'We will never see her like again': Oscar winner Brenda Fricker dies aged 81

Dublin-born Fricker won an Oscar in 1990 for her role in Jim Sheridan’s My Left Foot

Brenda Fricker with Daniel Day-Lewis after her Oscar win

Brenda Fricker, the first Irish actress to win an Oscar, has died after a period of ill health, according to her agent Phil Belfield.

He said in a statement to the Press Association: “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.”

Dublin-born Fricker won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance as Bridget Fagan Brown in Jim Sheridan's  My Left Foot, which tells the story of an Irish man named Christy Brown, who was born with cerebral palsy and could control only his left foot.

She 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 TV adaptation of Graham Norton’s first novel Holding, directed by Kathy Burke, and the Channel 5 drama 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”.

Brenda Fricker and Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot

In her memoir, She Died Young: A Life in Fragments, Fricker wrote candidly about a childhood haunted by physical abuse from her mother, neglect from her father, and traumatic events, including a car crash in her teens and serious illness.

Fricker was also recently granted the Freedom of the City of Dublin, which Mr Belfield said she was “particularly thrilled and proud of”.

Fricker will be remembered as a talented actor and friend to many in the industry.

Fricker appeared on the Late Late Show back in 2022, where she spoke with then-host Ryan Tubridy about her fellow actor and friend Jessie Buckley's first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Lost Daughter.

"You predicted that," Tubridy said.

"I know. Nobody went along with me. I wanted her to win," she said. 

"She will, she will," Fricker continued, showing her belief that Buckley would one day hold the Academy Award, which she went on to do this year.