Brenda Fricker, the Oscar-winning Irish actress who moved audiences in My Left Foot and later won over a new generation as the gentle Pigeon Lady in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, has died. She was 81.

Fricker died after a period of ill health, her agent, Phil Belfield, confirmed.

For many movie lovers, Fricker will always be remembered for her powerful performance as Bridget Fagan Brown, the mother of Irish writer and painter Christy Brown, in the 1989 drama My Left Foot. Daniel Day-Lewis played Brown in the film, and both actors won Oscars for their performances.

Fricker’s win made history. In 1990, she became the first Irish actress to win an Academy Award, taking home Best Supporting Actress over a stacked field that included Julia Roberts for Steel Magnolias, Anjelica Huston and Lena Olin for Enemies, A Love Story, and Dianne Wiest for Parenthood.

Her Oscar-winning role gave her a permanent place in film history, but her career reached far beyond one acclaimed performance.

To many younger fans, Fricker became unforgettable as the lonely Central Park Pigeon Lady in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Her character befriends Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin McCallister after he finds himself alone in New York City.

It was a quiet, tender role in the middle of a big holiday comedy, and Fricker made it one of the film’s most emotional parts.

Fricker also built a long and respected career across film and television. Her credits included A Time to Kill, So I Married an Axe Murderer, and the BBC medical drama Casualty.

Belfield paid tribute to the actress after her death, calling her a rare talent whose loss would be deeply felt.

“We will never see her like again,” he said, adding that “the world is lesser for the lack of her.”

Fricker’s career made her one of Ireland’s most admired screen performers. She brought warmth, grit, humor, and heartbreak to roles that could have been easy to overlook in the hands of a lesser actress.

Whether she was playing a mother fighting for her son, a lonely woman feeding birds in Central Park, or a familiar face on television, Fricker had a way of making people feel the humanity in every character.

Her death marks the loss of a performer whose work crossed generations.

For some, she was the Oscar winner from My Left Foot. For others, she was the woman in Home Alone 2 who taught Kevin McCallister that even the loneliest people still have love to give.

For all of them, Brenda Fricker leaves behind performances that will continue to be remembered with affection.