Catherine O'Hara, the comedic actress best known for her starring roles in the Home Alone and Beetlejuice films, as well as her Emmy-winning turn in Schitt's Creek, has died aged 71.

The Canadian star rose to fame through Toronto's Second City improvisation troupe and on SCTV, before making a name for herself in the US in 1988's Beetlejuice and as the matriarch in the holiday classic Home Alone.

O'Hara, whose colleagues remembered her as a "wonderful person, artist and collaborator", most recently appeared in the Emmy-winning comedy The Studio and HBO's The Last of Us.

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.

O'Hara made lightning strike twice in her career with indelible cinematic turns.