Canadian actress Catherine O’Hara, best known for her roles in Home Alone, Beetlejuice and her Emmy-winning performance in Schitt’s Creek, has died at the age of 71.

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.

Born in Toronto, O’Hara began her career in the 1970s as a waitress at the Toronto Second City theatre before auditioning for a role with the troupe. She went on to develop her comedic style on the sketch comedy series Second City Television, before breaking through to international audiences in the late 1980s.

She became a familiar face in Hollywood after appearing in Tim Burton’s 1988 supernatural satire Beetlejuice and as the matriarch of the McCallister family in the holiday classic Home Alone two years later.

In Beetlejuice, O’Hara played Delia Deetz, memorably leading her possessed dinner guests in a song-and-dance performance of Day-O (the Banana Boat song). In Home Alone, her panicked scream of “Kevin” as she realises her eight-year-old son has been left behind became one of the memorable moments in pop culture.

Tributes poured in following the news of her death. Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said, “Over 5 decades of work, Catherine earned her place in the canon of Canadian comedy — from the iconic Toronto production of Godspell to SCTV to Schitt’s Creek. Canada has lost a legend.”

O’Hara was a frequent collaborator with filmmaker Christopher Guest and actor-writer Eugene Levy, appearing in four of Guest’s mockumentary films — Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration.

In a statement to Variety, Guest said he was devastated and that “we have lost one of the comic giants of our age”.

Her career witnessed a resurgence with the Canadian comedy series Schitt’s Creek, which became a global hit during the Covid lockdown. O’Hara’s portrayal of Moira Rose was widely praised for its eccentric accent, extravagant fashion and sharp one-liners.

O’Hara continued working until shortly before her death, appearing as a therapist in HBO’s The Last of Us and as an ousted studio executive in Seth Rogen’s comedy The Studio.

She won a Golden Globe Award for best actress in 2021 for Schitt’s Creek and was nominated this year for her role in The Studio, as well as receiving a nomination at the upcoming Actor Awards.

O’Hara is survived by her husband, production designer Bo Welch, their sons Matthew and Luke, and her siblings Michael O’Hara, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Maureen Jolley, Marcus O’Hara, Tom O’Hara and Patricia Wallice.