Brenda Fricker, the Oscar-winning Irish actress remembered for her heartbreaking performance in My Left Foot and her beloved role as the Pigeon Lady in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, has died. She was 81.
Fricker died following a period of ill health, her agent, Phil Belfield, confirmed.
The acclaimed actress made history in 1990 when she became the first Irish woman to win an Academy Award. She received the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing the devoted mother of Christy Brown in My Left Foot.
Fricker starred opposite Daniel Day-Lewis, who also won an Oscar for his performance in the film.
Her victory came against a field of celebrated nominees that included Julia Roberts for Steel Magnolias, Anjelica Huston and Lena Olin for Enemies, A Love Story, and Dianne Wiest for Parenthood.
While My Left Foot secured Fricker’s place in movie history, a younger generation came to know and love her through Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
In the 1992 holiday classic, she played the lonely Pigeon Lady who lives in Central Park and forms an unlikely friendship with Kevin McCallister, played by Macaulay Culkin.
The character initially frightens Kevin, but she soon becomes one of the film’s most tender figures, helping him understand the importance of friendship and opening his heart to others.
Fricker enjoyed a long and varied career that stretched across film and television. Her other movie credits included A Time to Kill and So I Married an Axe Murderer.
She was also well known to British television audiences for her role in the BBC medical drama Casualty.
Paying tribute to the late actress, Belfield said, “We will never see her like again.”
He added that “the world is lesser for the lack of her.”