Macaulay Culkin posts heartbreaking tribute to Home Alone 'mom' Catherine O’Hara after her death

Macaulay Culkin has shared an emotional tribute to his Home Alone co-star Catherine O'Hara, following news of her death aged 71.

O'Hara's passing was confirmed by her management to Variety. The actress died at her Los Angeles home 'following a brief illness'.

A cause of death has not been confirmed.

O'Hara's career began with the Canadian show, Second City Television, which earned her her first Emmy.

She went on to star in movies including Beetlejuice, Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.

O'Hara played Culkin's character Kevin's mom, Kate McAllister, in the iconic Christmas films.

Taking to Instagram, Culkin wrote: "Mama. I thought we had time.

"I wanted more. I wanted to sit in a chair next to you. I heard you but I had so much more to say.

"I love you.

"I’ll see you later."

Culkin shared two side-by-side photos with O'Hara alongside the post.

In one image, the pair can be seen filming Home Alone, while a second, more recent photo shows the pair at a ceremony to unveil Culkin's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

O'Hara once opened up about filming Home Alone and the scene she found most difficult.

During Culkin's Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, she said: "The scene where I had to drag him upstairs to sleep in the attic ‘cause he’d misbehaved, he’s mouthing off about the family and I say, ‘Well, you’d be pretty sad if you woke up tomorrow morning and you had no family,’ and he says, ‘No, I wouldn’t.’ And I was supposed to say, ‘Then say it again - maybe it’ll happen.’

"I can’t tell you how much that killed me – I could not wrap my head around saying something so horrific to this beautiful child.

"Of course I was not yet a mother at the time and I had no idea the kind of things would come out of my own mouth with my own two sons."

Pedro Pascal, who starred alongside O'Hara in The Last of Us, has also shared a tribute following O'Hara's death, writing on social media: "Oh, genius to be near you. Eternally grateful. There is less light in my world, this lucky world that had you, will keep you, always. Always. The one and ONLY #CatherineOHara."

O'Hara is survived by her husband, Bo Welch, and her two sons, Matthew and Luke.