Known for Acting
Brenda Fricker (February 17, 1945 – July 17, 2026) was an Irish actress, whose career spanned six decades on stage and screen. She 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). She was also a regular as a nurse in the BBC drama Casualty. Description above from the Wikipedia article Brenda Fricker, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Born
February 17, 1945
Died
July 17, 2026 (age 81)
Birthplace
Dublin, Ireland
Filmography
58 films, 26 shows


The Swallow
2024 · 1h 11m
country: Ireland
In a small house, on the Irish coast, a woman writes a letter to an unknown correspondent. She ponders the evanescence of memory and art. Her home brims with traces of life—faded photographs, scattered artworks, some unfinished. All is shrouded by the constant murmur of the sea: that vast canvas of everything that was and will be.


The Miracle Club
2023 · 1h 30m
country: Ireland
Three close friends who have never left the outskirts of Dublin (much less Ireland) get the journey of a lifetime — a visit to Lourdes, the picturesque French town and place of miracles.


Deadly
2014 · 9m
country: Ireland
Deadly tells the story of Boney, a working stiff who doesn’t care about his dead-end job. That is until, he has a run-in with a spirited old lady named Bridie. Academy award winner, Brenda Fricker and Love/Hate star Peter Coonan lend their voices to this bittersweet animated short about life, death and dancin'!


A Long Way From Home
2013 · 1h 25m
country: France
Joseph and Brenda have done what many only dream of and retired to the South of France to live out the rest of their days as if they were permanently on holiday. But retirement is not what Joseph imagined, and when he meets a young, attractive woman, Suzanne, everything he thought he knew about himself and his world is turned upside down.


Albert Nobbs
2011 · 1h 53m
country: United States
Albert Nobbs struggles to survive in late 19th century Ireland, where women aren't encouraged to be independent. Posing as a man, so she can work as a butler in Dublin's most posh hotel, Albert meets a handsome painter and looks to escape the lie she has been living.


Muide Éire
2011 · 1h 22m
country: Unknown
Muide Eire / We are Ireland documents the history of Ireland on screen. From the horse drawn carriages of Dublin's yesteryear, to the latest summer blockbuster, this film takes an intimate look at film making in Ireland - as a visual expression of Irish culture, celebrating contemporary filmmakers in both the Irish and English languages. From the glamour of the red carpet to behind the scenes 5am starts, We are Ireland invites the viewer into this world where art and industry exist in delicate balance. The heart of this documentary is our investigation into representations of Ireland and the Irish - how the Irish have been viewed abroad, and how we represent ourselves on screen.


Cloudburst
2011 · 1h 33m
country: Canada
When Dot's granddaughter puts her into a nursing home, Stella stages a breakout, and takes Dot to Canada so they can get married. They pick up a hitchhiker along the way.


Locked In
2010 · 1h 25m
country: United Kingdom
Josh decides to leave his advertising career at its peak and walks away from fame and success. But his life turns upside down when a car accident leaves his daughter in a strange coma.


The Liberties
2009 · 1h 30m
country: Ireland
A series of twelve short films, each encapsulating a different aspect of the famous Dublin inner-city community. The vibrancy of the streets, the humour of the inhabitants and the skills of the traders and craftspeople are all captured here.


Stone of Destiny
2008 · 1h 36m
country: Canada
Tells of the daring heist of The Stone of Destiny in the 1950s by a charming group of idealistic Scottish undergraduates, whose action rekindled Scottish nationalistic pride.


How About You...
2007 · 1h 40m
country: Ireland
A young woman, struggling with the direction of her life, spends Christmas watching over a retirement home filled with demanding residents.


Closing the Ring
2007 · 1h 58m
country: Canada
During the 1940s, a group of young men go off to war, leaving behind Ethel Ann, who is in love with one of them, Teddy. In modern-day Belfast, a man named Jimmy endeavors to return a ring found in the wreckage of a crashed plane. He travels to Michigan, where the grown Ethel Ann, who married another man after Teddy was killed in battle, now lives. Ethel Ann must decide whether to go with Jimmy to meet the soldier who last saw Teddy alive.


Tara Road
2005 · 1h 41m
country: Ireland
A grieving Connecticut mother temporarily switches houses with a woman in Dublin, Ireland.


