Brenda Fricker

Brenda Fricker
Holding her Academy Award in 1990
Born	February 17, 1945 (1945-02-17) Dublin, Ireland
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1964–present
Spouse	Barry Davies

Brenda Fricker (born February 17, 1945) is an Irish actress of theatre, film and television. She has appeared in more than 30 films and television roles. In 1989, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for My Left Foot.

Early life

Fricker was born in Dublin. Her mother, "Bina" (nee Murphy), was a teacher at Stratford College, and her father, Desmond Frederick Fricker, was an officer in the Department of Agriculture and a journalist for The Irish Times. In her teens, she aspired to follow her parent's footsteps into journalism. Fricker has an older sister, Nora Ann Grania Fricker.^{[citation needed]}

Before becoming an actress, Fricker was assistant to the art editor of the Irish Times, with hopes to become a reporter. At age 19, she became an actress "by chance", her feature film career began with a small uncredited part in the 1964 film Of Human Bondage, based on the 1915 novel by W. Somerset Maugham. She also appeared in Tolka Row, Ireland's first ever soap opera.

Career

Fricker first came to wider public attention in the United Kingdom for her role as Megan Roach in the BBC One television drama series Casualty. She played this role from the series' first episode in September 1986, continuing until 1990 on a regular basis, with some additional return guest appearances. Fricker's last appearance as Megan was in August 2010, when the character took a lethal cocktail of drugs to end her life.

Fricker then acted in several films. She won the 1989 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Christy Brown's mother in My Left Foot; among others, she thanked Christy Brown in her acceptance speech, simply for "being alive" and also dedicated the Oscar to Mrs. Brown, Christy's mother saying, "Anyone who gave birth twenty-one times would deserve one of these." She next co-starred in the 1990 film The Field alongside Richard Harris.

She acted in a string of successful films, and continued her television work during this period. She starred in Australian produced short series Brides of Christ (1991). She then co-starred in the 1992 TV miniseries Seekers alongside Josette Simon, produced by Sarah Lawson. Key film appearances include roles in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (as the Central Park Pigeon Lady), and So I Married an Axe Murderer, as a Weekly World News-obsessed Scottish immigrant. In 2003, she played Bernie Guerin, mother of Veronica Guerin (played by Cate Blanchett) in the film of the same name. She then played nurse Eileen in the film Inside I'm Dancing. In 2007, she starred in How About You the film based on a short story about people living in a residential nursing home written by Maeve Binchy, playing Heather Nightangle. Other important roles were Omagh in 2004 as police Ombudsman Nuala O' Loan, as Graiine McFadden in the TV docudrama No Tears about the women treated with the blood product Anti D in the seventies been contaminated with Hepatitis C, Aunt Maeve in Durango in 1999 based on the novel from John B Keane.

She left Casualty because she believed her character had "started off with a wonderful sense of humour, [but] lost it all and all she ever seemed to do was push a trolley around and offer tea and sympathy". Fricker bowed out as Megan in December 1990, after playing the character in 65 episodes. Then in February 1998 she was in two episodes, where Megan attended the wedding of her former colleagues Charlie Fairhead and Barbara 'Baz' Samuels. In 2007, she returned for a single episode for Red Nose Day. The episode was written by Richard Curtis.

Most recently, Fricker has appeared in Closing the Ring, Richard Attenborough's post World War II drama, also starring Shirley Maclaine, Christopher Plummer and Mischa Barton.

On 4 October 2009, it was announced that Fricker would make another return to Casualty as Megan for four episodes, before her character was killed off. These episodes were aired on August 7, 2010.

Personal life

Fricker currently lives in The Liberties in Dublin. She was previously married to director Barry Davies. She says that her loves include her pet dogs, drinking Guinness, reading poetry and playing snooker. (She once stated that she had taken on the whole crew of My Left Foot. "I played pool against 17 of them, and beat them all," Brenda said).

Fricker has been reported to be difficult to work with, and has been called "too reclusive for her own good sometimes." She is also known for her outspoken views on a variety of matters.

