Brian Dennehy

Who Is Brian Dennehy?

Brian Dennehy is known for being an actor. He is famous for his performances on stage and screen.

He is a very talented actor and people think he is very good at acting in plays and films.

Early Life and Background

Brian Dennehy was born on July 9, 1938.

Career and Claim to Fame

Brian Dennehy is a very talented actor who has performed on stage and screen. He is famous for his performances.

His Work

He has worked very hard and people think he is very good at acting. You can find out more about him on his website.

Brian Dennehy's website is a great place to learn more about his life and work.

Birthday, Age and Zodiac

Brian Dennehy was born on July 9, 1938. He is 88 years old.

His zodiac sign is Cancer. People who are Cancers are often very emotional and caring.

Fun Facts and Legacy

We know that Brian Dennehy is a famous actor who was born on July 9, 1938. He is 88 years old and his zodiac sign is Cancer.

Brian Dennehy is a very talented actor who has performed on stage and screen. He is famous for his performances.

He is a very talented actor and people think he is very good at acting in plays and films. We can find out more about him on his website.

Brian Dennehy - Quick Facts

Profile Overview of Brian Dennehy

Brian Manion Dennehy (July 9, 1938 – April 15, 2020) was an American actor. Renowned for his performances on stage and screen and once described as "perhaps the foremost living interpreter" of Eugene O'Neill's works, he received two Tony Awards, a Laurence Olivier Award, and a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for six Primetime Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award.

This profile of Brian Dennehy covers Early Life and Family Background, Military service, Film, Television and Theater.

He had a decades-long relationship with Chicago's Goodman Theatre where much of his O'Neill work originated. He also regularly played Canada's Stratford Festival, especially in works by William Shakespeare and Samuel Beckett. He once gave credit for his award-winning performances to the plays’ authors: "When you walk with giants, you learn how to take bigger steps." Dennehy was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2010.

His screen roles included First Blood (1982), Gorky Park (1983), Silverado (1985), Cocoon (1985), F/X (1986), Presumed Innocent (1990), Tommy Boy (1995), Romeo + Juliet (1996), Ratatouille (2007), and Knight of Cups (2015). Dennehy won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film for his role as Willy Loman in the television film Death of a Salesman (2000).

Early Life and Family Background of Brian Dennehy

Brian Manion Dennehy was born on July 9, 1938, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Hannah (Manion), a nurse, and Edward Dennehy, a wire service editor for the Associated Press. He had two brothers, Michael and Edward. He was of Irish ancestry and was raised Catholic. The family relocated to Long Island, New York, where Dennehy attended Chaminade High School in the village of Mineola.

Dennehy entered Columbia University in New York City on a football scholarship in the fall of 1956, pausing his college education for five years to serve in the United States Marine Corps. He returned to Columbia in 1960 and graduated in 1965 with a B.A. In history. While acting in regional theater he supported his family by working blue-collar jobs including driving a taxi and bartending. He hated his brief stint as a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch in their Manhattan office in the mid-1970s. He later described how working odd hours allowed him to attend matinee theater performances that provided his acting education: "I never went to acting school—I was a truck driver and I used to go see everything I could see—Wednesday afternoons". In the 1970s, stage performances in New York led to television and film work.

Military service of Brian Dennehy

Dennehy enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, serving from 1958 to 1963, including playing football on Okinawa. In several interviews, he described being wounded in combat and repeatedly claimed to have served in Vietnam.

In 1999, he apologized for misrepresenting his military record, stating: "I lied about serving in Vietnam, and I'm sorry. I did not mean to take away from the actions and the sacrifices of the ones who did really serve there... I did steal valor. That was wrong of me. There is no real excuse for that."

Film

Dennehy was primarily known as a dramatic actor. His breakthrough role was as the overzealous sheriff Will Teasle in First Blood (1982) opposite Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo.

His earlier films included several comedies, like Semi-Tough (1977) with Burt Reynolds (in which he portrayed a pro football player), Foul Play (1978) with Chevy Chase, and 10 (1979) with Dudley Moore (as a Manzanillo bartender). He appeared in the 1983 thriller Gorky Park as William Kirwill opposite William Hurt and Lee Marvin. He later portrayed a corrupt sheriff in the western Silverado and an alien in Cocoon, both released in 1985.

Dennehy had memorable supporting parts in such films as Split Image (1982), Never Cry Wolf (1983), Legal Eagles (1986), Cocoon: The Return (1988), F/X: Murder By Illusion (1986), Presumed Innocent (1990), F/X2: The Deadly Art of Illusion (1991) and Prophet of Evil (1993).

Dennehy gradually became a valuable character actor but also achieved leading-man status in the thriller Best Seller (1987) co-starring James Woods. That same year, he also starred in the Peter Greenaway film The Belly of an Architect, for which he won the Best Actor Award at the 1987 Chicago International Film Festival. Commenting upon this unusual venture, Dennehy said, "I've been in a lot of movies but this is the first film I've made."

He went on to star as Harrison in the Australian film The Man from Snowy River II in 1988.

One of his most well-known roles came in the 1995 Chris Farley-David Spade comedy Tommy Boy as Big Tom Callahan. He also was reunited with his 10 co-star Bo Derek in Tommy Boy, in which she played his wife. The following year, he played Romeo's father in Romeo + Juliet.

Dennehy had a voice role in the 2007 animated movie Ratatouille as Django, father of the rat chef Remy. He appeared as the superior officer of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in the 2008 cop drama Righteous Kill and as the father of Russell Crowe in the 2010 suspense film The Next Three Days.

Dennehy starred as Clarence Darrow in Alleged, a film based on the Scopes Monkey Trial, the famous court battle over the teaching of evolution in American public schools.

Television

Dennehy's early professional acting career included small guest roles in such 1970s and 1980s series as Kojak, M*A*S*H, Lou Grant, Dallas, Dynasty, and Hunter. He also appeared in an episode of Miami Vice during the 1987–88 season.

Dennehy portrayed Sergeant Ned T. "Frozen Chosen" Coleman in the television movie A Rumor of War (1980) opposite Brad Davis. He continued to appear in such high-profile television films as Skokie (1981), Split Image (1982), Day One (1989), and A Killing in a Small Town (1990) opposite Barbara Hershey. In 1983 he played government informant Edward Partin in Blood Feud about Jimmy Hoffa.He also played the title role in HBO's Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story.

Dennehy had a lead role as fire chief/celebrity dad Leslie "Buddy" Krebs in the short-lived 1982 series Star of the Family. Despite his star power, that show was cancelled after a half-season. He starred in the crime drama Jack Reed TV movies.

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Dennehy), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.