Omagh
2005 · 1h 42m
country: Ireland
The movie starts at the 1998 bomb attack by the Real IRA at Omagh, Northern Ireland. The attack killed 31 people. Michael Gallagher one of the relatives of the victims starts an examination to bring the people responsible to court.


Milk
2005 · 10m
country: United Kingdom
Reluctant Jennifer must bathe her mischievous grandmother. Once close, they are now virtually strangers. The enforced intimacy of the situation results in an awkwardness that they can neither deny nor overcome until they begin to play together in the water.


Inside I'm Dancing
2004 · 1h 44m
country: France
Michael is a 24-year-old who has cerebral palsy and long-term resident of the Carrigmore Residential Home for the Disabled, run by the formidable Eileen. His life is transformed when the maverick Rory O'Shea moves in.


Trauma
2004 · 1h 34m
country: United Kingdom
Awaking from a coma to discover his wife has been killed in a car accident, Ben's world may as well have come to an end. A few weeks later, Ben's out of hospital and, attempting to start a new life, he moves home and is befriended by a beautiful young neighbour Charlotte. His life may be turning around but all is not what it seems and, haunted by visions of his dead wife, Ben starts to lose his grip on reality.


Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss
2004 · 1h 24m
country: Canada
The story of Heidi Fleiss, known as "The Hollywood Madam", who was the daughter of a prominent Los Angeles doctor and eventually became a prostitute for a well-known Los Angeles madam. She took over her boss' operation and soon was raking in $300,000 a month by hiring only the most beautiful and highest-class hookers and catering to wealthy Hollywood types, European and American corporate executives and Arab sheiks. Her operation was broken up by Los Angeles police in 1993, and she eventually went to prison for income-tax evasion.


Veronica Guerin
2003 · 1h 38m
country: Ireland
In this true story, Veronica Guerin is an investigative reporter for an Irish newspaper. As the drug trade begins to bleed into the mainstream, Guerin decides to take on and expose those responsible. Beginning at the bottom with addicts, Guerin then gets in touch with John Traynor, a paranoid informant. Not without some prodding, Traynor leads her to John Gilligan, the ruthless head of the operation, who does not take kindly to Guerin's nosing.


Conspiracy of Silence
2003 · 1h 30m
country: Ireland
When a priest commits suicide and two trainees are expelled from a seminary, a journalist starts to investigate the Vatican’s silence on broken vows of celibacy. A thriller examining the internal conflicts in the modern Catholic church.


Watermelon
2003 · 1h 14m
country: United Kingdom
A tangled web of deceit pitches three lovers together with the added proposition of a baby.


Pete's Meteor
2002 · 1h 44m
country: Ireland
Lives change for members of an Irish family after a meteor crashes in their backyard. The kids believe that it was sent down to them by their dead parents, but the government hauls the rock away and sends it to the local university.


The Intended
2002 · 1h 50m
country: Denmark
A period drama/thriller about a surveyor and his fiancée who arrive in a remote Malaysian trading post and encounter a closed-fisted ivory trader and her ill-meaning family.


Torso: The Evelyn Dick Story
2002 · 1h 31m
country: Unknown
The 1946/1947 murder trial of young and beautiful Evelyn Dick remains the most lurid murder case in Canadian history. After children find only the torso of her missing husband, John, Evelyn is arrested for his murder.


I Was a Rat
2001 · 1h 31m
country: Canada
A little boy found wandering the streets is taken in by Bob and Joan, a kindly couple. The boy is cold, wet and desperate for shelter, but Bob and Joan are perplexed by his claims that he was once a rat. Meanwhile, rumours are rife at the newspaper about the prince's new love: a girl who captivated everyone at the palace ball.


The War Bride
2001 · 1h 43m
country: Canada
During World War II, a Cockney woman marries a Canadian soldier and adjusts to life in Alberta.


Cupid & Cate
2000 · 1h 40m
country: United States
Cate has a small boutique where she sells vintage clothes. She is dating Phillip, a snob whose parents think that Cate isn't good enough, so when she meets Harry and sparks fly, she starts to question her choices in life.


Durango
1999 · 1h 38m
country: United States
In 1939 Ireland, a young man decides to lead a forty mile cattle drive rather than selling his cattle to an unscrupulous local buyer.