Quotes

• If you're doing a scene and you think you're doing it wrong, just swear in the middle of it and then the director can't use it. It's an arrogant way of doing it, but unfortunately it's the only way of self-protection. You have to be a bit anarchic sometimes.
• When you are lying drunk at the airport you're Irish. When you win an Oscar you're British.
• (on her character in Casualty) Megan was the mother we all want, full of love and understanding, I'm none of that, I'm not a mother and never will be and I wasn't even a very good wife, I'm not even a good nurse to my father now he's old and frail. I'm much more rebellious that Megan. I couldn't do her job ever. Just go down to the hospital and watch what they do for an eighth of the salary I earned pretending to be a nurse. It makes you blush. You break your heart with people being kicked in the teeth by life. I couldn't handle it, I'd be reduced to tears.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1964	Of Human Bondage	bit part	uncredited
1969	Sinful Davey		uncredited
1978-79	Quatermass	Alison Thorpe	Television series
1979	Bloody Kids	Nurse
1982	Ballroom of Romance, TheThe Ballroom of Romance	Bridie
1985	Woman Who Married Clark Gable, TheThe Woman Who Married Clark Gable	Mary
1986-2010	Casualty	Megan Roach	Television series
1989	My Left Foot	Mrs. Brown	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Montreal World Film Festival Jurisdiction Award Nominated -- Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
1990	Field, TheThe Field	Maggie McCabe
1991	Brides of Christ	Sister Agnes
1992	Sound and the Silence, TheThe Sound and the Silence	Eliza	Television series
1992	Utz	Marta
1992	Seekers	Stella Hazard	Television series
1992	Home Alone 2: Lost in New York	Central Park Pigeon Woman
1993	So I Married an Axe Murderer	May Mackenzie
1993	Benny and Joon	Supporting Actress
1993	Deadly Advice	Iris Greenwood
1994	Man of No Importance, AA Man of No Importance	Lily Byrne
1994	Angels in the Outfield	Maggie Nelson
1995	Journey	Lottie	Television film
1996	Moll Flanders	Mrs. Mazzawatti
1996	Time to Kill, AA Time to Kill	Ethel Twitty
1996	Swann	Rose Hindmarch
1997	Masterminds	Principal Claire Maloney
1998	Painted Angels	Annie Ryan
1998	Resurrection Man	Dorcas Kelly
1998	Pete's Meteor	Lily
1999	Resurrection	Clare's mother	Television remake of 1980 original
1999	Durango	Aunt Maeve
2000	Cupid & Cate	Willie Hendley
2001	War Bride, TheThe War Bride	Betty
2002	Intended, TheThe Intended	Mrs. Jones
2003	Conspiracy of Silence	Annie McLaughlin
2003	Veronica Guerin	Bernie Guerin
2003	Watermelon	Teresa Ryan
2004	Trauma	Petra
2004	Omagh	Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan	Television film
2004	Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss	Madame Alex	Television film
2004	Inside I'm Dancing	Eileen
2004	Razor Fish	Molly
2005	Milk	Nan
2005	Tara Road	Mona
2007	How About You
2007	Closing the Ring	Grandma Reilly
2008	Stone of Destiny
2008	Beautiful People	Narg	Episode: "How I Got My Beads"
2010	Locked In	Joan
2011	Cloudburst	Dot
2011	Albert Nobbs	Polly

Selected theatre work

• At the National Theatre
  • The Plough and the Stars
  • Lavender Blue
• At the Royal Court Theatre
  • Within Two Shadows
  • A Pagan's Place
• At the Geffen Playhouse
  • Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
• Other
  • Typhad Mary
  • Macbeth
  • Outskirts
  • TV Times
  • The Accrington Pals
  • The Irish Play
  • Lost World
  • The Weeping of Angels

See also

• List of people on stamps of Ireland

External links

• Brenda Fricker at the Internet Movie Database
• MSN Movies profile
• Fricker at HOLBY.TV