Brenda Fricker, best known for My Left Foot and Home Alone 2, dies aged 81

Brenda Fricker - the first Irish woman to win an Oscar - has died aged 81, her agent said.

She won best supporting actress in 1990 for playing the mother of Irish writer and painter Christy Brown in My Left Foot.

Daniel Day Lewis also won best actor for the leading role.

Ms Fricker followed that with a memorable role in Home Alone 2 as the Central Park "pigeon lady" who becomes friends with Macaulay Culkin's character.

Phil Belfield, her agent, said she had died after a period of ill health.

"We will never see her like again and the world is lesser for the lack of her," he said in a statement.

"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."

The Dublin-born star also appeared with Mike Myers in So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993), and in A Time to Kill (1996), a legal drama fronted by Samuel L Jackson, Sandra Bullock and Matthew McConaughey.

She was well known to British TV audiences through her long-running role as nurse Megan Roach on Casualty in the 1980s and 90s.

Later appearances included the film Veronica Guerin, which starred Cate Blanchett as the real-life Irish journalist murdered for investigating organised crime, and the adaption of Graham Norton's first novel Holding.

Ms Fricker also appeared on stage at venues including the National Theatre and Royal Court Theatre.

Paying tribute, Irish deputy prime minister Simon Harris said she was a "national treasure" and "among the greatest exports this country has ever produced".

"The [Oscar] win and her emotional acceptance speech, in which she dedicated the award to 'all the people of Ireland', was a defining moment for Irish cinema," the Tanaiste said.

"As the first Irish woman to win an acting Oscar, she opened doors and set a standard of excellence that continues to inspire generations of Irish artists."

My Left Foot director Jim Sheridan told Irish broadcaster RTE that Ms Fricker was an "amazing actress, amazing ⁠character, a forceful personality".

"She was vibrant and full of life and had her own opinions. She took no prisoners, let's put it that ‌way," Sheridan added.

Ms Fricker was married to director Barry Davies until 1988 and became pregnant multiple times but suffered repeated miscarriages - something she said left her with long periods of depression.

'Having a dreadful death'

In a bed-bound interview with The Guardian last year, she said she was "every day in pain" and "having a dreadful death".

Ms Fricker described binge-watching The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills because she couldn't sleep at night.

"It's better than getting drunk. I just love it," she told the paper.

Ms Fricker - who published her memoir last year - recounted a childhood involving grooming and abuse.

But in a lighter moment, looked back on her much-loved role in Home Alone 2.

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She said childhood star Macaulay Culkin was charming, but admitted ending every day "covered in pigeon shit".

On one occasion after filming, she bumped into Donald Trump in a hotel lift, telling The Guardian: "It was like I'd jumped into a pigsty but he was very polite about it."

The actress also once wrote in the Irish Independent that she was probably prouder of her name becoming Dublin rhyming slang for "knickers" than for her Oscar.

She said she had kept the famous statuette in a plastic bag under the stairs - before eventually promoting it to the shelf.

(c) Sky News 2026: Brenda Fricker, best known for My Left Foot and Home Alone 2, dies aged 81