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Brian Manion Dennehy 1938 - 2020

Brian Manion Dennehy was born on July 9, 1938 in Bridgeport, Fairfield County, Connecticut United States to Hannah (Manion) Dennehy and Edward Dennehy, and had siblings Edward Dennehy Jr and Michael Dennehy. Brian Dennehy died at age 81 years old on April 15, 2020 in New Haven, New Haven County.

Brian Manion Dennehy
Name
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July 9, 1938
Bridgeport, Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States
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April 15, 2020
New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut, United States
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Brian Manion Dennehy Brian Dennehy (1938 - 2020)
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Brian Manion Dennehy's History: 1938 - 2020

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  • Introduction

    Born in Connecticut and dying in Connecticut, he spent his school years on Long Island, NY. Brian attended college at Columbia University, where he majored in history, played football and rugby, and was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity. He went on to get a grad degree from Yale in dramatic arts and then work for as a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch in their Manhattan office in the mid 1970s. But in 1977, Dennehy really moved into acting. His first film, "Bumpers", and his first tv film, "Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye" both came out that year. A winner of one Golden Globe, two Tony Awards and a recipient of six Primetime Emmy Award nominations, he performed on stage, screen, and tv. He married twice and had 5 children.
  • 07/9
    1938

    Birthday

    July 9, 1938
    Birthdate
    Bridgeport, Fairfield County, Connecticut United States
    Birthplace
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  • Ethnicity & Family History

    Irish

  • Early Life & Education

    Columbia University.

  • Religious Beliefs

    Roman Catholic

  • Military Service

    United States Marine Corps from 1958 to 1963.

  • Professional Career

    Imposing, barrel-chested and often silver-haired Brian Dennehy was a prolific US actor, well respected on both screen and stage over many decades. He was born in July 1938 in Bridgeport, CT, and attended Columbia University in New York City on a football scholarship. Brian majored in history, before moving on to Yale to study dramatic arts. He first appeared in minor screen roles in such fare as Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), Semi-Tough (1977) and Foul Play (1978) and proved popular with casting directors, leading to regular work. However, he really got himself noticed by movie audiences in the box-office hit First Blood (1982) as the bigoted sheriff determined to run Vietnam veteran "John Rambo" (played by Sylvester Stallone) out of his town. Dennehy quickly escalated to stronger supporting or co-starring roles in films including the Cold War thriller Gorky Park (1983), as a benevolent alien in Cocoon (1985), a corrupt sheriff in the western Silverado (1985), a tough but smart cop in F/X (1986) and a cop-turned-writer alongside hit man James Woods in Best Seller (1987). In 1987, Dennehy turned in one of his finest performances as cancer-ridden architect "Stourley Kracklite" in Peter Greenaway's superb The Belly of an Architect (1987), for which he won the Best Actor Award at the 1987 Chicago Film Festival. More strong performances followed. He reprised prior roles for Cocoon: The Return (1988) and F/X2 (1991), and turned in gripping performances in three made-for-TV films: a sadistic small-town bully who gets his grisly comeuppance in In Broad Daylight (1991), real-life serial killer John Wayne Gacy in the chilling To Catch a Killer (1992) and a corrupt union boss in Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story (1992). In 1993, Dennehy appeared in the role of police "Sgt. Jack Reed" in the telemovie Jack Reed: Badge of Honor (1993), and reprised the role in four sequels, which saw him for the first time become involved in co-producing, directing and writing screen productions! Demand for his services showed no signs of abating, and he put in further memorable performances in Romeo + Juliet (1996), as bad-luck-ridden "Willy Loman" in Death of a Salesman (2000) (which earned him a Golden Globe Award), he popped up in the uneven Spike Lee film She Hate Me (2004) and appears in the remake Assault on Precinct 13 (2005). The multi-talented Dennehy also had a rich theatrical career and appeared both in the United States and internationally in dynamic stage productions including "Death of a Salesman" (for which he picked up the 1999 Best Actor Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award), "A Touch of the Poet", "Long Day's Journey into Night" (for which he picked up another Tony Award in 2003) and in Eugene O'Neill's heart-wrenching "The Iceman Cometh."Stage, movie and television actor. He is a winner of one Golden Globe, two Tony Awards and a recipient of six Primetime Emmy Award nominations.

  • Personal Life & Family

    Family Spouses Jennifer Arnott(July 17, 1988 - April 15, 2020) (his death, 2 children) Judith Lee Scheff(April 20, 1959 - 1974) (divorced, 3 children) Children Kathleen Dennehy Elizabeth Dennehy Cormack Sarah Child Parents Edward Dennehy Hannah Dennehy
  • 04/15
    2020

    Death

    April 15, 2020
    Death date
    cardiac arrest due to sepsis
    Cause of death
    New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut United States
    Death location
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  • Obituary

