{"id":8977,"date":"2026-07-17T21:53:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T16:53:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=8977"},"modified":"2026-07-17T21:53:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T16:53:27","slug":"brenda-fricker-oscar-winner-known-for-roles-in-my-left-foot-and-home-alone-2-dies-at-age-81","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=8977","title":{"rendered":"Brenda Fricker, Oscar winner known for roles in &#8220;My Left Foot&#8221; and &#8220;Home Alone 2,&#8221; dies at age 81"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>Brenda Fricker, the Irish actor who won an Academy Award for 1989&#8217;s &#8220;My Left Foot,&#8221; played the Pigeon Lady in &#8220;Home Alone 2&#8221; and appeared in &#8220;A Time to Kill&#8221; and &#8220;So I Married an Axe Murderer,&#8221; has died, her agent confirmed to CBS News on Friday. She was 81.<\/p>\n<p>Fricker died Thursday night in Dublin after &#8220;a period of ill health,&#8221; her agent, Phil Belfield, said in a statement to CBS News.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We will never see her like again and the world is lesser for the lack of her,&#8221; Belfield said. &#8220;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.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Born in Dublin, Fricker performed onstage in London and was part of the original cast of what&#8217;s become known as the longest-running primetime medical drama in the world, the BBC&#8217;s &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/historyofthebbc\/anniversaries\/september\/casualty\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Casualty<\/a>,&#8221; when it debuted in 1986.<\/p>\n<p>Fricker won the Oscar for best supporting actress for her performance in 1989&#8217;s &#8220;My Left Foot,&#8221; about the Irish writer Christy Brown, who was born with cerebral palsy and only had control over his left foot. Fricker played Brown&#8217;s mother opposite <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/daniel-day-lewis-and-ronan-day-lewis-father-and-son-filmmakers-on-making-anemone\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">Daniel Day-Lewis<\/a>, who won the Academy Award for best actor for his portrayal of Brown.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"embed embed--type-image is-image embed--float-none embed--size-medium\">\n<p>      <span class=\"img embed__content \"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/07\/17\/1a162a23-bbfd-4a6e-bb99-854eaeb81d43\/thumbnail\/620x465g2\/46e02c6c36779e6e4fc6eb6f61f04c7e\/brenda-fricker-139075394.jpg#\" alt=\"Brenda Fricker attends a screening of \" cloudburst=\"\" at=\"\" the=\"\" savoy=\"\" on=\"\" feb.=\"\" in=\"\" dublin=\"\" ireland.=\"\" height=\"465\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/07\/17\/1a162a23-bbfd-4a6e-bb99-854eaeb81d43\/thumbnail\/620x465g2\/46e02c6c36779e6e4fc6eb6f61f04c7e\/brenda-fricker-139075394.jpg 1x, https:\/\/assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/07\/17\/1a162a23-bbfd-4a6e-bb99-854eaeb81d43\/thumbnail\/1240x930g2\/69629c33cb23a59c1a35a2c425802002\/brenda-fricker-139075394.jpg 2x\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/span><figcaption class=\"embed__caption-container\">\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__caption\">Brenda Fricker on Feb. 16, 2012, in Dublin, Ireland.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__credit\"><\/p>\n<p>                Phillip Massey\/WireImage<\/p>\n<p>                          <\/span><br \/>\n              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Fricker&#8217;s victory in Hollywood marked the first time an Irish woman won an Oscar.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In reaction to her death, Ireland&#8217;s deputy prime minister, Simon Harris, hailed Fricker&#8217;s contributions to the country.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She truly was among the greatest exports this country has ever produced and an ambassador for Irish talent on the world stage,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Quite simply, we will never see the like of her ever again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Fricker went on to perform in the 1992 sequel to &#8220;Home Alone&#8221; as the Pigeon Lady, a homeless woman in New York City&#8217;s Central Park who befriends Macaulay Culkin&#8217;s Kevin after he finds himself alone in the Big Apple without his family.<\/p>\n<p>She appeared in movies throughout the 1990s, including 1993&#8217;s &#8220;So I Married an Axe Murderer&#8221; with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/mike-myers-back-in-a-very-different-gig\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">Mike Myers<\/a>, 1994&#8217;s &#8220;Angels in the Outfield&#8221; with <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/danny-glover-alzheimers-diagnosis\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">Danny Glover<\/a><\/span>, and 1996&#8217;s &#8220;A Time to Kill&#8221; with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/matthew-mcconaughey-return-to-hollywood-new-book-poems-and-prayers\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">Matthew McConaughey<\/a>. She also performed in 2003&#8217;s &#8220;Veronica Guerin&#8221; with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/cate-blanchett-on-the-art-of-transforming-herself-in-the-drama-tar\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">Cate Blanchett<\/a>. Her last film performance was in 2024&#8217;s &#8220;The Swallow.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In her memoir &#8220;She Died Young: A Life in Fragments,&#8221; published last year, Fricker opened up about surviving sexual violence as a teenager and during her career. She <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/film\/2025\/sep\/17\/oscar-winner-brenda-fricker-devastating-memoir-ireland-rape-grooming-abuse\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told The Guardian newspaper<\/a> it took her four years to write the autobiography.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Every line I deleted and started again. It was murder for me,&#8221; she told The Guardian. &#8220;It was kind of ironic because I was talking about things I had paid a fortune to psychiatrists to make me forget. So it was very painful bringing them back. I thought they were a bit morbid. I think I&#8217;m a bit morbid. I&#8217;m Irish.&#8221;<\/p>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n<p class=\"content__meta--contributors\">\n<p>                      <span class=\"byline__author__text\">The Associated  Press<\/span><\/p>\n<p>        contributed to this report.\n    <\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p>  <!-- data-recirc-source=\"chartbeat\" --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"component list recirculation component--type-recirculation  component--type-recirculation-collection\">\n<div class=\"component__item-recirc-block\">\n<p><h3 class=\"component__title\">Go deeper with The Free Press<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n      <!-- tags --><\/p>\n<section class=\"content__tags\">\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brenda Fricker, the Irish actor who won an Academy Award for 1989&#8217;s &#8220;My Left Foot,&#8221; played the Pigeon Lady in &#8220;Home Alone 2&#8221; and appeared in &#8220;A Time to Kill&#8221; and &#8220;So I Married an Axe Murderer,&#8221; has died, her agent confirmed to CBS News on Friday. She was 81. Fricker died Thursday night in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/07\/17\/af41ffe2-a668-4aeb-a17b-95866b43ab2c\/thumbnail\/1200x630\/a99d1e2f11384aa40d9fbdb9a58c53af\/fricker-getty.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}