Award-winning actress Catherine O’Hara has died at the age of 71 after a brief illness, according to reports.

The Canadian-American actress, comedian and screenwriter is best known for her hilarious role as Moira Rose in the TV series Schitt’s Creek.

Most recently, she acted in Apple TV’s The Studio and HBO’s The Last of Us.

She also appeared as the mother in Home Alone, and Beetlejuice.

O’Hara is survived by her husband, production designer Bo Welch, and her two sons.

Among the accolades O’Hara won during her career are two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards

O’Hara’s manager told the BBC the actress’s cause of death was not known at this time.

A statement from Creative Artists Agency said she passed away on Friday (local time) at her home in Los Angeles.

Page Six reports that O’Hara was rushed to hospital in a serious condition in the early morning hours before her death.

Paramedics were called to her Brentwood home at 4:48am Friday for a medical call, according to a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson.

Page Six reports that she suffered from Situs inversus — an extremely rare, but apparently harmless, condition in which organs are on the opposite side of the body.

Her death came as a shock as O’Hara had appeared healthy at a public event as recently as September.

O’Hara’s portrayal of Rose ​in Schitt’s ​Creek earned ​her the 2020 Emmy ​for best comedy actress and helped propel the TV show to awards season dominance at the 2021 Golden Globes.

The movie star was born in Toronto, Canada, and was one of seven children. Her first experience of acting was when she played the Virgin Mary in a Nativity play.

O’Hara worked as a waitress at the Second City Theater in Toronto after leaving high school. As a waitress, she came across the likes of Dan Aykroyd, and Joe Flaherty.

“I was lucky enough to watch everybody,” she told People in 2024.

O’Hara eventually joined the company in 1974. However, she later confessed to feeling anxious whenever she was on the stage.

“My crutch was, in improvs, when in doubt, play insane. Because you didn’t have to excuse anything that came out of your mouth. It didn’t have to make sense,” she admitted to The New Yorker in 2019.

O’Hara eventually landed a role on a TV sketch show called Second City Television, which aired on NBC in the 80s. The actress became famous for her impressions of various well-known celebrities, including Meryl Streep and Brooke Shields.

O’Hara made her film debut in 1980, when she starred alongside the likes of John Candy and Eugene Levy in Double Negative.

In 1988, she starred as Delia Deetz, the stepmother of Winona Ryder’s Lydia, in the hit movie Beetlejuice, which proved to be a huge commercial success.

And in 1990, she played Macaulay Culkin’s on-screen mother in Home Alone.

O’Hara – who reprised her role for 1992’s Home Alone 2: Lost in New York – told People: “It’s a perfect movie, isn’t it?”

Culkin paid tribute to his on-screen mother on X.

“Mama, I thought we had time. I wanted more … I had so much more to say. I love you I’ll see you later.”

O’Hara’s other roles included Best in Show in 2000 and 2003’s A Mighty Wind, as well as the Beetlejuice sequel in 2024.

In 2020, O’Hara won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her performance in the hit TV sitcom Schitt’s Creek, which was created by Eugene and Daniel Levy.

During her acceptance speech, O’Hara – who also won a Golden Globe and a SAG Award – said: “I will forever be grateful to Eugene and Daniel Levy for the opportunity to play a woman of a certain age, my age, who gets to fully be herself.”

-with AAP/People