Catherine O’Hara died from a blood clot in her lungs.
The iconic Hollywood actress’ immediate cause of death is listed by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health as a pulmonary embolism, but TMZ reports that rectal cancer was the underlying cause.
The newspaper claimed on Monday that O’Hara’s death certificate says her husband Beau Welch picked up her body and that it was cremated.
The “Schitt’s Creek” actress passed away on January 30, and Creative Artists Agency confirmed the news to Page Six. She was 71 years old.
At the time, the Los Angeles Fire Department exclusively said they responded to a call at her Los Angeles home at 4:48 a.m. local time and later transported her to the hospital in “serious” condition.
The NIH said O’Hara’s condition was not known before she died, but she suffered from a rare condition called inversion, in which the arrangement of internal organs is a mirror image of normal anatomy.
Although this condition is usually harmless, symptoms can present differently in people with mirrored organs, which can make diagnosing future complications difficult.
After her death, a source told the Daily Mail that while she may have known “what was about to happen,” “many close to O’Hara were kept in the dark about her final condition.”
Sources told the publication that some of her friends were “completely shocked” by her death.
The comedian has had a prolific career and is famous for appearing in iconic films such as Beetlejuice, Home Alone, and Home Alone 2, as well as the television show Schitt’s Creek.
Most recently, he appeared in The Last of Us with Pedro Pascal and The Studio with Seth Rogen.
O’Hara’s last public appearance was at the Angel Awards in Los Angeles in October 2025, where a guest at the ceremony told the Daily Mail that she “looked very slender.”
“She was a striking-looking woman with a touch of charm,” they continued. “She was wearing a bulky green pinstriped suit that hid her figure, but she seemed in great spirits and was very friendly and cheerful and nice.”
Two weeks before her death, O’Hara made a brief appearance at a Supermodels Unlimited event and a source told the Daily Mail that she “appeared to be in good health”.
Duchess Kate is survived by her husband, two sons Matthew and Luke, and siblings Michael O’Hara, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Maureen Joly, Marcus O’Hara, Tom O’Hara and Patricia Wallis.
