Early life

Fricker was born in Dublin. 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. In her teens, she aspired to follow her parents' footsteps into journalism. Fricker has a younger brother named Daniel, who both works and lives in the Baltimore, MD area.

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 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

One of Fricker's first TV roles was staff nurse Maloney in Coronation St, 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, 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 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 "just for being alive" and also dedicated the Oscar to Mrs. Brown, saying "Anybody who gives birth twenty-two times deserves one of these." She rejoined My Left Foot's writer/director Jim Sheridan to make the 1990 film The Field, starring alongside Richard Harris as Maggie McCabe (wife of Harris' "Bull" McCabe). She continued her television work during this period, starring in the 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.

Buoyed by her Oscar win, Fricker went on to appear in several high profile Hollywood films, most notably in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York as the Central Park Pigeon Lady (arguably her most popular film role). The following year she portrayed May Mackenzie (the Weekly World News-obsessed Scottish mother of Mike Myers' Charlie Mackenzie) in So I Married an Axe Murderer, and next portrayed Joseph Gordon Levitt's character's motherly caretaker Maggie in 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 focused almost exclusively on film and television work in Canada and the British Isles. 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-Second World War 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 LGBT community that won awards worldwide

Personal life

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).

Fricker has been reported to be difficult to work with, and has been called "too reclusive for her own good sometimes." She is also known for her outspoken views on a variety of matters.

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." 
• "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." 
• "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." 

TV and filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1964	Of Human Bondage		uncredited
1969	Sinful Davey		uncredited
1978-79	The Quatermass Conclusion	Alison Thorpe	Television series
1979	The Music Machine	Mrs. Pearson
1980	Bloody Kids	Nurse
1982	Ballroom of Romance, TheThe Ballroom of Romance	Bridie
1985	Woman Who Married Clark Gable, TheThe Woman Who Married Clark Gable	Mary
1986-90, 1998, 2007, 2010	Casualty	Megan Roach	Television series
1989	My Left Foot	Mrs. Brown	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Montreal World Film Festival Jurisdiction Award Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture Nominated — National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated — New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress
1990	The Field	Maggie McCabe
1991	Brides of Christ	Sister Agnes
1992	Sound and the Silence, TheThe 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	Man of No Importance, AA Man of No Importance	Lily Byrne
1994	Angels in the Outfield	Maggie Nelson
1995	Journey	Lottie	Television film
1996	Moll Flanders	Mrs. Mazzawatti
1996	Time to Kill, AA 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
1999	Resurrection	Clare's mother	Television remake of 1980 original
1999	Durango	Aunt Maeve
2000	Cupid & Cate	Willie Hendley
2001	War Bride, TheThe War Bride	Betty	Nominated — Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
2002	Intended, TheThe Intended	Mrs. Jones
2003	Conspiracy of Silence	Annie McLaughlin
2003	Veronica Guerin	Bernadette "Bernie" Guerin	Nominated — Irish Film & Television 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 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
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 Award for Best Supporting Actress - Film
2013	A Long Way from Home	Brenda
2013	Forgive Me (TV series)	Mrs. Smith

Selected theatre work

• 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
  • Typhad Mary
  • Macbeth
  • Outskirts
  • TV Times
  • The Accrington Pals
  • The Irish Play
  • Lost World
  • The Weeping of Angels

[ Source: Wikipedia ]