RIP - Brian Dennehy - Dead at 81
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RIP - Brian Dennehy - Dead at 81
Brian Dennehy, the winner of two Tonys for his starring roles in “Death of a Salesman” and “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” in a career that also spanned films including “Tommy Boy,” “First Blood” and “Cocoon,” and television, died on Wednesday night in New Haven, Conn. He was 81.
“It is with heavy hearts we announce that our father, Brian passed away last night from natural causes, not Covid-related. Larger than life, generous to a fault, a proud and devoted father and grandfather, he will be missed by his wife Jennifer, family and many friends,” his daughter Elizabeth Dennehy tweeted on Thursday. TMZ was was first to report the news.
The imposingly tall, barrel-chested Dennehy won his first Tony for his performance as Willy Loman in a revival of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” in 1999 and his second Tony for his turn as James Tyrone in a revival of Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” in 2003.
The actor was perhaps the foremost living interpreter of O’Neill’s works. In 2009 Dennehy starred on Broadway as Ephraim Cabot in a revival of the playwright’s “Desire Under the Elms,” and in 2012 he played Larry Slade, the former lefty seeking to drink himself to death, in O’Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh” at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, reprising the role in 2015 when the production, also starring Nathan Lane, was revived at the BAM Harvey Theater in New York City.
The New York Times’ Charles Isherwood, who confessed to being floored by the production of “The Iceman Cometh,” said of the actor: “Even as Mr. Dennehy anatomizes his fellow patrons’ misery (‘They manage to get drunk, by hook or by crook, and keep their pipe dreams, and that’s all they ask of life’), his slab-like face barely registers any trace of feeling at the squalor bubbling into life around him. Larry’s slit eyes remain fixed almost throughout the play on the sweet horizon of nonexistence, although we can tell he, more than anyone else, understands the dark game that Hickey will come to play.”
Underscoring his adeptness with the physical business of being an actor, a scene in “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” in which a drunken Tyrone gets onto a table to unscrew many of the bulbs in a lit chandelier left many in the audience with the fear that the actor would tumble off the stage even though they knew Dennehy was not really drunk.
Dennehy had a decades-long association with the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, where most of his explorations of O’Neill originated. He first appeared at the Goodman in 1986 in the title role of Brecht’s “Galileo” and first paired with the theater on O’Neill with a 1990 revival of “The Iceman Cometh” in which he played Hickey. In 1996 he starred there in O’Neill’s “A Touch of the Poet,” playing the tyrannical, Falstaff-like Con Melody.
After his Tony-winning performance in 2003 in O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” he took on the playwright’s obscure, posthumously published one-act “Hughie” at the Goodman in 2004, revisiting the show again in 2010 in repertory with Samuel Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape.”
Dennehy headlined the Goodman’s 2009 “A Global Exploration: Eugene O’Neill in the 21st Century” festival in the revival of “Desire Under the Elms” that subsequently transferred to Broadway.
The production of “Death of a Salesman” that won Dennehy his first Tony originated at the Goodman, later went to the West End and was brought to the smallsceen on Showtime in 2000, resulting in an Emmy nomination for Dennehy as well as a SAG Award and a Golden Globe. The New York Times called it “the performance of his career.”
Dennehy also received Emmy nominations in 1990 for his role as a defense attorney in the telepic “A Killing in a Small Town”; in 1992 both for his role in the Scott Turow-based miniseries “The Burden of Proof” and for his role as serial killer John Wayne Gacy in the telepic “To Catch a Killer”; in 1993 for his role in the miniseries “Murder in the Heartland”; and in 2005 for his role in Showtime’s “Our Fathers,” about the Catholic church’s conspiracy, centering on Boston Cardinal Bernard Law, to conceal sexual abuse.
Reviewing “Our Fathers,” Variety lauded “the ever-brilliant Brian Dennehy in a knockout perf as an outspoken priest who uses the pulpit to denounce Law’s leadership.”