Resurrection
1999 · 1h 30m
country: United States
After a woman is crippled in an auto accident which killed her husband, she suddenly develops the powers to heal. First she uses the power to heal herself and then turns to others. However, her powers are beyond healing psychic scars that exist between her and her mother. Meanwhile, her best friend and her doctor struggle to understand her newfound abilities.


The American
1998 · 1h 24m
country: United Kingdom
After the horror of the Civil War, 'ignorant' Christopher Newman made his fortune. He travels to France is search of cultural treasures. He won't get past the Paris nightlife. After an affair with a haughty painter, he falls in love with the daughter of the late marquis de Bellegarde. She was married off and traumatized by her abusive late husband for the family's sake. Her elder brother supports their ruthless mother, but junior Valentin is besotted with the artist and strikes a partnership with Christopher.


Painted Angels
1998 · 1h 48m
country: United Kingdom
The story centers on the life of a bordello in a midwestern prairie town in the 1870s. The whorehouse is run by pragmatic madam Annie Ryan and the film follows the life of several of her girls.


Resurrection Man
1998 · 1h 42m
country: United Kingdom
Belfast, in 1970s. Victor Kelly is a young protestant man who hates the Catholics so much that one night he begins to brutally murder them. A reporter soon tries to uncover the murder and obtained prestige for himself, while Victor sinks deeper into madness.


Masterminds
1997 · 1h 45m
country: Canada
A rebellious computer engineering prodigy uses his talent for pranks to outwit the security consultant who has taken the students at his prestigious private school hostage.


Swann
1997 · 1h 36m
country: Canada
Rose Hindmarsh finds herself at the centre of a controversy when she meets author Sarah Maloney as she investigates the life of Mary Swann, an obscure poet who was brutally murdered in a small town in rural Ontario.


A Time to Kill
1996 · 2h 29m
country: United States
A young lawyer defends a black man accused of murdering two white men who raped his 10-year-old daughter, sparking a rebirth of the KKK.


Moll Flanders
1996 · 2h 3m
country: United States
The daughter of a thief, young Moll is placed in the care of a nunnery after the execution of her mother. However, the actions of an abusive priest lead Moll to rebel as a teenager, escaping to the dangerous streets of London. Further misfortunes drive her to accept a job as a prostitute from the conniving Mrs. Allworthy. It is there that Moll first meets Hibble, who is working as Allworthy's servant but takes a special interest in the young woman's well-being. With his help, she retains hope for the future, ultimately falling in love with an unconventional artist who promises the possibility of romantic happiness.


Journey
1995 · 1h 36m
country: United States
Deserted by their mother, a young boy and his sister discover the true meaning of family while living with their grandfather.


Out of Ireland
1995 · 1h 52m
country: Unknown
Over the course of two centuries, seven million men, women and children abandoned their homeland for America's shores. In just one horrifying decade, two million left to escape a famine that left another million dead. This is the moving chronicle of the Irish immigrant experience.


A Man of No Importance
1994 · 1h 39m
country: Ireland
Alfie Byrne is a middle-aged bus conductor in Dublin in 1963. He would appear to live a life of quiet desperation: he's gay, but firmly closeted, and his sister is always trying to find him "the right girl". His passion is Oscar Wilde, his hobby is putting on amateur theatre productions in the local church hall. We follow him as he struggles with temptation, friendship, disapproval, and the conservative yet oddly lyrical world of Ireland in the early 1960s.


Angels in the Outfield
1994 · 1h 43m
country: United States
Roger is a foster child whose irresponsible father promises to get his act together when Roger's favourite baseball team, the California Angels, wins the pennant. The problem is that the Angels are in last place, so Roger prays for help to turn the team around. Sure enough, his prayers are answered in the form of angel Al.


Deadly Advice
1994 · 1h 31m
country: United Kingdom
Mother rules the house with an iron hand and has such power over her daughters that they see themselves as becoming old unmarried, maids. Jodie has feelings for the local doctor, a man much older than her, for which her mother strongly disapproves. Beth finds a relationship with a male stripper in Bristol, but sees nothing in the future with Mother around. While both girls would like to be rid of Mother, nothing happens until Jodie sees images of H. R. Armstrong, the man who put the town on the map by dispatching his un-loving wife


So I Married an Axe Murderer
1993 · 1h 33m
country: United States
Just after a bad breakup, Charlie MacKenzie falls for lovely butcher Harriet Michaels and introduces her to his parents. But, as voracious consumers of sensational tabloids, his parents soon come to suspect that Harriet is actually a notorious serial killer -- "Mrs. X" -- wanted in connection with a string of bizarre honeymoon killings. Thinking his parents foolish, Charlie proposes to Harriet. But while on his honeymoon with her, he begins to fear they were right.


