Brenda is a feminine given name in the English language.

Etymology[link]

The name is of uncertain origin. It may be derived from a Scandinavian language, rather than a Celtic language like the similarly-spelt masculine given name Brendan. It is possible that Brenda may be derived in part from the Old Norse element brand, meaning "(flaming) sword".^[1]

Popularity[link]

Prior to the 20th century, Brenda was primarily used in Ireland and Scotland,^[1] later it became popular in England.^[2] Its use in the Gaelic-speaking countries is attributed to the similar, although likely etymologically unrelated masculine name Brendan.^[1]

"Brenda" is used as a nickname for Queen Elizabeth II by the satirical magazine Private Eye. The comedian Stanley Baxter played the "Duchess of Brenda", a character loosely based on the Queen

People named Brenda[link]

• Brenda Archer, Guyanese high jumper
• Brenda Benet, actress
• Brenda Blethyn, English actress
• Brenda Brabham, American beauty queen and QVC model
• Brenda Bruce, English actress
• Brenda Bufalino, tap dancer
• Brenda Buttner, TV news
• Brenda Castillo, Dominican Republic volleyball player
• Brenda Davies, wife of Robertson Davies
• Brenda De Banzie, British actress of stage and screen
• Brenda Dervin, American Professor, The Ohio State University
• Brenda Dickson, American actress, originated the role of Jill Foster on The Young and the Restless
• Brenda Eisler, Canadian long jumper
• Brenda Fassie, South African pop singer
• Brenda Fricker, Irish actress
• Brenda Gibbs, Australian actress
• Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond, first female Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
• Brenda Holloway, American singer
• Brenda Joyce:
  • Brenda Joyce (author), American writer
  • Brenda Joyce (actress) (1917-2009), American film actress (1930s–1940s)
• Brenda Lee, American singer
• Brenda Maddox, biographer
• Brenda Marshall, American actress
• Brenda Matthews, New Zealand sprinter
• Brenda Pye, English artist
• Brenda Reimer, the name by which David Reimer was known until age 13
• Brenda Robertson, Canadian politician
• Brenda Russell, American singer/songwriter
• Brenda Sue Schaefer, murder victim
• Brenda Schultz-McCarthy, Dutch former tennis player
• Brenda Song, American actress and singer, stars as London Tipton in "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody"
• Brenda Ann Spencer, American convicted murderer
• Brenda K. Starr, American singer
• Brenda Starr (comic strip), long-running comic strip
• Brenda Stauffer, field hockey player
• Brenda Strong, American actress
• Brenda Vaccaro, Italian-American actress
• Brenda Venus, American actress, writer, and director
• Brenda Villa, Mexican-American polo player

Fictional people named Brenda[link]

• Brenda Barrett Corinthos, character on the soap opera General Hospital
• Brenda Bates, character in Urban Legend
• Brenda Chenowith, character in Six Feet Under
• Brenda Jenkins, character in 227
• Brenda, character from Perfect Hair Forever
• Brenda, nickname of Rope Girl, character from the animated Disney show Teamo Supremo
• Brenda, daughter of Magnus Troil, character in Sir Walter Scott's novel The Pirate
• Brenda Walsh, character in Beverly Hills, 90210 (TV series 1990-2000) played by Shannen Doherty.
• Brenda Meeks, friend of Cindy Campbell of Scary Movie series played by Regina Hall. In A Vampire's love, Regina's character had the same name and is played by Emily Shepherd.

References[link]

This page or section lists people that share the same given name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change that link to point directly to the intended article.

Brenda Fassie
Brenda Fassie sculpture
Background information
Born	(1964-11-03)November 3, 1964
Origin	Langa, Cape Town, South Africa
Died	May 9, 2004(2004-05-09) (aged 39)
Genres	Pop

Brenda Fassie (3 November 1964 – 9 May 2004^[1]) was a South African pop singer. She was known for her "outrageousness"^[2] and widely considered^[who?] a voice for disenfranchised blacks during apartheid. She was affectionately known as the Queen of African Pop and her nickname among fans was Mabrr.