Perhaps Dennehy’s most memorable film role came in Alan J. Pakula’s 1990 adaptation of Scott Turow’s bestselling novel “Presumed Innocent,” starring Harrison Ford as the Chicago assistant district attorney on trial for the murder of a co-worker with whom he had an affair; Dennehy played his boss, who’s up for re-election and has multiple divided loyalties, with a subtlety that was absolutely necessary. Another signal moment was auteur Peter Greenaway’s 1987 film “The Belly of an Architect,” in which the actor starred as the title character; the New York Times said the film “does have a humanizing element in the form of Mr. Dennehy, who brings a robust physicality to Kracklite without missing the essentially cerebral nature of the role; this is one of the best things he has done.”
In the early to mid-’90s Dennehy starred as a Chicago police detective in the “Jack Reed” series of TV movies, several of which he also wrote and directed.
Brian Manion Dennehy was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He served in the Marines from 1959-63, after which he studied history at Columbia, attending the university on a football scholarship. He subsequently earned his MFA in dramatic arts from Yale.
Dennehy made his Broadway debut in 1995 in Brian Friel’s “Translations” opposite Dana Delany. After “Death of a Salesman” and “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” the actor played Matthew Harrison Brady in a 2007 revival of “Inherit the Wind” opposite Christopher Plummer as Henry Drummond. And in 2014 he starred opposite Carol Burnett and Mia Farrow in a revival of A.R. Gurney’s “Love Letters.”
The actor made his TV and feature debut in 1977 — a year in which he made appearances in at least 10 series or telepics, including “Kojak,” “MASH” and “”Lou Grant,” and the films “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” and “Semi-Tough.” From that point he maintained a heavy work load for decades.
In 1982 his profile increased significantly thanks to his effective performance in the role of Teasle, the sadistic small-town police chief who is Sylvester Stallone’s lead adversary in “Rambo.”
He had significant roles in the 1983 thriller “Gorky Park” and in 1985’s “Cocoon,” from Ron Howard, and “Silverado.” He was second-billed, after Bryan Brown, in the well-constructed 1986 thriller “F/X,” in which he played a cop not part of the conspiracy, and in the 1991 sequel. He was fourth-billed in “Legal Eagles,” after the star trio of Robert Redford, Debra Winger and Daryl Hannah. In 1987, in the flawed thriller “Best Seller,” he sparred ably with James Woods, who played a conman who approaches Dennehy’s policeman-successful writer with a deal that ought not to be trusted. Dennehy also starred in the 1990 crime drama “The Last of the Finest.” Amidst a sea of work in TV movies, Dennehy appeared in the 1995 indie “The Stars Fell on Henrietta,” starring Robert Duvall; the next year he played Ted Montague, leader of the clan, in Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet.”
In 1981 he recurred on “Dynasty” as D.A. Jake Dunham; the next year Dennehy starred as a fire chief in the brief-running ABC sitcom “Star of the Family.”He tried series television again in 1994 with ABC’s brief-running “Birdland,” in which he played a hospital’s chief of psychiatry, and in NBC’s 2001 sitcom “The Fighting Fitzgeralds,” in which he starred as the reluctant paterfamilias of an unruly Irish clan.
In the highly regarded 1989 TV movie “Day One,” the actor played Gen. Leslie Groves, who oversaw the development of the atomic bomb. In 2000 he starred as Gen. Bogan in the Stephen Frears-directed TV adaptation of nuclear armageddon thriller “Fail Safe.”
Denney was married twice, the first time to Judith Scheff.
He is survived by second wife Jennifer Arnott, a costume designer, whom he married in 1988; three daughters by Scheff, actresses Elizabeth Dennehy and Kathleen Dennehy and Deirdre; as well as son Cormac and daughter Sarah with Arnott.
“It is with heavy hearts we announce that our father, Brian passed away last night from natural causes, not Covid-related. Larger than life, generous to a fault, a proud and devoted father and grandfather, he will be missed by his wife Jennifer, family and many friends,” his daughter Elizabeth Dennehy tweeted on Thursday. TMZ was was first to report the news.
