Brenda Fricker, Oscar winner for My Left Foot, dies aged 81

Brenda Fricker, who became the first female Irish Oscar winner for acting with My Left Foot, has died aged 81. Her agent Phil Belfield told the BBC in a statement: “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.”

In My Left Foot, Fricker plays the mother of Christy Brown, whose cerebral palsy means he only has muscular control over one of his feet. The film, directed by Jim Sheridan, was released to enormous acclaim in 1989, winning the best actor Oscar for Daniel Day-Lewis as well as best supporting actress for Fricker.

Born in Dublin in 1945, Fricker became an art editor at the Irish Times before starting to act, winning small roles in Of Human Bondage and Upstairs, Downstairs. In 1977 she was cast as a nurse in Coronation Street, and in 1986 secured a regular role in hospital soap opera Casualty.

The success of My Left Foot, however, positioned her as a versatile, in-demand character actor and she appeared in a string of Hollywood, British and Irish feature films. She appeared opposite Richard Harris in The Field, and Albert Finney in A Man of No Importance, and had roles in high profile US films including Angels in the Outfield, A Time to Kill and Veronica Guerin, as well as playing the “pigeon lady” in 1992 comedy Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Her final credit was The Swallow, directed by Tadhg O’Sullivan.

In 2025 Fricker published a memoir revealing harrowing details of past sexual abuse and rape, including an assault by a fellow actor on Coronation Street, telling the Guardian: “You think it’s your fault. You really do.”

Fricker was married to Barry Davis between 1979 and 1988.