Irish Actress Brenda Fricker Dies at 81 After Illness in Dublin

Brenda Fricker, the Irish actress who won an Academy Award for best supporting actress in the 1989 film My Left Foot, died Thursday night in Dublin. She was 81. Her agent, Phil Belfield, confirmed the death in statements issued to TMZ and CBS News on Friday.

Fricker died after a period of illness, Belfield said. Fricker was the first Irish woman to win an Academy Award. She played the mother of Christy Brown opposite Daniel Day-Lewis, who won best actor for the same film.

Born in Dublin, Fricker performed onstage in London and joined the original cast of the BBC medical drama Casualty when it debuted in 1986. She played the Pigeon Lady in the 1992 film Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Additional film credits include So I Married an Axe Murderer in 1993, Angels in the Outfield in 1994, A Time to Kill in 1996, Veronica Guerin in 2003, and The Swallow in 2024.

Fricker published the memoir She Died Young: A Life in Fragments last year. In the memoir she wrote about surviving sexual violence as a teenager and during her career. She told The Guardian that writing the book took four years and described the process as painful.

Ireland's deputy prime minister Simon Harris stated that Fricker was among the greatest exports the country has produced and an ambassador for Irish talent on the world stage.