Brenda Fricker
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| Brenda Fricker | |||||||
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 Brenda Fricker at the 62nd Annual Academy Awards, 3/26/90 Photo by Alan Light |
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| Born | February 17, 1945 Dublin, Ireland |
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Brenda Fricker (born February 17, 1945 in Dublin, Ireland) is an Academy Award-winning Irish actress.
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[edit] Career
Before becoming an actress, Fricker was Assistant to the Art Editor of the Irish Times, with hopes to become a reporter. Aged 19, she became an actress "by chance"[1]; 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".[citation needed] 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, [but] lost it all and all she ever seemed to do was push a trolley around and offer tea and sympathy",[2] in 2007 she returned to Casualty for a one-off guest appearance in a single episode for Red Nose Day. The episode was penned by Richard Curtis.[3]
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.
[edit] Personal life
Fricker was born on the 17th February 1945, in Dublin, Ireland, daughter to a journalist. In her teens, she aspired to follow her parent's footsteps into journalism.[4] Aged 19, she was Assistant to the Art Editor of the Irish Times, hoping to become a reporter.[5] She then fell into acting almost by mistake, working largely on the Irish stage before
She currently lives in Bristol with her partner Joe;[6] she was previously married to director Barry Davies until his death in 1990.[7] 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!'[8]).
[edit] Real life 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.[9]
- When you are lying drunk at the airport you're Irish. When you win an Oscar you're British.[10]
- (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 eight 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.[11]
- (on why she left Casualty) People thought I left because I won the Oscar, but I had already decided to go by then... Oscar or no Oscar, Megan didn't develop in the way she was meant to. She started off with a wonderful sense of humour. But she lost it all and all she ever seemed to do was push a trolley around and offer tea and sympathy.[12]
[edit] Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1964 | Of Human Bondage | bit part | uncredited |
| 1969 | Sinful Davey | uncredited | |
| 1978-1979 | Quatermass | Alison Thorpe | TV series |
| 1979 | Bloody Kids | Nurse | |
| 1982 | The Ballroom of Romance | Bridie | |
| 1985 | The Woman Who Married Clark Gable | Mary | |
| 1986-1990 | Casualty | Megan Roach | TV series |
| 1989 | My Left Foot | Mrs. Brown | Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture |
| 1990 | The Field | Maggie McCabe | |
| 1991 | Brides of Christ | Sister Agnes | |
| 1992 | The Sound and the Silence | Eliza | TV |
| Utz | Marta | ||
| Seekers | Stella Hazard | TV | |
| Home Alone 2: Lost in New York | Central Park Pigeon Woman | ||
| 1993 | So I Married an Axe Murderer | May Mackenzie | |
| Deadly Advice | Iris Greenwood | ||
| 1994 | A Man of No Importance | Lily Byrne | |
| Angels in the Outfield | Maggie Nelson | ||
| 1995 | Journey | Lottie | TV |
| 1996 | Moll Flanders | Mrs. Mazzawatti | |
| A Time to Kill | Ethel Twitty | ||
| Swann | Rose Hindmarch | ||
| 1997 | Masterminds | Principal Claire Maloney | |
| 1998 | Painted Angels | Annie Ryan | |
| Resurrection Man | Dorcas Kelly | ||
| Pete's Meteor | Lily | ||
| 1999 | Resurrection | Clare's mother | TV remake of 1980 original |
| Durango | Aunt Maeve | ||
| 2001 | The War Bride | Betty | |
| 2002 | The Intended | Mrs. Jones | |
| 2003 | Conspiracy of Silence | Annie McLaughlin | |
| Veronica Guerin | Bernie Guerin | ||
| 2004 | Trauma | Petra | |
| Omagh | Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan | TV | |
| Inside I'm Dancing | Eileen | ||
| Razor Fish | Molly | ||
| 2005 | Milk | Nan | |
| Tara Road | Mona | ||
| 2007 | How About You | ||
| Closing the Ring | Grandma Reilly | ||
| 2008 | Stones of Destiny | post-production | |
| Crossmaglen | Aunt Kathleen | pre-production |
[edit] Selected theatreography
- At the National Theatre[13]
- The Plough and the Stars
- Lavender Blue
- At the Royal Court Theatre[14]
- Within Two Shadows
- A Pagan's Place
- At the Geffen Playhouse[15]
- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
- Other[16]
- Typhad Mary
- Macbeth
- Outskirts
- TV Times
- The Accrington Pals
- The Irish Play
- Lost World
- The Weeping of Angels
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Geena Davis for The Accidental Tourist |
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress 1989 for My Left Foot |
Succeeded by Whoopi Goldberg for Ghost |
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.holby.tv/db/index.php?id=38,87,0,0,1,0
- ^ http://www.holby.tv/db/index.php?id=38,87,0,0,1,0
- ^ http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/article19109.ece
- ^ http://www.holby.tv/db/index.php?id=38,87,0,0,1,0
- ^ http://www.holby.tv/db/index.php?id=38,87,0,0,1,0
- ^ http://www.holby.tv/db/index.php?id=38,87,0,0,1,0
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002084/personal
- ^ http://www.holby.tv/db/index.php?id=38,87,0,0,1,0
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002084/personal
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002084/personal
- ^ http://www.holby.tv/db/index.php?id=38,87,0,0,1,0
- ^ http://www.holby.tv/db/index.php?id=38,87,0,0,1,0
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002084/personal
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002084/personal
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002084/personal
- ^ http://www.holby.tv/db/index.php?id=38,87,0,0,1,0
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