Brenda Fricker, 1945 – 2026

Irish stage, screen and TV actress Brenda Fricker, 81, died on July 16. An Oscar-winner as Daniel Day-Lewis’s mother in My Left Foot (1989), the Dublin native acted with the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the Court Theatre Company, and had continuing roles in the TV series Coronation Street, Crown Court, and Casualty. On the big screen, Fricker was seen in The Field, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, So I Married an Axe Murderer, Angels in the Outfield, A Time to Kill, Veronica Guerin, Inside I'm Dancing, and Albert Nobbs, among others. “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,” Fricker said. She also revealed that “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.” Fricker was married (from 1979-88) to director Barry Davis.