Oscar-winning Irish actress Brenda Fricker, whose decades-long career included an Academy Award-winning performance in “My Left Foot” and a memorable role in “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” has died. She was 81.
Fricker died Thursday night in Dublin following a period of declining health, her agent, Phil Belfield, confirmed in a statement.
“We will never see her like again and the world is lesser for the lack of her,” Belfield said. “I was honored to know, love and work with her… she will always have a place in my heart and in the heart of so many film and TV fans the world over.”
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The actress made history at the 1990 Academy Awards when she became the first Irish woman to win an Oscar, taking home the best supporting actress trophy for her performance as Bridget Fagan Brown in “My Left Foot.”
The film starred Daniel Day-Lewis as Christy Brown, an Irish writer and painter born with cerebral palsy who could control only his left foot. Day-Lewis also won the Academy Award for best actor.
Although Fricker earned widespread acclaim for her work, she remains instantly recognizable to millions of fans for portraying the gentle “Pigeon Lady” in 1992’s “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.”
Her character, a lonely woman living among the pigeons in New York City’s Central Park, forms an unexpected bond with Kevin McCallister, played by Macaulay Culkin, in one of the film’s most emotional storylines.
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Fricker’s film and television credits included more than 90 projects between 1964 and 2024. She was part of the original cast of the BBC medical drama “Casualty” and later appeared opposite Cate Blanchett in “Veronica Guerin,” the biographical drama about a slain Irish investigative journalist.
Born in Dublin in 1945, Fricker began acting on stage before transitioning to television in the 1960s with roles in Ireland’s first soap opera. Her breakthrough eventually led to an international career that included acclaimed performances in both independent dramas and Hollywood productions.
American audiences also remember Fricker from the 1994 baseball fantasy “Angels in the Outfield,” where she starred alongside Danny Glover and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
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Earlier this year, Dublin recognized Fricker’s contributions to Irish arts by awarding her the Freedom of the City, the capital’s highest civic honor.
In her 2025 autobiography, “She Died Young: A Life in Fragments,” Fricker reflected on both the triumphs and hardships that shaped her life. The memoir detailed her childhood in Dublin alongside her sister, Grania, while also revealing her experiences with sexual violence and mental health struggles that led to multiple institutionalizations. The book became a bestseller on the Irish Sunday Times list.
Ireland’s deputy prime minister, Simon Harris, led tributes following news of Fricker’s death, remembering the actress as one of the country’s defining cultural figures.
“She truly was among the greatest exports this country has ever produced and an ambassador for Irish talent on the world stage,” Harris said. “Quite simply, we will never see the like of her ever again.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
