Brenda Fricker
| Brenda Fricker | |
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 Holding her Academy Award in 1990 |
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| Born | February 17, 1945 Dublin, Ireland |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1964–present |
| Spouse(s) | Barry Davies (divorced) |
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 1990, she became the first Irish actress to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for My Left Foot.
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Early life [edit]
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This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources. (October 2011) |
Fricker was born in Dublin.[1] Her mother, "Bina" (née 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.[2] In her teens, she aspired to follow her parent's footsteps into journalism.[3] 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",[3] 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 [edit]
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. Fricker bowed out as Megan in December 1990, after playing the character in 65 episodes, 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".[3] In February 1998 she appeared in two episodes, with Megan attending 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.[4] Fricker's final appearance as Megan was in August 2010, when the character took a lethal cocktail of drugs to end her life.
Fricker has acted in a string of successful films, and in 1989 she won the 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, "just for being alive" and also dedicated the Oscar to Mrs. Brown, Christy's mother saying, "Anybody who gives birth twenty-two times deserves one of these." She next co-starred in the 1990 film The Field alongside Richard Harris.
She 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 who had been contaminated with Hepatitis C, and as Aunt Maeve in Durango in 1999, based on the novel by John B Keane.
Fricker has appeared in Closing the Ring, Richard Attenborough's post World War II drama, also starring Shirley MacLaine, Christopher Plummer and Mischa Barton. in 2012 a high profile supporting role in "Albert Nobbs" earned Fricker an Irish Film Award nomination, and along with Olympia Dukakis she became half of the first pair of Oscar winning actors to play a same-sex couple in Cloudburst, a cultural milestone for the GLBT community that won awards worldwide.
Personal life [edit]
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).[3]
Fricker has been reported to be difficult to work with, and has been called "too reclusive for her own good sometimes."[2] She is also known for her outspoken views on a variety of matters.[2][5]
Quotes [edit]
- 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 than 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.[3]
- Of all the films I’ve made only three do I remember where I felt I’d moved forward as an actress: Cloudburst, My Left Foot and The Field.[6]
Filmography [edit]
Selected theatre work [edit]
- 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[3]
- Typhad Mary
- Macbeth
- Outskirts
- TV Times
- The Accrington Pals
- The Irish Play
- Lost World
- The Weeping of Angels
See also [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ "Brenda Fricker Biography" at Biography.com
- ^ a b c The Sunday Times, November 2, 2008, "Profile: Brenda Fricker, the star who makes Home Alone true"
- ^ a b c d e f holby.tv | Casualty | Brenda Fricker
- ^ Brenda's Red Nose return | The Sun |Showbiz|TV
- ^ "Fricker hurt at being 'cut dead' by Irish film industry insiders", Independent, October 26, 2008
- ^ Barnard, Elissa (11 December 2012). "Actress hails Cloudburst". The Chronicle-Herald. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
External links [edit]
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