Fricker, who was also beloved for playing the so-called Central Park “pigeon lady” in “Home Alone 2,” passed away on Thursday in her native Ireland, agent Phil Belfield said.
“It is with much sadness that I share the news that beloved actress Brenda Fricker passed away peacefully last night in Dublin, after a period of ill health, at the age of 81,” he said in a statement.
Calling the Dublin native a “legend,” he noted her decades-spanning body of work covered everything from early stage work at London’s storied National Theatre and Royal Court to later British television and Hollywood film roles.
“We will never see her like again and the world is lesser for the lack of her,” Belfield said, adding she will always have “the heart of so many film and TV fans the world over.”
Fricker earned global recognition when she won the Academy Award for best supporting actress in 1990 for playing Daniel Day-Lewis’s on-screen mother in “My Left Foot.”
Beating Hollywood stars including Julia Roberts and Anjelica Huston, she became the first Irish actress to win an Oscar.
“Deeply saddened” Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin was among those also paying tribute, calling her “an iconic figure in Irish film and theatre, an Oscar winner and an actor of world renown.”
“My thoughts are with her family and friends,” he said. (AFP)