The imposingly tall, barrel-chested Dennehy won his first Tony for his performance as Willy Loman in a revival of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” in 1999 and his second Tony for his turn as James Tyrone in a revival of Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” in 2003.
The actor was perhaps the foremost living interpreter of O’Neill’s works. In 2009 Dennehy starred on Broadway as Ephraim Cabot in a revival of the playwright’s “Desire Under the Elms,” and in 2012 he played Larry Slade, the former lefty seeking to drink himself to death, in O’Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh” at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, reprising the role in 2015 when the production, also starring Nathan Lane, was revived at the BAM Harvey Theater in New York City.
The New York Times’ Charles Isherwood, who confessed to being floored by the production of “The Iceman Cometh,” said of the actor: “Even as Mr. Dennehy anatomizes his fellow patrons’ misery (‘They manage to get drunk, by hook or by crook, and keep their pipe dreams, and that’s all they ask of life’), his slab-like face barely registers any trace of feeling at the squalor bubbling into life around him. Larry’s slit eyes remain fixed almost throughout the play on the sweet horizon of nonexistence, although we can tell he, more than anyone else, understands the dark game that Hickey will come to play.”
Underscoring his adeptness with the physical business of being an actor, a scene in “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” in which a drunken Tyrone gets onto a table to unscrew many of the bulbs in a lit chandelier left many in the audience with the fear that the actor would tumble off the stage even though they knew Dennehy was not really drunk.
Dennehy had a decades-long association with the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, where most of his explorations of O’Neill originated. He first appeared at the Goodman in 1986 in the title role of Brecht’s “Galileo” and first paired with the theater on O’Neill with a 1990 revival of “The Iceman Cometh” in which he played Hickey. In 1996 he starred there in O’Neill’s “A Touch of the Poet,” playing the tyrannical, Falstaff-like Con Melody.
After his Tony-winning performance in 2003 in O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” he took on the playwright’s obscure, posthumously published one-act “Hughie” at the Goodman in 2004, revisiting the show again in 2010 in repertory with Samuel Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape.”
Dennehy headlined the Goodman’s 2009 “A Global Exploration: Eugene O’Neill in the 21st Century” festival in the revival of “Desire Under the Elms” that subsequently transferred to Broadway.
The production of “Death of a Salesman” that won Dennehy his first Tony originated at the Goodman, later went to the West End and was brought to the smallsceen on Showtime in 2000, resulting in an Emmy nomination for Dennehy as well as a SAG Award and a Golden Globe. The New York Times called it “the performance of his career.”
Dennehy also received Emmy nominations in 1990 for his role as a defense attorney in the telepic “A Killing in a Small Town”; in 1992 both for his role in the Scott Turow-based miniseries “The Burden of Proof” and for his role as serial killer John Wayne Gacy in the telepic “To Catch a Killer”; in 1993 for his role in the miniseries “Murder in the Heartland”; and in 2005 for his role in Showtime’s “Our Fathers,” about the Catholic church’s conspiracy, centering on Boston Cardinal Bernard Law, to conceal sexual abuse.
Reviewing “Our Fathers,” Variety lauded “the ever-brilliant Brian Dennehy in a knockout perf as an outspoken priest who uses the pulpit to denounce Law’s leadership.”
Perhaps Dennehy’s most memorable film role came in Alan J. Pakula’s 1990 adaptation of Scott Turow’s bestselling novel “Presumed Innocent,” starring Harrison Ford as the Chicago assistant district attorney on trial for the murder of a co-worker with whom he had an affair; Dennehy played his boss, who’s up for re-election and has multiple divided loyalties, with a subtlety that was absolutely necessary. Another signal moment was auteur Peter Greenaway’s 1987 film “The Belly of an Architect,” in which the actor starred as the title character; the New York Times said the film “does have a humanizing element in the form of Mr. Dennehy, who brings a robust physicality to Kracklite without missing the essentially cerebral nature of the role; this is one of the best things he has done.”
In the early to mid-’90s Dennehy starred as a Chicago police detective in the “Jack Reed” series of TV movies, several of which he also wrote and directed.