Biography[link]

Fassie was born in Langa, Cape Town,^[3] as the youngest of nine children. She was named after the American singer Brenda Lee.^[3] Her father died when she was two, and with the help of her mother, a pianist,^{[citation needed]} she started earning money by singing for tourists.^[3]

In 1981, at the age of 16, she left Cape Town for Soweto, Johannesburg, to seek her fortune as a singer. Fassie first joined the group Joy and later became the lead singer for the township pop group Brenda And The Big Dudes. She had a son, Bongani, in 1985 by a fellow Big Dudes musician. She married ex-convict Nhlanhla Mbambo in 1989 but divorced in 1991. Around this time she became addicted to cocaine and her career suffered.

With very outspoken views and frequent visits to the poorer townships of Johannesburg, as well as songs about life in the townships, she enjoyed tremendous popularity. Known best for her songs "Weekend Special" and "Too Late for Mama", she was dubbed "The Madonna of the Townships" by Time in 2001.

In 1995 she was discovered in a hotel with the body of her lesbian lover, Poppie Sihlahla, who had died of an apparent overdose.^[3] Fassie underwent rehabilitation and got her career back on track.^[3] However, she still had drug problems and returned to drug rehabilitation clinics^[3] about 30 times in her life.

From 1996 she released several solo albums such as Now Is The Time, Memeza (1997, the best-selling album in South Africa in 1998^[3]) and Nomakanjani?. Most of her albums became multi-platinum sellers in South Africa.

Her family, including her long term partner, were at her side when she succumbed to a cardiac arrest in 2004.

Death[link]

On the morning of 26 April 2004, Fassie collapsed at her home in Buccleuch and was admitted into the Sunninghill hospital in Johannesburg. The press were told that she had suffered cardiac arrest but later reported that she had slipped into a coma brought on by an asthma attack. The post-mortem report revealed that she had taken an overdose of cocaine in the night of her collapse, and this was the cause of her coma. She stopped breathing and suffered brain damage from lack of oxygen. Fassie was visited in the hospital by Nelson Mandela, Winnie Mandela, and Thabo Mbeki, and her condition was front-page news in South African papers.^[3][4] She died aged 39 on 9 May 2004 in hospital without returning to consciousness after her life support machines were turned off. According to the South African Sunday Times and the managers of her music company, the post-mortem report also showed that she was HIV-positive. Her manager, Peter Snyman, denied this aspect of the report.

Recognition[link]

She was voted 17th in the Top 100 Great South Africans.

Her son Bongani 'Bongz' Fassie performed on the soundtrack to the 2005 Academy Award-winning movie Tsotsi. He dedicated his song "I'm So Sorry" to his mother.

In March 2006 a life-size bronze sculpture of Fassie by artist Angus Taylor was installed outside the Bassline music venue in Johannesburg.^[5]

Selected discography[link]

Most of Fassie's records were issued by the EMI-owned CCP Records, which released an estimated 15 albums by the artist.

• 1989: Brenda
• 1990: Black President
• 1994: Brenda Fassie
• 1995: Mama
• 1996: Now Is Time
• 1997: Memeza
• 1997: Paparazzi
• 2000: Thola Amadlozi
• 2001: Brenda The Greatest Hits
• 2003: Mali
• 2003: The Remix Collection
• 2004: Gimme Some Volume

She also made contributions to Mandoza's album Tornado (2002), Miriam Makeba's album Sangoma (1988), and Harry Belafonte's 1988 anti-apartheid album Paradise in Gazankulu, and sang Yizo, Yizo to the soundtrack for Yizo, Yizo (2004).

References[link]

• Afropop! An Illustrated Guide to Contemporary African Music by Sean Barlow & Banning Eyre. (Book Sales August 1995) ISBN 0-7858-0443-9, ISBN 978-0-7858-0443-7

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2009)

Brenda Lee
Background information
Birth name	Brenda Mae Tarpley
Born	(1944-12-11) December 11, 1944 (age 67)
Origin	Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Genres	Pop, rockabilly, country
Occupations	Singer
Years active	1955–present
Labels	Decca (1959–1969) MCA Records (1970–1991) Warner Bros. Records (1991–1993) Telstar Records (1994–1996) Bear Family Records (1997–1998) MCA Nashville (1999–present)
Associated acts	Connie Francis, Skeeter Davis, Ricky Nelson, Lesley Gore, Red Foley, Muruga Booker
Website	Brenda Lee.com

Brenda Mae Tarpley (born December 11, 1944), known as Brenda Lee, is an American performer who sang rockabilly, pop and country music, and had 37 US chart hits during the 1960s, a number surpassed only by Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Ray Charles and Connie Francis.^[1] She is best known for her 1960 hit "I'm Sorry", and 1958's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", a US holiday standard for more than 50 years.

