Brenda Fricker, the first Irish actress to win an Oscar, for 'My Left
Foot,' dies at 81
[July 18, 2026]
By DANICA KIRKA
LONDON (AP) — Brenda Fricker, who became the first Irish woman to win an
Academy Award for her role as Bridget Fagan Brown in the 1989 film “My
Left Foot,’’ has died. She was 81.
The Irish character actor died Thursday night in Dublin after a period
of ill health, her agent, Phil Belfield said in a statement.
Fricker won the Academy Award in 1990 for best supporting actress for
her portrayal of the determined mother of Christy Brown, a writer and
painter who was born with cerebral palsy and could control only his left
foot. Daniel Day-Lewis, who played Brown, won the award for best actor.
“She was just an amazing actress, amazing character, forceful
personality, great writer,” the movie's director, Jim Sheridan, told
Irish national broadcaster RTE. “She could be obsessive — in everything
she did — life, work, love. But no real malice or anything, she was just
a very strong personality and a good laugh.”
Fricker said she was stunned when she won the Oscar, never thinking it
was possible. In her acceptance speech, she thanked Brown “just for
being alive” and paid tribute to his mother, saying “anybody who gives
birth 22 times deserves one of these."
She later spoke of how the award doomed her to being typecast to forever
playing roles as mothers. Later in life, she said she used the weighty
statuette to prop open her bathroom door.
Fricker, who appeared in more than 90 films and television shows between
1964 and 2024, was known for her role as the “pigeon lady” in the 1992
film “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” where she played a homeless woman
who befriended Macaulay Culkin’s character in New York’s Central Park.
She also featured in the original cast of the BBC medical drama
“Casualty” and appeared alongside Cate Blanchett in “Veronica Guerin,”
the story of an Irish investigative journalist who was murdered in 1996.
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"My Left Foot" stars Brenda Fricker, winner of Oscar for best
supporting actress, and Daniel Day Lewis, winner of Oscar for best
actor, at the 62nd Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles, March 26,
1990. (AP Photo/Bob Galbraith, File)
 “We will never see her like again
and the world is lesser for the lack of her,’’ Belfield said. “I was
honored 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.”
Born in Dublin in 1945, Fricker received the city’s highest honor
earlier this year when she was awarded the Freedom of the City.
In her autobiography “She Died Young: A Life in Fragments,” Fricker
describes both happy childhood escapades with her sister Grania and
her struggles to overcome sexual violence and mental health issues,
which caused her to be institutionalized several times. Published in
September 2025, the book appeared on the Irish Sunday Times
bestseller list.
Simon Harris, Ireland’s deputy prime minister, said the country had
lost a national treasure.
“She truly was among the greatest exports this country has ever
produced and an ambassador for Irish talent on the world stage,'' he
said. "Quite simply, we will never see the like of her ever again.
Fricker was married to director Barry Davies from 1979 until they
divorced in 1988. She became pregnant several times but suffered
miscarriages, which led to severe depression much of her life.
___
Associated Press writer Brian Melley in London contributed to this
report.
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