Brian Dennehy

Brian Dennehy

Brian Manion Dennehy was an American actor of stage, television, and film. He won two Tony Awards, an Olivier Award, and a Golden Globe. His film roles included First Blood, Gorky Park, Silverado, Cocoon, FX, Presumed Innocent, Romeo + Juliet, and Knight of Cups. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2010.

About Brian Dennehy in brief

Summary Brian DennehyBrian Manion Dennehy was an American actor of stage, television, and film. He won two Tony Awards, an Olivier Award, and a Golden Globe, and received six Primetime Emmy Award nominations. His film roles included First Blood, Gorky Park, Silverado, Cocoon, FX, Presumed Innocent, Romeo + Juliet, and Knight of Cups. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2010. He appeared as Robert De Nino in the 2008 cop drama Right Kill Kill and the father of Russell Crowe in the 2010 suspense film The Next Three Days. He also appeared in an episode of Miami Vice during the 1987–88 television season as Sergeant Ned Coleman in the movie Chosen. He had a voice role in the animated movie Django as Django, father of Django, the rat chef, and Al Pacino as the superior officer in the film Right Kill. He is survived by his wife and two daughters, both of whom he married in the 1990s. He died of a heart attack in 2011 at the age of 80. He has a son, Michael, and two brothers, Michael and Edward, of Irish ancestry and was raised Catholic.

He attended Columbia University in New York City on a football scholarship in the fall of 1956. He interrupted his college education to spend five years in the U.S. Marines. He returned to Columbia in 1960 and graduated in 1965 with a B. A. in history. 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. His breakthrough role was as the overzealous sheriff Will Teasle in First Blood opposite Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo. His earlier films included several comedies, like Semi-Tough with Burt Reynolds, Foul Play with Chevy Chase, and 10 with Dudley Moore. He later portrayed a corrupt sheriff in the western Silverado and an alien in Cocoon, both released in 1985. 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 1995 Chris Farley-David Spade comedy Tommy Boy as Big Tom Callahan.