The Sound and the Silence: The Alexander Graham Bell Story
1993
country: Ireland
True story of Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone, inspired by his mother.


Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
1992 · 2h
country: United States
Instead of flying to Florida with his folks, Kevin ends up alone in New York, where he gets a hotel room with his dad's credit card—despite problems from a clerk and meddling bellboy. But when Kevin runs into his old nemeses, the Wet Bandits, he's determined to foil their plans to rob a toy store on Christmas Eve.


Utz
1992 · 1h 38m
country: Germany
Hugh Whitemore adapted Bruce Chatwin's novel for this tale of a New York antique dealer who travels to Prague to buy the porcelain collection of the late Baron Utz, only to become embroiled in the wreckage of the dead man's unusual life history after he discovers that the collection is missing.


The Field
1990 · 1h 50m
country: Ireland
"Bull" McCabe's family has farmed a field for generations, sacrificing much in the name of the land. When the widow who owns the field decides to sell it in a public auction, McCabe knows that he must own it. While no local dare bid against him, a wealthy American decides he requires the field to build a highway. "Bull" and his son decide they must try to convince the American to let go of his ambition and return home, but the consequences of their plot prove sinister.


My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown
1989 · 1h 43m
country: Ireland
No one expects much from Christy Brown, a boy with cerebral palsy born into a working-class Irish family. Though Christy is a spastic quadriplegic and essentially paralyzed, a miraculous event occurs when, at the age of 5, he demonstrates control of his left foot by using chalk to scrawl a word on the floor. With the help of his steely mother — and no shortage of grit and determination — Christy overcomes his infirmity to become a painter, poet and author.


The Picnic
1989 · 1h 25m
country: Unknown
A widowed teacher marries again, but her hopes of her daughter accepting a stepfather her own age, and her anticipation of a birthday picnic by the river are clouded by a series of murders in the district and by a fear rooted rather nearer home.


The Woman Who Married Clark Gable
1985 · 29m
country: Unknown
Period drama. A woman living in Dublin in the late 1930's relieves her humdrum existence with fantasies that her newly-moustachioed husband is her screen idol, Clark Gable.


Exploits at West Poley
1985 · 1h 3m
country: United Kingdom
Somerset 1850. Two boys exploring an underground cave, divert the course of a river and drastically change the lives of the people of two villages.


The Ballroom of Romance
1982 · 51m
country: Ireland
A lonely farmer's daughter hopes to find love at the village ballroom.


Bloody Kids
1980 · 1h 31m
country: United Kingdom
Two boys pull a Saturday night prank on the police in a seaside British town.


The Quatermass Conclusion
1979 · 1h 42m
country: United Kingdom
Influenced by the social and geopolitical situation of the early nineteen-seventies and the hippie youth movement of the late nineteen-sixties, Quatermass is set in a near future in which large numbers of young people are joining a cult, the “Planet People”, and gathering at ancient sites, believing they will be transported to a better life on another planet.


The Music Machine
1979 · 1h 33m
country: United Kingdom
At a famous London disco venue, a competition is announced to select two dancers to star in a new film.


Licking Hitler
1978 · 1h
country: United Kingdom
1941 and the upper class Anna Seaton is hired as part of an allied radio propaganda project, creating disinformation about the Nazi war effort. But tensions between her and brilliant, working class writer Archie MacLean threaten to undermine her work.


Your Man from Six Counties
1976 · 1h 34m
country: United Kingdom
When his father becomes a bomb victim, Jimmy leaves Belfast for his uncle’s farm in remote west Ireland. But even here there are links to the past.
The Virgins
The Virgins
1974
country: Unknown
Three middle-aged Irish bachelors - Shemm, Cloggy and Ambrose - put drinks before sex. Even Mrs Ryder can't shatter their celibacy.


Sinful Davey
1969 · 1h 35m
country: United Kingdom
A young man, convinced of his paternity, aims to emulate his notorious father by committing daring crimes. However, his childhood friend is equally determined to track him down and save him from his rogue ways.