Oscar Winner & ‘Home Alone 2’ Pigeon Lady Brenda Fricker Dies at 81

Oscar-winning actress Brenda Fricker, remembered fondly as the Pigeon Lady in “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” died Thursday in Dublin, TMZ reports.

She was 81.

Her agent Phil Belfield confirmed the news, saying Fricker passed peacefully after a period of ill health.

“We will never see her like again and the world is lesser for the lack of her,” Belfield said. “I was honored 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.”

Fricker was born February 17, 1945, in Dublin.

Initially drawn to journalism, she became an accomplished stage actor and made her film debut in “Of Human Bondage” (1964) while in the cast of Ireland’s first-ever soap opera, “Tolka Row,” from 1964-1968.

She returned to soaps with a role on the English classic “Coronation Street” (1977), but found widespread acclaim in the U.K. playing nurse Megan Roach on “Casualty” (1986-1990). She left that show seeking more of a challenge, but reprised the role several times (1998, 2007 & 2010).

Brenda took home Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars in 1990 for playing Daniel Day-Lewis’ mother in “My Left Foot,” for which Day-Lewis won Best Actor. The film, which was Oscar-nominated for Best Picture, was about Irish writer and painter Christy Brown, who created in spite of having cerebral palsy that limited him to the use of his foot for writing.

Fricker also famously played the Central Park Pigeon Lady opposite Macaulay Culkin in “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” in 1992, her first big Hollywood job after winning her Oscar.

Other film work included “The Field” (1990), “So I Married an Axe Murderer” (1993), “Angels in the Outfield” (1994), “A Man of No Importance” (1994), “A Time to Kill” (1996), “Moll Flanders” (1996), “Veronica Guerin” (2003), “Inside I'm Dancing” (2004), Richard Attenborough's final film “Closing the Ring” (2007), “Albert Nobbs” (2011), “Cloudburst” (2011), and “The Swallow” (2024), after which she retired.

Among her many TV credits, she starred in the adaptation of British presenter Graham Norton’s “Holding” in 2021.

In 2025, Fricker published her unflinching memoir “She Died Young: A Life in Fragments,” which detailed physical abuse by her mother, how two rapes left her feeling “broken,” her nine-year marriage to director Barry Davis, and her candid opinions of all her famous co-stars.