Emmy Awards.
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