Home Alone 2 actress Brenda Fricker has died, aged 81

Irish actress Brenda Fricker, who won an Oscar for her role in 1989 film My Left Foot and had well-loved parts in Home Alone 2 and TV's Casualty, has died at the age of 81.

Fricker won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1990 for playing Daniel Day-Lewis's on-screen mother in My Left Foot, becoming the first Irish woman to win an acting Oscar.

The film told the true story of Christy Brown, an Irish man born with cerebral palsy who could only control his left foot, and went on to earn widespread critical acclaim.

She played nurse Megan Roach in the BBC's Casualty from 1986, appearing in the medical drama for more than two decades and making her final appearance in 2010. Fricker was also known to American audiences as the Central Park pigeon lady in 1992's Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, alongside Macaulay Culkin.

In a statement, her agent Phil Belfield said: "We will never see her like again and the world is lesser for the lack of her."

He added: "I was honoured to know, love and work with her and she will always have a place in my heart and in the heart of so many film and TV fans the world over."

Brenda Fricker holds up her Oscar after winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in My Left Foot (Getty images)

Where was Brenda Fricker born?

Fricker was born in Dublin in 1945 and began her career in theatre before landing early television roles on Coronation Street and Ireland's first soap opera, Tolka Row.

Her decades-spanning career also included roles in The Field, So I Married an Axe Murderer, and A Time to Kill, and she was later honoured with the Freedom of the City of Dublin in recognition of her contribution to Irish film and television.

Fricker initially retired from acting in 2014 after six decades in the industry, but returned to screens in 2021 with roles in Holding, an adaptation of Graham Norton's debut novel, and Channel 5's The Catch.

In a rare interview with The Guardian earlier this year, Fricker had opened up about her declining health, telling reporters she was in pain every day and struggled even to get out of breath while talking.

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