Obituary
Fricker became first Irish actress to earn Academy Award with Best Supporting Actress Oscar for My Left Foot
Brenda Fricker, the Oscar-winning Irish actress best known to American audiences for her role as the Pigeon Lady in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, has died at the age of 81.
Fricker’s agent Phil Belfield confirmed to the BBC that the actress died Friday “after a period of ill health”; no cause of death was provided. “We will never see her like again and the world is lesser for the lack of her,” Belfield said in a statement. “I was honored 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.”
A renowned character actress with a long history of BBC roles, Fricker became the first Irish actress to earn an Academy Award in 1990 when she won Best Supporting Actress for My Left Foot; in that Jim Sheridan-directed biographical film, Fricker played the mother of Irish writer and artist Christy Brown, portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis in an Best Actor Oscar-winning role.
