Brenda Fricker, the Oscar-Winning Irish Actress Who Played the Central Park Pigeon Lady in Home Alone 2, Has Died Aged 81

Brenda Fricker, the Irish actress who played the homeless bird lady who befriended by Macaulay Culkin's Kevin in Home Alone 2, has died aged 81, according to the BBC.

Born in Dublin in 1945, Fricker won the best supporting actress Oscar in 1990 for her role in 1989 film My Left Foot, in which she starred alongside Daniel Day-Lewis. Fricker played Bridget Fagan Brown, mother to Day-Lewis' Christy Brown, an Irish man born with cerebral palsy who could control only his left foot. Fricker was the first Irish actress to win an Academy Award, beating Hollywood stars such as Julia Roberts and Anjelica Huston. Day-Lewis won the Academy Award for for Best Actor.

Before that, Fricker played a number of roles in British dramas, including Coronation Street. She played nurse Megan Roach in BBC medical drama Casualty from 1986. But she was perhaps best known for playing the unnamed Central Park pigeon lady in 1992's Home Alone sequel, which enjoyed enormous success globally and remains a popular Christmas movie.

Fricker's softly spoken homeless bird lady, a role she secured aged 47, initially frightens Kevin after he is left alone in New York at Christmas. Over the course of the film, Kevin befriends Fricker's character, who goes on to help him defeat bumbling burglars Harry Lyme (Joe Pesci) and Marv Murchins (Daniel Stern), aka The Sticky Bandits.

Fricker also starred in 1993's So I Married An Axe Murderer, 1994's Angels In The Outfield, 1996's A Time To Kill, and 2003's Veronica Guerin. Fricker also performed at the Royal National Theatre in London and at the Royal Court Theatre.

Her agent Phil Belfield said: "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."

Photo by Ted Dayton/WWD/Penske Media via Getty Images.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].