At 4 ft 9 inches tall, she received the nickname Little Miss Dynamite in 1957 after recording the song "Dynamite"; and was one of the earliest pop stars to have a major contemporary international following.

Lee's popularity faded in the late 1960s as her voice matured, but she continued a successful recording career by returning to her roots as a country singer with a string of hits through the 1970s and 1980s. She is a member of the Rock and Roll, Country Music, Rockabilly and Hit Parade Halls of Fame. Lee currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

Lee was born Brenda Mae Tarpley in the charity ward of Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. She weighed 4 pounds 11 ounces at birth. She attended grade schools wherever her father found work, primarily in the corridor between Atlanta and Augusta. Her family was poor, living hand-to-mouth; she shared a bed with her two siblings in a series of three-room houses without running water. Life centered on her parents finding work, their extended family, and the Baptist Church, where she sang solos every Sunday.^[2]

Lee's father, Ruben Tarpley, was the son of a farmer in Georgia's red-clay belt. Although he stood only 5 ft 7 inches, he was an excellent left-handed pitcher and spent 11 years in the U.S. Army playing baseball. Her mother, Annie Grayce Yarbrough, had a similar background of an uneducated working class family in Greene County, Georgia.

Lee was a musical prodigy. Although her family did not have indoor plumbing until after her father's death, they had a battery-powered table radio that fascinated Brenda as a baby. By the time she was two, she could whistle the melody of songs she heard on the radio.^[3] Both her mother and sister remembered taking her repeatedly to a local candy store before she turned three; one of them would stand her on the counter and she would earn candy or coins for singing.

Child performer[link]

Lee's voice, pretty face and stage presence won her wider attention from the time she was five years old. At age six, she won a local singing contest sponsored by local elementary schools. The reward was a live appearance on an Atlanta radio show, Starmakers Revue, where she performed for the next year.

Her father died in 1953, and by the time she turned ten, she was the primary breadwinner of her family through singing at events and on local radio and television shows. During that time, she appeared regularly on the country music show "TV Ranch" on WAGA-TV in Atlanta; she was so short, the host would lower a stand microphone as low as it would go and stand her up on a wooden crate to reach it. In 1955, Grayce Tarpley was remarried to Buell "Jay" Rainwater, who moved the family to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he worked at the Jimmy Skinner Music Center. Lee performed with Skinner at the record shop on two Saturday programs broadcast over Newport, Kentucky radio station WNOP. The family soon returned to Georgia, however, this time to Augusta, and Lee appeared on the show The Peach Blossom Special on WJAT-AM in Swainsboro.

National exposure and stardom[link]

Her break into big-time show business came in February 1955, when she turned down $30 to appear on a Swainsboro radio station to see Red Foley and a touring promotional unit of his ABC-TV program Ozark Jubilee in Augusta. An Augusta DJ persuaded Foley to hear her sing before the show. Foley was as transfixed as everyone else who heard the huge voice coming from the tiny girl and immediately agreed to let her perform "Jambalaya" on stage that night, unrehearsed. Foley later recounted the moments following her introduction:

The audience erupted in applause and refused to let her leave the stage until she had sung three more songs. On March 31, 1955, the 10-year-old made her network debut on Ozark Jubilee in Springfield, Missouri. Although her five-year contract with the show was broken by a 1957 lawsuit brought by her mother and her manager,^[4] she made regular appearances on the program throughout its run.

Less than two months later—on July 30, 1956—Decca Records offered her a contract, and her first record was "Jambayala" backed with "Bigelow 6–200". Lee's second single would feature two novelty Christmas tunes: "I'm Gonna Lasso Santa Claus", and "Christy Christmas". Though she turned 12 on December 11, 1956, both of the first two Decca singles credit her as "Little Brenda Lee (9 Years Old)."

