Catherine O'Hara's Cause Of Death Confirmed After Private Health Battle
Catherine O’Hara’s cause of death was confirmed weeks after she died in Los Angeles at the age of 71.
On Monday, Feb. 9, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed that O’Hara died after suffering from a pulmonary embolism. Rectal cancer was listed as the underlying cause of the embolism, according to a death certificate obtained by The New York Times.
O’Hara died on January 30 and, at the time, a rep told Rolling Stone that the actress, who was known for roles in Beetlejuice, Home Alone, Schitt’s Creek, and Best in Show, had suffered from a “brief illness” before her death.
After her death, a resurfaced interview showed O’Hara opening up about a rare medical condition, situs inversus, that she had since birth. The rare congenital condition means that someone’s internal organs are “flipped,” meaning her heart was on the right side, her spleen on the right, and more.
O’Hara is survived by her husband, Bo Welch, and two sons, 31-year-old Matthew and 29-year-old Luke. The actress met her husband, an Oscar-nominated production designer and frequent Tim Burton collaborator, on the set of Beetlejuice in 1988. They married in 1992.
The Canadian actress got her start at the Second City Theater in Toronto, where she met Eugene Levy, who would go on to become her close friend and collaborator. She also worked with SNL alum, Gilda Radner, who O’Hara recently spoke about to Vanity Fair. “I worked with really inspiring people, and I’m still trying to practice what they taught me,” O’Hara says. Radner was particularly inspiring. “I understudied her and just watched her—she was not the type to pontificate or consciously be a mentor, but she just was by example.”
The theater went on to get its own sketch show, often abbreviated to SCTV. As a writer on the show, O’Hara earned five Emmy nominations and won once.
O’Hara is also an Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Award winner for her role on Schitt’s Creek, in which she starred with Levy. She was recently nominated at all three of these shows for her role in The Studio.