Brenda Fricker
| Date of Birth: | 17 February 1945 |
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. Fricker was born in Dublin, Ireland. Her mother "Bina" (née Murphy) was from Gneeveguilla, County 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. 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.[7] She was pregnant six times with Davis, but each pregnancy ended in miscarriage. 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).[4] 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. Source: Wikipedia.org