Neither of the 1956 releases charted, but her first issue in '57, "One Step at a Time", written by Hugh Ashley, became a hit in both the pop and country fields. Her next hit, "Dynamite", coming out of a 4 ft 9 inch frame, led to her lifelong nickname, Little Miss Dynamite.

Lee first attracted attention performing in country music venues and shows; however, her label and management felt it best to market her exclusively as a pop artist, the result being that none of her best-known recordings from the 1960s were released to country radio, and despite her country sound, with top Nashville session people, she did not have another country hit until 1969, and "Johnny One Time".

Biggest hits: 1958–1965[link]

Lee achieved her biggest success on the pop charts in the late 1950s through the mid-1960s with rockabilly and rock and roll-styled songs. Her biggest hits included "Jambalaya", "Sweet Nothin's" (No. 4, written by country musician Ronnie Self), "I Want to Be Wanted" (No. 1), "All Alone Am I" (No. 3) and "Fool #1" (No. 3). She had more hits with the more pop-based songs "That's All You Gotta Do" (No. 6), "Emotions" (No. 7), "You Can Depend on Me" (No. 6), "Dum Dum" (No. 4), 1962's "Break It to Me Gently" (No. 2), "Everybody Loves Me But You" (No. 6), and "As Usual" (No. 12). Lee's total of nine consecutive top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits from "That's All You Gotta Do" in 1960 through "All Alone Am I" in 1962 set a record for a female solo artist that was not equalled (and later broken) until 1986 (by Madonna).

The biggest-selling track of Lee's career was a Christmas song. In 1958, when she was 13, producer Owen Bradley asked her to record a new song by Johnny Marks, who had had success writing Christmas tunes for country singers, most notably "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (Gene Autry) and "A Holly, Jolly Christmas" (Burl Ives). Lee recorded the song, "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", in July with a prominent twanging guitar part by Hank Garland. Decca released it as a single that November, but it sold only 5,000 copies, and did not do much better when it was released again in 1959. However, it eventually sold more than five million copies.

In 1960, she recorded her signature song, "I'm Sorry", which hit No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart. It was her first gold single and was nominated for a Grammy. Even though it was not released as a country song, it was among the first big hits to use what was to become the Nashville sound – a string orchestra and legato harmonized background vocals. "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" got noticed in its third release a few months later, and sales snowballed; the song remains a perennial favorite each December and is the record with which she is most identified by contemporary audiences.

Her last top ten single on the pop charts was 1963's "Losing You" (No. 6), while she continued to have other chart songs such as her 1966 song "Coming On Strong" and "Is It True?" in 1964. The latter, featuring Big Jim Sullivan, Jimmy Page on guitars, Bobby Graham on drums, was her only hit single recorded in London, England, and was produced by Mickie Most. It was recorded at Decca Records' number two studio at their West Hampstead complex, as was the B-side, a version of Ray Charles' 1959 classic cut, "What'd I Say?", which wasn't released in America.

International fame[link]

Lee was popular in the United Kingdom early in her career. She toured the UK in 1959, before she had achieved much pop recognition in the US. Her 1961 rockabilly release "Let's Jump the Broomstick", recorded in 1959, did not chart in the US, but went to No. 12 in the UK. She then had two top 10 hits in the UK that were not released as singles in her native country: "Speak To Me Pretty" peaked at No. 3 in early 1962, followed by "Here Comes That Feeling", which reached No. 5. The latter was issed as the b-side to "Everybody Loves Me But You", a No. 6 in the US. However, "Here Comes That Feeling" still made an appearance in the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 69. Brenda Lee also toured in Ireland and appeared on the front of the dancing and entertainment magazine of the time there, Spotlight, in April 1963. She was one of many stars to come to Ireland that year.

