Actress Catherine O’Hara’s Cause Of Death Released

The cause of the death of actress Catherine O’Hara has been revealed.

As the WLT Report covered earlier, the Emmy award-winning actress died at the end of January in a California hospital.

Now, O’Hara’s death certificate has been revealed and reveals that the award-winning actress died from a pulmonary embolism.

NBC News covered O’Hara’s cause of death in more detail and revealed what caused her pulomary embolism:

Emmy-winning actor Catherine O’Hara died from a blood clot in her lungs as a result of rectal cancer, according to her death certificate.

Her official cause of death was listed as a “pulmonary embolism” due to an underlying cause of cancer, sources confirmed to NBC Los Angeles on Monday.

O’Hara’s Los Angeles County death certificate also showed that she was cremated, The Associated Press reported. The oncologist who signed off on the certificate indicated that he had been treating O’Hara since March and last saw her Jan. 27.

O’Hara, the “Home Alone” and “Schitt’s Creek” star, died at a Santa Monica, California, hospital on Jan. 30 in what was, at the time, called a brief illness.

Here was one of the last filmed videos of O’Hara:

Of all the things Catherine O'Hara (1954–2026) could have said when asked, she instantly answered that being a mother to her children was what made her most proud. Women shouldn't delay having children and fulfilling their purpose in life: motherhood.pic.twitter.com/TF7hHkPCuv

— Tom Hennessy (@Tomhennessey69) January 31, 2026

The Associated Press reported O’Hara’s death was surprising to those closest to her:

The beloved Canadian-born comic actor and “SCTV” alum starred as Macaulay Culkin’s mother in two “Home Alone” movies and won an Emmy as the dramatically oblivious wealthy matriarch Moira Rose in “Schitt’s Creek.”

Her death was a surprise to most, and an initial statement from her representatives said only that she died “following a brief illness.”

Collaborators including Culkin, Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy and Pedro Pascal paid her loving tribute after her death.

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The document said she was cremated. It lists her profession as “actress” and her business as movies. It said she practiced her trade for 50 years.

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