Oscar winner Brenda Fricker, ‘Home Alone 2’ pigeon lady, dies at 81

Irish actress Brenda Fricker, who won an Academy Award for “My Left Foot” and charmed generations of moviegoers as the “Pigeon Lady” in “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” has died. She was 81.

Ms. Fricker died Thursday night in Dublin following a period of ill health, her agent, Phil Belfield, confirmed in a statement Friday. Mr. Belfield said the world was “lesser for the lack of her” and that she would “always have a place in my heart and in the heart of so many film and TV fans.”

Ms. Fricker made history at the 1990 Academy Awards, becoming the first Irish woman to win an Oscar when she took home best supporting actress for her performance as Bridget Fagan Brown in “My Left Foot.” The film starred Daniel Day-Lewis as Christy Brown, an Irish writer and painter born with cerebral palsy who could control only his left foot. Mr. Day-Lewis also won the Academy Award for best actor. Accepting her own trophy, Ms. Fricker famously dedicated it to the character’s real-life mother, joking that “anybody who gives birth 22 times deserves one of these.”

Though the role earned her international acclaim, Ms. Fricker remains instantly recognizable to American audiences for playing the gentle, homeless pigeon keeper in 1992’s “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” whose character forms an unlikely bond with Kevin McCallister, played by Macaulay Culkin, in one of the film’s most emotional storylines.

Born in Dublin in 1945, Ms. Fricker began her career as a trainee journalist before turning to acting on stage and landing a role at the Gate Theatre. She went on to become part of the original cast of the long-running BBC medical drama “Casualty” and later starred opposite Cate Blanchett in “Veronica Guerin,” a biographical drama about a slain Irish investigative journalist. Her film credits, spanning more than 90 projects between 1964 and 2024, also included “Angels in the Outfield,” “So I Married an Axe Murderer” and “The Field.”

In her 2025 memoir, “She Died Young: A Life in Fragments,” Ms. Fricker reflected on a difficult childhood in Dublin alongside her sister, Grania, along with mental health struggles she faced later in life. The book became a bestseller on the Irish Sunday Times list.

Earlier this year, Dublin honored Ms. Fricker’s contributions to Irish arts with the Freedom of the City, the capital’s highest civic distinction.

Ireland’s deputy prime minister, Simon Harris, led tributes following news of her death, calling her one of the country’s defining cultural figures. “We will never see the like of her ever again,” Mr. Harris said.