Brian Manion Dennehy was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He served in the Marines from 1959-63, after which he studied history at Columbia, attending the university on a football scholarship. He subsequently earned his MFA in dramatic arts from Yale.
Dennehy made his Broadway debut in 1995 in Brian Friel’s “Translations” opposite Dana Delany. After “Death of a Salesman” and “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” the actor played Matthew Harrison Brady in a 2007 revival of “Inherit the Wind” opposite Christopher Plummer as Henry Drummond. And in 2014 he starred opposite Carol Burnett and Mia Farrow in a revival of A.R. Gurney’s “Love Letters.”
The actor made his TV and feature debut in 1977 — a year in which he made appearances in at least 10 series or telepics, including “Kojak,” “MASH” and “”Lou Grant,” and the films “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” and “Semi-Tough.” From that point he maintained a heavy work load for decades.
In 1982 his profile increased significantly thanks to his effective performance in the role of Teasle, the sadistic small-town police chief who is Sylvester Stallone’s lead adversary in “Rambo.”
He had significant roles in the 1983 thriller “Gorky Park” and in 1985’s “Cocoon,” from Ron Howard, and “Silverado.” He was second-billed, after Bryan Brown, in the well-constructed 1986 thriller “F/X,” in which he played a cop not part of the conspiracy, and in the 1991 sequel. He was fourth-billed in “Legal Eagles,” after the star trio of Robert Redford, Debra Winger and Daryl Hannah. In 1987, in the flawed thriller “Best Seller,” he sparred ably with James Woods, who played a conman who approaches Dennehy’s policeman-successful writer with a deal that ought not to be trusted. Dennehy also starred in the 1990 crime drama “The Last of the Finest.” Amidst a sea of work in TV movies, Dennehy appeared in the 1995 indie “The Stars Fell on Henrietta,” starring Robert Duvall; the next year he played Ted Montague, leader of the clan, in Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet.”
In 1981 he recurred on “Dynasty” as D.A. Jake Dunham; the next year Dennehy starred as a fire chief in the brief-running ABC sitcom “Star of the Family.”He tried series television again in 1994 with ABC’s brief-running “Birdland,” in which he played a hospital’s chief of psychiatry, and in NBC’s 2001 sitcom “The Fighting Fitzgeralds,” in which he starred as the reluctant paterfamilias of an unruly Irish clan.
In the highly regarded 1989 TV movie “Day One,” the actor played Gen. Leslie Groves, who oversaw the development of the atomic bomb. In 2000 he starred as Gen. Bogan in the Stephen Frears-directed TV adaptation of nuclear armageddon thriller “Fail Safe.”
Denney was married twice, the first time to Judith Scheff.
He is survived by second wife Jennifer Arnott, a costume designer, whom he married in 1988; three daughters by Scheff, actresses Elizabeth Dennehy and Kathleen Dennehy and Deirdre; as well as son Cormac and daughter Sarah with Arnott.
#3
DVD Talk God
Re: RIP - Brian Dennehy - Dead at 81
RIP
The last work I saw him in was a recurring role on The Blacklist. Solid long time veteran actor.
The last work I saw him in was a recurring role on The Blacklist. Solid long time veteran actor.
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K&AJones (04-16-20)
#4
DVD Talk Godfather & 2020 TOTY Winner
Re: RIP - Brian Dennehy - Dead at 81
I loved F/X back in the day. And he was perfect in Presumed Innocent.
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#5
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#6
Moderator
Re: RIP - Brian Dennehy - Dead at 81
Man, this is a big loss. Always liked Dennehy. Last thing I saw him in was on the Hap and Leonard TV show from a couple years ago.
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K&AJones (04-16-20)
#7
Re: RIP - Brian Dennehy - Dead at 81
I think Gladiator (The non-Maximus one) was the last time I ever saw him on the big screen. Such great screen presence. RIP
#8
DVD Talk Hero
Re: RIP - Brian Dennehy - Dead at 81
Sad news. He was always great to watch.
