Brenda Fricker, who became the first Irish actress to win an Oscar for her role opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in 1989’s Home Alone 2 and won hearts as the Pigeon Lady in 1992’s Home Alone 2, died on Thursday in Dublin. She was 81 years old.
Ms Fricker’s agent, Phil Belfield, confirmed her death to the BBC on Friday. “We will never see her like again and the world is a smaller place without her,” he said in a statement. “It was an honor to know, love and work with her. She will always have a place in my heart and in the hearts of countless film and television fans around the world.”
A noted character actor on stage and screen, Fricker received numerous awards throughout her career, including the inaugural Kerry Film Festival’s Maureen O’Hara Award in 2008, which recognizes women of outstanding achievement in the film industry. In 2020, she was ranked 26th on the Irish Times list of the greatest Irish film actors of all time. Aside from her work in “My Left Foot,” she is probably best remembered by general audiences as the Pigeon Lady in the popular Christmas movie “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.”
Fricker was born in Dublin on February 17, 1945, to Bina Murphy, a language teacher, and Desmond Frederick Fricker, a reporter for the Irish Times. Before becoming an actor, she initially wanted to be a journalist and worked as an assistant to the arts editor at the Irish Times. Her first film role was at the age of 19, in a small uncredited role in the 1964 drama Of Human Bondage. In the same year, she also had a minor role in the Irish soap opera Tolka Row.
Throughout the 70s and 80s, Fricker appeared in various British soap operas and films, but mostly in bit parts. In 1977, she played a short four-episode role in the ITV drama Coronation Street as a nurse delivering the baby of the main villain Tracy Barlow (then played by Christabel Finch). Other films and shows she appeared in include “Quartermas Conclusion” in 1978, “The Music Machine” in 1979, “Bloody Kids” in 1980, and “Cockles” in 1984.
Flickr first came to viewers’ attention when he appeared in the original cast of the BBC’s long-running medical drama Casualty, about the accident and emergency department of the fictional Holby City Hospital. The show is still running and first aired in 1986, with Fricker starring as nurse Megan Roach in the first episode. Megan was one of the most notable characters in the show’s first five seasons until Flicker dropped her after 65 episodes. She guest starred in 1998 and 2007, and returned in 2010 for a tragic four-episode series in which Megan died by suicide.
In the biographical drama My Left Foot, Fricker played Bridget Fagan Brown, a protective and loving mother who gave birth to nearly 20 children (nine of whom died in infancy), including Irish writer and painter Christie Brown, who was born with cerebral palsy. The film, based on Brown’s 1954 memoir, was directed by Jim Sheridan and starred Day-Lewis as Brown, with supporting roles from Ray McAnally, Hugh O’Connor, Fiona Shaw, and Cyril Cusack. Fricker won the 1990 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Bridget. In her speech, she memorably dedicated the award to the woman she played, saying, “Anyone who has given birth 22 times deserves one of those.”
Following the success of “My Left Foot,” Fricker began appearing in several high-profile films as a character actor. In 1990, she appeared in Sheridan’s sequel to My Left Foot, The Field, as the wife of British farmer Bull McCabe. Two years later, she appeared in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, playing the memorable role of the outwardly scary but kind-hearted pigeon woman that Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) meets in Central Park. Other films in the ’90s included 1993’s And I Married an Ax Murderer, in which she played Mae, the eccentric, World News-obsessed Scottish mother of Mike Myers’ Charlie. She played Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s adoptive mother in 1994’s Angel in the Outfield. And in the 1996 thriller A Time to Kill, she played Ethyl, Matthew McConaughey’s loyal secretary.
From the 90s onwards, Fricker worked mainly in Irish and British films. She co-starred with Cate Blanchett in 2003’s Veronica Guerin, and was nominated for three Irish Film and Television Academy Awards. “Inside I’m Dancing” starring James McAvoy in 2004. and 2011’s “Albert Nobbs,” starring Glenn Close and Janet McTeer. Other notable works include 2007’s “Closing the Ring” and 2011’s “Cloudburst.”
After nearly retiring from film acting in 2015, Fricker returned in 2021 with an episode of the Canadian television series Come Boy, and also appeared in Graham Norton’s ITV series Holding in 2022. The following year, she appeared in the Channel 5 drama series The Catch and had a voice role in the film The Miracle Club.
In addition to his film work, Fricker had a long career on stage, appearing in productions at the Royal National Theatre, Royal Court Theater and Geffen Playhouse.
Ms Fricker was predeceased by film and television director Barry Davis, whom she married from 1979 to 1988 and remained close friends. He passed away in 1990.
