Catherine O’Hara’s official cause of passing has now been confirmed, bringing long-awaited clarity to the circumstances surrounding the loss of one of Hollywood’s most revered performers.
The beloved actress, best known for her work in Schitt’s Creek and Home Alone, passed away on January 30, at the age of 71.
At the time, her representative confirmed that O’Hara had passed away “after a brief illness,” offering no further medical explanation.
The condition that led to actress Catherine O’Hara’s passing has been revealed by medical documents
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On Monday (February 9), the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed that O’Hara suffered a pulmonary embolism, according to TMZ.
Rectal cancer was listed as the underlying cause that led to the embolism. The outlet also reported that O’Hara was cremated, citing her passing certificate.
According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) pulmonary embolism is a sudden blockage of one or more arteries in the lungs, almost always caused by a blood clot that forms elsewhere in the body.
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The embolism occurs most commonly in the deep veins of the legs or pelvis, and then travels to the lungs.
When that clot lodges in the pulmonary arteries, it can abruptly cut off blood flow, strain the heart, and reduce oxygen levels. Because of this, large embolisms can be rapidly fatal.
Rectal cancer, like many cancers, significantly increases the risk of developing those dangerous blood clots.
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Cancer creates what doctors call a hypercoagulable state, meaning the blood becomes more prone to clotting.
Tumors release pro-coagulant substances into the bloodstream that activate clotting pathways. At the same time, cancer-related inflammation damages blood vessel walls and alters normal blood flow, all of which favor clot formation.
In layman terms, as O’Hara’s certificate showed, the illness set the biological conditions that made the embolism happen.
O’Hara’s career skyrocketed after she portrayed Kate McCallister in Home Alone
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Born in Toronto in 1954, Catherine Anne O’Hara was the second youngest of seven children in a working-class Catholic family.
In 1976, Second City launched its own television show: SCTV. O’Hara quickly became one of its defining voices, earning a reputation for her uncanny impressions and offbeat characters.
“We’d have a show for a season or two, then that deal would go away,” she said of its instability.
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“I got asked to be on Saturday Night Live. And of course I said yes. Who doesn’t want to do that?” But when SCTV resumed production, she walked away from SNL before filming a single episode.
Her friend Robin Duke replaced her on the show.
“It all worked out the way it was supposed to,” O’Hara reflected years later.
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Her first film roles came in the early 1980s, including Double Negative, After Hours, and Heartburn.
In 1988, she made her mark as Delia Deetz in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice. There, she met Welch, the film’s production designer and the two married in 1992.
In 1990, she became a household name playing Kate McCallister in Home Alone, the frantic, guilt-ridden mother who accidentally leaves her son behind on Christmas.
The film became a global phenomenon, earning nearly $500 million and instantly cementing O’Hara as one of the most iconic faces of 90s family cinema. O’Hara reprised the role in 1992’s Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
O’Hara was in the middle of a late-career resurgence, with successful roles in Schitt’s Creek and Netflix productions
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Despite her growing fame, O’Hara never chased every role that came her way, taking special care to protect her family-friendly image.
“I read scripts and get a gut feeling about whether I want to be a part of them,” she once said. “Do I want my parents to see this? I’d just rather stay home than do something I know is bad and have to defend it later.”
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In the 1990s and 2000s, she veered into the mockumentary field through her collaborations with Christopher Guest: Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration.
In A Mighty Wind, she and Levy performed a haunting duet, A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow, that earned an Oscar nomination.
But it was in Schitt’s Creek where O’Hara delivered her late-career masterpiece.
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As Moira Rose, the eccentric matriarch with a bottomless rotation of wigs and an accent untethered to geography, O’Hara reached a new generation and, in the process, redefined how she was recognized in public.
“I used to mostly get people named Kevin who’d come up to me and ask me to yell ‘Kevin!’ in their faces,” she said. “Now it’s mostly about Moira.”
In 2020, that performance earned her an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and a SAG Award.
