Brenda Fricker, Oscar winner for My Left Foot, has died at the age of 81 Video

Brenda Fricker, who became Ireland’s first female Oscar winner for My Left Foot, has died aged 81. Her co-star Phil Belfield he told the BBC in a statement: “We will never see him like that again and the world is less for him… I was honored to know, love and work with him and he will always have a place in my heart and in the hearts of many film and TV fans around the world.”

In My Left Foot, Fricker plays Christy Brown’s mother, whose neurological condition means she has control over one of her feet. The film, directed by Jim Sheridan, was released to critical acclaim in 1989, winning Oscars for best actor Daniel Day-Lewis and best supporting actor for Fricker.

Born in Dublin in 1945, Fricker became a feature editor at the Irish Times before turning to acting, winning small roles in Of Human Bondage and Upstairs, Downstairs. In 1977 she was appointed as a nurse Coronation Streetand in 1986 he had a recurring role in the medical soap opera Casualty.

The success of My Left Foot, however, established him as a versatile and in-demand actor and he appeared in a string of Hollywood, British and Irish films. She appeared opposite Richard Harris in The Field, and Albert Finney in A Man of No Importance, and had roles in top US films including Angels in the Outfield, A Time to Kill with Veronica Guerin, and played the “pigeon lady” in the 1992 comedy Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. His last record was The Swallow, directed by Tadhg O’Sullivan.

In 2025 Fricker published a memoir revealed the harrowing details of her past sexual assault and rape, including being assaulted by a co-star on Coronation Street, telling the Guardian: “You think it’s your fault.

Fricker was married to Barry Davis between 1979 and 1988.