Lee enjoys one distinction unique among successful American singers; her opening act on a UK tour in the early 1960s was a then-little-known beat group from Liverpool, England: The Beatles.^[5][6]

Later career[link]

During the early 1970s, Lee re-established herself as a country music artist, and earned a string of top ten hits on the country charts. The first was 1973's "Nobody Wins", which reached the top five that spring and became her last Top 100 pop hit, peaking at No. 70. The follow-up, the Mark James composition "Sunday Sunrise", reached No. 6 on Billboard magazine's Hot Country Singles chart that October. Other major hits included "Wrong Ideas" and "Big Four Poster Bed" (1974); and "Rock On Baby" and "He's My Rock" (both 1975).

After a few years of lesser hits, Lee began another run at the top ten with 1979's "Tell Me What It's Like". Two follow-ups also reached the Top 10 in 1980: "The Cowboy and the Dandy" and "Broken Trust" (the latter featuring vocal backing by The Oak Ridge Boys). A 1982 album, The Winning Hand, featuring Lee along with Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson, was a surprise hit, reaching the top ten on the U.S. country albums chart. Her last well-known hit was 1985's "Hallelujah, I Love Her So", a duet with George Jones.

Recent years[link]

Over the ensuing years, Lee continued to record and perform around the world, previously cutting records in four different languages. In 1992, she recorded a duet ("You’ll Never Know") with Willy DeVille on his album Loup Garou. Today, she continues to perform and tour.

On October 4, 2000, Lee inducted fellow country music legend Charley Pride into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Her autobiography, Brenda Lee: Little Miss Dynamite, was published by Hyperion in 2002 (ISBN 0-7868-6644-6).

Family[link]

Although Lee's songs have often centered on lost loves, and although she did lose her father at a young age, her marriage to Ronnie Shacklett in 1963 has endured. He was able to deal with the notoriously rapacious music industry and is credited with ensuring her long-term financial success. They have two daughters, Jolie and Julie (who was named after Patsy Cline's daughter) and three grandchildren, Taylor, Jordan and Charley.

Recognition[link]

Lee reached the final ballot for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and 2001 without being inducted, but was voted into the hall for 2002. To date, the 11 years between her 1990 and 2001 ballot appearances is the largest gap of this nature in the history of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Celebrating over 50 years as a recording artist, in September 2006 she was the second recipient of the Jo Meador-Walker Lifetime Achievement award by the Source Foundation in Nashville. In 1997, she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame; and is a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.

In 2008, her recording of "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" marked 50 years as a holiday standard, and in February 2009, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences gave Lee a Lifetime Achievement Grammy.

References in popular culture[link]

Chuck Berry wrote a song about Lee on the album St. Louis to Liverpool. She was also immortalized in Golden Earring's 1973 hit "Radar Love": "Radio's playing some forgotten song / Brenda Lee's 'Coming on Strong'." She was also remembered as a heroine to Burton Cummings on his 1978 album "Dream of a Child" in the song "Dream of a Child," including the lines "When I was a child, dreamed that Elvis Presley, was standing on the corner, kissing Brenda Lee", and in the closing line, "I love Brenda Lee / Brenda Lee loves me / yeah...". Ben Vaughn wrote and released "I'm Sorry (But So Is Brenda Lee)" in 1985, which has also been covered by Marshall Crenshaw. Lee is also referenced in Smokey and the Bandit.

"Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" was heard in the 1990 movie Home Alone. "I'm Sorry" can be heard in the 1991 movie The Fisher King, the 1993 movie This Boy's Life, and the 1995 movie Tommy Boy. "Sweet Nothing's" can be heard in 2009's critically acclaimed An Education.

"I Wonder," released in 1963, was the song playing at Colleen's funeral in the episode "The Cost of Living" in Season 3 of the ABC television show Lost. The episode originally aired on November 1, 2006. Kelly Clarkson appeared as Lee on two episodes of the NBC series American Dreams. "Break It To Me Gently" plays during the credits of "The Gold Violin", Season 2: Episode 7 of the AMC series Mad Men and Season 1: Episode 7 of the ABC series "Pan Am (TV series)".

Her 1963 cover of "Fly Me to the Moon" is used in the end credits of the 2010 video game, Bayonetta.

