Oscar-winning Irish actor Brenda Fricker dies aged 81

By Casey Cooper-Fiske

Oscar-winning actor Brenda Fricker, who starred in films such as My Left Foot and Home Alone 2, and was an original cast member of BBC drama Casualty, has died aged 81.

Her death was confirmed by her agent Phil Belfield, who described the Irish actress as a “legend” whom he was “honoured to know”.

“It is with much sadness that I share the news that beloved actress Brenda Fricker passed away last night peacefully after a period of ill health, at the age of 81,” he said on Friday.

“Dublin born and bred, Brenda Fricker undoubtedly deserves the noun legend …

“We will never see her like again and the world is lesser for the lack of her. 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.”

Fricker won a best supporting actress Oscar for her performance in 1989’s My Left Foot, which tells the story of an Irish man played by Daniel Day-Lewis, who was born with cerebral palsy and could control only his left foot.

Day-Lewis also won an Oscar for the film.

Fricker was also well known for her role in the 1992 follow-up to Home Alone, where she played Pigeon Lady, a homeless woman in New York’s Central Park.

Fricker was also part of the original cast of BBC medical drama Casualty, and featured alongside Cate Blanchett in Veronica Guerin (2003).

Her later roles included the British TV adaptation of Graham Norton’s first novel Holding, directed by Kathy Burke, and the series The Catch.

Belfield said “Brenda’s versatility was renowned” and that her most recent solo film performance in Tadhg O’Sullivan’s The Swallow showed “the truth and majesty of Brenda as an actor” and said it was “a thing of beauty”.

Fricker’s memoir She Died Young appeared on the Irish Sunday Times bestseller list, and she was recently granted the Freedom of the City of Dublin, which Belfield said she was “particularly thrilled and proud of”.