Catherine O'Hara, the comedic actress best known for her starring roles in the Home Alone and Beetlejuice films, as well as her Emmy-winning turn in Schitt's Creek, has died aged 71.
The Canadian star rose to fame through Toronto's Second City improvisation troupe and on SCTV, before making a name for herself in the US in 1988's Beetlejuice and as the matriarch in the holiday classic Home Alone.
O'Hara, whose colleagues remembered her as a "wonderful person, artist and collaborator", who most recently appeared in the Emmy-winning comedy The Studio and HBO's The Last of Us.
In a statement to the BBC, O'Hara's agent said she died on Friday at her home in Los Angeles following a brief illness.
O'Hara made lightning strike twice in her career with indelible cinematic turns.
In 1988's spooky satire Beetlejuice, she played Delia Deetz who led her possessed dinner guests in an enthralling song and dance performance of Day-O (the Banana Boat song).
Two years later, in Home Alone, her panicked scream of "Kevin!" as she realises her mischievous eight-year-old son had been left behind during their Christmas holiday became is among the most memorable moments from one of the most successful film comedies ever.
Bd-pratidin English/ ANI