Discography[link]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Argyrakis, Andy (2007-07-05). "Reluctant Legend". Christianity Today. http://www.christianitytoday.com/music/interviews/2007/brendalee-0507.html. Retrieved 2008-04-02. 
• Wooding, Dan. "'Little Miss Dynamite' returns to her Gospel roots with a little help from some of her best friends". ASSIST News Service. http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2007/s07050170.htm. Retrieved 2012-02-03. 
• "Brenda Lee: the Lady, the Legend". Brenda Lee Productions. http://www.brendalee.com/pages/biography.html. Retrieved 2009-04-10. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Brenda Lee

	Book: Brenda Lee
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

• Brenda Lee's official website

v t e Brenda Lee Albums Grandma, What Great Songs You Sang! Brenda Lee This Is...Brenda Emotions All the Way Sincerely, Brenda Lee All Alone Am I ..."Let Me Sing" Brenda, That's All Gospel Duets with Treasured Friends Other albums The Winning Hand Singles "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)" "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" "I'm Sorry" "I Want to Be Wanted" "You Can Depend on Me" "Break It to Me Gently" "All Alone Am I" "Jingle Bell Rock" "Let It Be Me" "Always on My Mind" "He's My Rock" Other singles "America the Beautiful" Songs "Fly Me to the Moon" "The Letter" "Our Day Will Come" Related topics Discography Connie Francis Skeeter Davis Ricky Nelson Lesley Gore Red Foley Muruga Booker Book:Brenda Lee

Brenda Fricker
Holding her Academy Award in 1990
Born	(1945-02-17) February 17, 1945 (age 67) Dublin, Ireland
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1964–present
Spouse	Barry Davies

Brenda Fricker (born February 17, 1945) is an Irish actress of theatre, film and television. She has appeared in more than 30 films and television roles. In 1989, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for My Left Foot.

Early life[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (October 2011)

Fricker was born in Dublin.^[1] 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.^[2] In her teens, she aspired to follow her parent's footsteps into journalism.^[3] Fricker has an older sister, Nora Ann Grania Fricker.^{[citation needed]}

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",^[3] 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[link]

Fricker first came to wider public attention in the United Kingdom for her 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, [but] lost it all and all she ever seemed to do was push a trolley around and offer tea and sympathy".^[3] 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.^[4] Fricker's final appearance as Megan was in August 2010, when the character took a lethal cocktail of drugs to end her life.

Fricker has acted in a string of successful films, and in 1989 she won the 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" and also dedicated the Oscar to Mrs. Brown, Christy's mother saying, "Anyone who gave birth twenty-one times would deserve one of these." She next co-starred in the 1990 film The Field alongside Richard Harris.

She continued her television work during this period. She starred in 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. Key film appearances include roles in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (as the Central Park Pigeon Lady), 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. 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.

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.

Personal life[link]

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).^[3]

Fricker has been reported to be difficult to work with, and has been called "too reclusive for her own good sometimes."^[2] She is also known for her outspoken views on a variety of matters.^[2][5]

Quotes[link]

• 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.^[3]

Filmography[link]

Selected theatre work[link]

• 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^[3]
  • Typhad Mary
  • Macbeth
  • Outskirts
  • TV Times
  • The Accrington Pals
  • The Irish Play
  • Lost World
  • The Weeping of Angels

See also[link]

• List of people on stamps of Ireland

References[link]

External links[link]

• Brenda Fricker at the Internet Movie Database
• MSN Movies profile
• Fricker at HOLBY.TV

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (May 2010)

Brenda Russell
Background information
Birth name	Brenda Gordon
Born	(1949-04-08) April 8, 1949 (age 63) Brooklyn, New York
Origin	Hamilton, Ontario
Genres	Pop, R&B, Adult Contemporary, Jazz
Years active	1975–present
Labels	Horizon (1979) A&M (1979–1981, 1988–1992) Warner Bros. (1983) EMI (1993) Hidden Beach (2000) Dome / Narada Jazz (2003–)

Brenda Russell (born Brenda Gordon, April 8, 1949, Brooklyn, New York) is an American-Canadian singer-songwriter and keyboardist. Known for her eclectic musical style, her recordings have encompassed several different genres, including pop, soul, dance, jazz and adult contemporary. As well as composing and recording her own material, Russell's songwriting and vocal talents have been used by Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Earth, Wind & Fire, Joni Mitchell, Donna Summer, and Sting.

