# Brenda Fricker

Brenda Fricker (born 17 February 1945) is an Irish actress, whose career has spanned six decades on stage and screen. She has appeared in more than 30 films and television roles. In 1990, she became the first Irish actress to win an Academy Award, earning the award for Best Supporting Actress for the biopic My Left Foot (1989). She also appeared in films such as The Field (1990), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993), Angels in the Outfield (1994), A Time to Kill (1996), Veronica Guerin (2003), Inside I'm Dancing (2004) and Albert Nobbs (2011).
In 2008, Fricker was honoured with the inaugural Maureen O'Hara Award at the Kerry Film Festival. In 2020, The Irish Times ranked her 26th on its list of the greatest Irish film actors of all time.

## Early life

Fricker was born in Dublin, Ireland. Her mother "Bina" (née Murphy) was from Gneeveguilla, Co. Kerry. Bina was a teacher of languages at Stratford College in Rathgar, and her father, Desmond Frederick Fricker, served in the Department of Agriculture and as 'Fred Desmond' a broadcaster with RTÉ and a journalist for The Irish Times.
Before becoming an actress, Fricker was assistant to the art editor of the Irish Times, with hopes of becoming 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 soap opera.

## Career

One of Fricker's first TV roles was staff nurse Maloney in Coronation Street, debuting on 10 January 1977. Brenda's character attended on the birth of Tracy Barlow on 24 January 1977's episode. Fricker came to wider public attention in the United Kingdom in another nursing 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". 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. Fricker's final appearance as Megan was in August 2010, when the character took a lethal cocktail of drugs to end her life.
Fricker found international acclaim after she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1990 for her performance as Christy Brown's mother in My Left Foot (1989). In her acceptance speech, Brenda thanked Brown "just for being alive" and also dedicated the Oscar to Brown's mother, saying "anybody who gives birth 22 times deserves one of these". For her performance, Fricker was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award and she won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress as well. She rejoined My Left Foot writer and director Jim Sheridan to make the 1990 film The Field, starring alongside Richard Harris as Maggie McCabe, the wife of Harris' "Bull" McCabe. She continued her television work during this period, starring in the Australian-produced short series Brides of Christ (1991) and the miniseries Seekers (1992) alongside Josette Simon, produced by Sarah Lawson.
Buoyed by her Oscar win, Fricker went on to appear in several high-profile Hollywood films, most notably 1992's Home Alone 2: Lost in New York as the Central Park Pigeon Lady. In 1993, she portrayed May Mackenzie, the Weekly World News-obsessed Scottish mother of Mike Myers' Charlie Mackenzie, in So I Married an Axe Murderer, and then portrayed Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character's motherly caretaker Maggie in the 1994 family comedy Angels in the Outfield. One of her last Hollywood film roles came with A Time to Kill, as Ethel Twitty (loyal secretary to Matthew McConaughey's Jake Brigance), after which she has focused almost exclusively on film and television work in Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom. 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 1970s 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.
In 2021 Fricker joined the cast of the TV adaptation of Holding, based on the book of the same name by Graham Norton, marking her first major onscreen role in six years.

## Personal life

Fricker lives in the Liberties, Dublin. She was married to Barry Davis for 15 years until they divorced in 1988 only to later rekindle their friendship in 1990. Davis died later as a result of falling down a flight of stairs under the influence of alcohol which he had battled. This loss devastated Fricker. She was pregnant six times with Davis, but all turned out in miscarriages. She said 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," Fricker said).
In 2012, Fricker said "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."
Whilst appearing on The Tommy Tiernan Show in 2021, Fricker shared that she had battled severe depression for much of her life, including being hospitalised many times.

## Awards and recognition

In 1989 she became the first Irish actress to win an Academy Award for her role in My Left Foot, in the Best Supporting Actress category. In 2008 Fricker was honoured with the inaugural Maureen O'Hara Award at the Kerry Film Festival. In 2020, The Irish Times ranked her 26th on its list of the greatest Irish film actors of all time.

## Filmography

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1964 | Of Human Bondage | | Uncredited |
| 1969 | Sinful Davey | | Uncredited |
| 1975 | Upstairs, Downstairs | | Uncredited (extra) |
| 1976 | Play for Today | Molly | 1 episode Your Man From Six Counties |
| 1977 | Coronation Street | Staff Nurse Maloney | 4 episode arc |
| 1978–1979 | The Quatermass Conclusion | Alison Thorpe | Television series |
| 1979 | The Music Machine | Mrs Pearson | |
| 1980 | Bloody Kids | Nurse | |
| 1982 | The Ballroom of Romance | Bridie | |
| 1984 | Cockles | Ms Kyte | Television series |
| 1985 | The Woman Who Married Clark Gable | Mary | |
| 1986–1990; 1998; 2007; 2010 | Casualty | Megan Roach | Television series |
| 1989 | My Left Foot | Bridget Fagan Brown | Academy Award for Best Supporting ActressBoston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting ActressLos Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting ActressMontreal World Film Festival Jurisdiction AwardNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion PictureNominated—National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated—New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress |
| 1990 | The Field | Maggie McCabe | |
| 1991 | Brides of Christ | Sister Agnes | |
| 1992 | The 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 | Deadly Advice | Iris Greenwood | |
| 1994 | A Man of No Importance | Lily Byrne | |
| 1994 | Angels in the Outfield | Maggie Nelson | |
| 1995 | Journey | Lottie | Television film |
| 1995 | A Woman of Independent Means | Mother Steed | Television mini-series |
| 1996 | Moll Flanders | Mrs. Mazzawatti | |
| 1996 | A Time to Kill | Ethel Twitty | Nominated—Stinkers Bad Movie Award for Worst Supporting Actress |
| 1996 | Swann | Rose Hindmarch | Nominated—Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role |
| 1997 | Masterminds | Principal Claire Maloney | |
| 1998 | Painted Angels | Annie Ryan | |
| 1998 | Resurrection Man | Dorcas Kelly | |
| 1998 | Pete's Meteor | Lily | |
| 1998 | The American | Mrs. Bread | |
| 1999 | Resurrection | Clare's mother | Television remake of 1980 original |
| 1999 | Durango | Aunt Maeve | |
| 2000 | Cupid & Cate | Willie Hendley | |
| 2001 | The War Bride | Betty | Nominated—Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role |
| 2002 | The Intended | Mrs Jones | |
| 2003 | Conspiracy of Silence | Annie McLaughlin | |
| 2003 | Veronica Guerin | Bernadette "Bernie" Guerin | Nominated—Irish Film & Television Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress – Film |
| 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 | Nominated—Irish Film & Television Academy Award for Best Actress – Film |
| 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 | Mrs. McQuarry | |
| 2008 | Beautiful People | Narg | Episode: "How I Got My Beads" |
| 2010 | Locked In | Joan | |
| 2011 | Cloudburst | Dot | |
| 2011 | Albert Nobbs | Polly | Nominated—Irish Film & Television Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress – Film |
| 2013 | A Long Way from Home | Brenda | |
| 2013 | Forgive Me | Mrs. Smith | 3 episodes |
| 2014 | Deadly | Bridie | Short |
| 2021 | Cam Boy | Tilda | Episode: "Take My Webcam Virginity" |
| 2022 | Holding | Lizzie Meany | |
| 2023 | The Catch | Phyllis Doyle | All 4 episodes |
| 2023 | The Miracle Club | voice of Maureen | Voice only |

## Selected theatre work

* At the Royal 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