Actress Catherine O’Hara’s cause of death was announced Monday by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
O’Hara died from a pulmonary embolism with cancer as the underlying cause, according to her death certificate released
The death certificate, obtained by TMZ, lists the pulmonary embolism—a blood clot that blocks an artery in the lungs—as the immediate cause of the 71-year-old actress’s tragic death on January 30. O’Hara had been battling rectal cancer, which was considered the long-term cause.
The oncologist who signed the death certificate said he had been treating O’Hara since March 2025 and last saw her on January 27, three days before her death, according to the Associated Press. She died at a hospital in Santa Monica, California.
The death certificate says O’Hara was cremated and her remains were given to her husband, production designer Robert “Bo” Welch, TMZ reported.
Her agency, Creative Artists Agency, initially announced O’Hara died at her home in Los Angeles’s Brentwood area “following a brief illness.” The agency did not specify the cause of death at the time.
The American Cancer Society estimates nearly 50,000 new cases of rectal cancer—more than 28,700 in men and 21,200 in women—will be diagnosed this year. Colorectal cancer causes the third-most cancer-related deaths among men and the fourth-most among women. About 55,000 deaths this year are projected to be caused by colorectal cancer.
Among people under age 50, colorectal cancer now causes the most cancer-related deaths in the United States, a recent study found.
O’Hara’s death shocked Hollywood. Her most recent work included reprising her role as Delia Deetz in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” and the Apple TV+ series “The Studio” opposite Seth Rogen.
The Canadian-born actress launched her career as a cast member of “Second City Television” in 1976. She won her first Emmy for writing on the show and received four nominations. O’Hara famously played Macaulay Culkin’s mother Kate McCallister in “Home Alone” and “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.”
She experienced a career resurgance in her 60s starring as wealthy matriarch Moira Rose in the popular sitcom “Schitt’s Creek” from 2015 to 2020, where she won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series and a Golden Globe for the role.
O’Hara also starred in Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice” in 1988 and collaborated frequently with comedic director Christopher Guest on mockumentary films including “Best in Show,” “Waiting for Guffman,” “A Mighty Wind,” and “For Your Consideration.”