Brenda Fricker

17 Feb, 1945 | Dublin

Actress

Biography

Brenda Fricker is an Academy Award-winning Irish actress. Career 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 started with a small uncredited part in the 1964 film Of Human Bondage, based on the 1915 novel by William Somerset Maugham of the same name. Initially better known in the United Kingdom for her role as Megan Roach in the BBC One television drama series Casualty, 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". She next co-starred in the 1990 film The Field. After a string of successful films, she returned to television, co-starring in the 1992 TV miniseries Seekers alongside Josette Simon, produced by Sarah Lawson. She subsequently joined and remained with Casualty, before going on to star in a series of hit movies, including Home Alone 2: Lost in New York 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. Having left it because she believed her character had "started off with a wonderful sense of humour,  lost it all and all she ever seemed to do was push a trolley around and offer tea and sympathy", she later returned to Casualty for two guest appearances - the first was in February 1998, for the two-parter Everlasting Love in which Megan attended the wedding of her former colleagues Charlie Fairhead and Barbara \\\'Baz\\\' Samuels; the second was in 2007 for a single episode for Red Nose Day. The episode was penned 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. Personal life Fricker was born on the 17th February 1945, in Dublin, Ireland. Her mother, Bina, was a teacher at Stratford College, and her father, Desmond, 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. Aged 19, she was Assistant to the Art Editor of the Irish Times, hoping to become a reporter. She then fell into acting almost by mistake, working largely on the Irish stage. She currently lives in Bristol with her partner Joe; 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 said that she had taken \\\'on the whole crew of My Left Foot, I played pool against 17 of them, and beat them all\\\')