The Oscar-winning Irish actor Brenda Fricker, who starred in the Daniel Day-Lewis drama My Left Foot and stole scenes in the Christmas classic Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, has died at the age of 81.
In a statement, Fricker’s agent said: “We will never see her like again and the world is lesser for the lack of her,” adding: “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 made history as the first Irish star to win an Academy Award for best supporting actress – taking home the gong in 1990 for playing Daniel Day-Lewis’s on-screen mother in My Left Foot.
However, she’s also known for her role as Pigeon Lady in cult Christmas classic, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Fricker played a homeless lady living alongside the Central Park pigeons who befriends young Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) as he cause chaos across the city.
The Dublin-born actor started out as a journalist, becoming an assistant to the art editor of the Irish Times before moving into acting at the age of 19. She took on a small role in 1964’s Of Human Bondage, an adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s novel of the same name, before being cast in Ireland’s very first soap: Tolka Row.
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