Biography[link]

Born to musical parents (her father Gus was a one-time member of The Ink Spots),^[1] she spent her early years in Canada after moving to Hamilton, Ontario, age 12.^[2] As a teenager she began performing in local bands and in her late teens joined the Toronto production of Hair, during which time she had begun to play the piano. In the early 1970s she married musician Bryan Russell and (as Brian & Brenda) they released two albums on Elton John's Rocket label, Word Called Love (1976) and Supersonic Lover (1977). The Russells also performed on two tracks from Robert Palmer's breakout soul-pop album Double Fun. Their daughter, Lindsay, was born in 1977, but the couple had divorced by the late 1970s, and Brenda, now living in Los Angeles, had set out on a solo career.

After Russell was signed to Tommy LiPuma's Horizon Records (a subsidiary of A&M Records), her debut single, "So Good, So Right", became a Top 30 hit in 1979. After it disestablished the Horizon imprint in 1979, A&M released Russell's self-titled debut album. The album included the hit "So Good, So Right" as well as the tracks "In The Thick Of It" and "If Only For One Night" (which was later a hit for Luther Vandross). Her second album, Love Life, followed in 1981, though commercial success eluded her. Moving to Warner Bros. Records, she released her third album, Two Eyes, in 1983. After this, Russell relocated to Sweden and began writing songs for her next album.^[3]

Returning to A&M Records, Russell's fourth album, Get Here, was released in 1988. It became her greatest commercial success, spawning her biggest hit "Piano in the Dark" (a US Top 10 hit which featured Joe Esposito) and garnered three Grammy Award nominations. The title track went on to become a worldwide hit in 1991 when it was covered by Oleta Adams. After releasing her next album, Kiss Me with the Wind (1990), Russell's contract with A&M concluded with the release of her Greatest Hits album in 1992. Russell then signed with EMI and released the album Soul Talkin' in 1993. After this, Russell took some time off from recording her own music and during this period she composed songs for other artists and wrote the score for the film How Stella Got Her Groove Back.^[4] She also appeared in the 1999 film Liberty Heights, in which she performed two songs written especially for the movie.

Russell resumed her solo career in 2000 with the album Paris Rain, released on Hidden Beach Records. The album (which includes collaborations with Carole King, Dave Koz and Sheila E.) saw Russell move away from the pop market toward a more adult-oriented sound.^[5] In 2003, she signed to the new UK label Dome Records and released the compilation album So Good, So Right: The Best of Brenda Russell. Her eighth studio album, Between the Sun and the Moon, was released by Dome in 2004.

2005 saw a Broadway musical version of Alice Walker's The Color Purple. Produced by Oprah Winfrey, the show's score is written by Russell and lyricists-composers Allee Willis and Stephen Bray. Russell and her co-writers were nominated for a Tony Award (for Best Score) and a Grammy Award (in the Best Musical Show Album category).^[6]

In November 2009, three tracks from Russell's ninth studio album, This Is Real Life, were made available via her official site^[7] though a release date for the album is yet to be announced.

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

• Get Here also peaked at #77 on the UK Album Chart.^[10]

Compilations[link]

Greatest Hits

• Released: 1992
• Label: A&M Records
• Chart Peak: N/A

Ultimate Collection

• Released: 2001
• Label: Hip-O Records
• Chart Peak: N/A

So Good So Right: The Best Of Brenda Russell

• Released: 2003 (UK)
• Label: Dome Records
• Chart Peak: N/A

In the Thick of It: The Best of Brenda Russell

• Released: 2009 (UK)
• Label: Dome Records
• Chart Peak: N/A

Guest singles[link]

"Voices That Care"

• Artist: Various Artists
• Released: 1991
• Label: Giant Records
• Chart Peak: US: #11 US AC: #6

Music videos[link]

Filmography[link]

Russell features as a singer in the following films:

• American Hot Wax (1978)
• Liberty Heights (1999)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Dome Records
• Brenda Russell at the Internet Movie Database
• SingerUniverse article on release of Paris Rain
• Life And Soul Interview