I remember him mostly from F/X, Tommy Boy, and First Blood but I also loved his guest starring role on Just Shoot Me as Finch’s dad.
I remember him mostly from F/X, Tommy Boy, and First Blood but I also loved his guest starring role on Just Shoot Me as Finch’s dad.
#9
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Re: RIP - Brian Dennehy - Dead at 81
So many great movies in the 80s and early 90s when the guy didn't seem to ever stop working. I know he still worked, but I hadn't seen him in as much in the more recent years so it's the late 80s version of Dennehy that is frozen in my memory.
#10
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Re: RIP - Brian Dennehy - Dead at 81
Never saw him on stage but he seemed everywhere in the days of F/X and Presumed Innocent. I should rewatch the F/Xs now that I have them on Vudu instead of my crappy MGM DVDs.
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Hubbub (04-18-20)
#13
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Re: RIP - Brian Dennehy - Dead at 81
I'll always remember him for Cocoon.
#15
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: RIP - Brian Dennehy - Dead at 81
Really, really sad news to hear...liked him in Rambo and especially in F/X....but he fit the bill just right in "Cocoon"....just one heck of a awesome cast....and love his line when "Jack" found out they were aliens and claimed they were going to eat his face....'Walter (Dennehy)..."Face eating, Jack, is that some kind of delicacy?"...just a awesome movie, awesome actor that will be missed...
#16
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Re: RIP - Brian Dennehy - Dead at 81
Rip
#17
DVD Talk Godfather & 2020 TOTY Winner
Re: RIP - Brian Dennehy - Dead at 81
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>Rest in peace Brian Dennehy, the star of the only Broadway play that I paid to see three times: Death of a Salesman. I got to tell him that in person at an event a couple of years ago. He paused, then jammed a hand in his coat pocket and said “How much do I owe you?”
— MZS (@mattzollerseitz) April 16, 2020
#18
Administrator
Re: RIP - Brian Dennehy - Dead at 81
Paramount is having a special online screening of Tommy Boy with director Peter Segal on Saturday: https://www.cya.live/event/998
Very coincidental timing. I got the email yesterday and was going to make a thread about it.
Very coincidental timing. I got the email yesterday and was going to make a thread about it.
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Decker (04-16-20)
#20
DVD Talk Legend
Re: RIP - Brian Dennehy - Dead at 81
RIP to a great actor. He gave two of the best performances ever seen in a TV movie, playing the minatory town bully in 1991's superb based-on-a-true-story In Broad Daylight, and John Wayne Gacy in the gripping 4-hour To Catch a Killer (1992).
#22
DVD Talk Hero
Re: RIP - Brian Dennehy - Dead at 81
Once I finish the new Bosch season I'm going to make it an F/X double feature -- they're both on PRIME and VUDU for free. It's free with ads on VUDU, though.
#23
DVD Talk God
Re: RIP - Brian Dennehy - Dead at 81
I know most of you in this forum don't watch The Blacklist, but as I mentioned, that was actually his final acting role. He's scheduled to have at least 1 more appearance. When I say I "final" it was the last thing he worked on before his death. He does have a few other films in the can in post production.
https://deadline.com/2020/04/brian-d...tv-1202910618/
https://deadline.com/2020/04/brian-d...tv-1202910618/
#25
DVD Talk Legend
Re: RIP - Brian Dennehy - Dead at 81
He was such a dick in First Blood but that is what made him great
I saw his death at Yahoo and the first thing they mention is First Blood and Tommy Boy and though I like those movies I don't think they represent his full work as an actor.
I watched Assault on Precinct 13 with him and Ethan Hawke last week and would never have predicted he would die the following week.
Hope he was as nice in real life as some of his movie roles.
RIP
I saw his death at Yahoo and the first thing they mention is First Blood and Tommy Boy and though I like those movies I don't think they represent his full work as an actor.
I watched Assault on Precinct 13 with him and Ethan Hawke last week and would never have predicted he would die the following week.
Hope he was as nice in real life as some of his movie roles.
RIP