    Brian Dennehy, Tony Award-Winning Actor, Dies at 81 A versatile star, he had scores of television and film credits and made a searing impression on Broadway in “Death of a Salesman.” By Neil Genzlinger Published April 16, 2020Updated April 18, 2020 Brian Dennehy, a versatile stage and screen actor known for action movies, comedies, and classics, but especially for his Tony Award-winning performances in “Death of a Salesman” in 1999 and “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” in 2003, died on Wednesday in New Haven, Conn. He was 81. His agency, ICM Partners, announced his death. His agent, Brian Mann, told The Chicago Tribune that the cause was cardiac arrest resulting from sepsis. Mr. Dennehy lived in Connecticut, where he was born. Brawny and gregarious, Mr. Dennehy was often called on to play an Everyman or an authority figure: athletes, sheriffs, bartenders, salesmen, and fathers. He was in scores of movies — “First Blood” (1982), “Gorky Park” (1983), “F/X” (1986), and “Presumed Innocent” (1990) were among them — as well as an assortment of television series. But his first love was always the stage. “He was a towering, fearless actor taking on the greatest dramatic roles of the 20th century,” Robert Falls, artistic director of the Goodman Theater in Chicago, where Mr. Dennehy did some of his finest work, said in a phone interview. “They were mountains that had to be climbed, and he had no problem throwing himself into climbing them.” Mr. Dennehy, who once played college football, thrived on roles that let him contrast his physical presence with an emotional vulnerability. “Mr. Dennehy is a big bear of a man, but sometimes more of a teddy bear than a grizzly,” Frank Rich wrote in The New York Times in 1990 after seeing Mr. Dennehy’s performance as the protagonist Hickey in Eugene O’Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh” at the Goodman, which Mr. Falls directed. “There’s a buried, dainty tenderness in his burly frame as well as a hint of festering violence.” Mr. Falls also directed Mr. Dennehy’s two Tony-winning turns, which started at the Goodman. Ben Brantley of The Times, in his review of the Goodman’s production of “Salesman,” the Arthur Miller play, called it the performance of Mr. Dennehy’s career. Mr. Falls said in the interview that Mr. Dennehy’s background — he had come to acting somewhat late, after knocking around in various blue-collar jobs — had helped make his portrayal of Willy Loman, one of the great roles of the American theater, so memorable. “When he did ‘Salesman,’ he just brought everything to that role,” Mr. Falls said. “It was tailored for him. He knew those people. He knew that world.” Brian Manion Dennehy was born on July 9, 1938, in Bridgeport, Conn., to Edward and Hannah (Manion) Dennehy. He grew up on Long Island. He enrolled at Columbia University on a football scholarship, though, he said later, what he really wanted to do was perform with the Columbia Players. “In those days, the Players had an artistic definition of themselves which didn’t allow a football player to be active,” he told the alumni magazine Columbia College Today in 1999. “I remember going up there a few times and distinctly feeling unwelcome.” His first newspaper notices were not as an actor but as a tackle on the Columbia football team. He was picked to be one of the senior captains, but in July 1959 The Times ran an article headlined, “Football Captain-Elect Drops Out of Columbia.” Mr. Dennehy, who said he had struggled academically, left school to join the Marines, serving in the United States, South Korea, and Japan while he and his first wife, Judith Scheff, had two children. After leaving the service he completed his bachelor’s degree at Columbia in 1965 while working variously as a cab driver, trucker, butcher, bartender, and motel clerk to support his family. He also spent time as a stockbroker — Martha Stewart was a co-worker — though he admitted that he hadn’t been a very good one and hadn’t enjoyed the work. “I was sitting in the bullpen at Merrill Lynch down at Liberty Plaza and 30 guys got off the elevator with their attaché cases and headed for their desks,” he told the Columbia publication. “I thought to myself, ‘I’ve got to get out of here.’ And I did. Eventually, I was an overnight success — after 15 years.” He had been acting in community theater productions, mostly on Long Island, for years, but in the mid-1970s he branched out. “The thing was,” he told the Long Island newspaper Newsday in 1991, “you could work in community theater for 30 years and no one would spot you, no matter how good you were. Eventually, I had to take a chance in New York.” His first mention as an actor in The Times was in 1976 when he was in a showcase production of Chekhov’s “Ivanov” by the Impossible Ragtime Theater. An agent named Judy Schoen saw the show and happened to be looking for “a pro football type,” as Mr. Dennehy put it, for a role in the movie “Semi-Tough.” He was cast, and small roles in other movies and television series came quickly after that. By 1982, when he landed a regular role in the TV series “Star of the Family,” The Associated Press was calling him “one of Hollywood’s busiest character actors.” That same year his role as an overzealous sheriff in “First Blood,” the Sylvester Stallone hit (the first of Mr. Stallone’s “Rambo” movies), was something of a breakout. For the next four decades, Mr. Dennehy seemed to have as much television and film work as he wanted, racking up more than 45 credits in the 1980s alone. In 1990 he received the first of six Emmy nominations, as an outstanding supporting actor in a mini-series or special for the TV movie “A Killing in a Small Town.” In 1992 he played the serial killer John Wayne Gacy in “To Catch a Killer,” another mini-series. On the other side of the law, he played a Chicago police investigator, Jack Reed, in six TV movies in the 1990s, directing and earning writing credits on four of them himself. Another well-known role in the 1990s was Big Tom, the father of Chris Farley’s character in the 1995 comedy “Tommy Boy.” In recent years he had recurring roles in the TV series “Public Morals,” “Hap and Leonard” and “The Blacklist.” His last Broadway appearance was in 2014 in A.R. Gurney’s “Love Letters.” In an interview with The Times in conjunction with that show, he was asked about his favorite fan letters he had received. “The most interesting was from John Wayne Gacy, who was in prison at the time, awaiting execution,” he said. “I played him in ‘To Catch a Killer.’ It was a letter of disappointment in the fact that one of his favorite actors had participated in this calumny. The movie revealed that 33 bodies of young boys were buried in the crawl space of his little house. His explanation: ‘Lots of people had access to that crawl space.’” Mr. Dennehy’s first marriage ended in divorce in 1987. In 1988 he married Jennifer Arnott. She survives him, as do three children from his first marriage, Elizabeth, Kathleen, and Deirdre; two children from his second marriage, Cormac and Sarah; and several grandchildren. One of Mr. Dennehy’s best-known film roles was as an extraterrestrial in “Cocoon,” Ron Howard’s 1985 film about residents of a retirement home who are rejuvenated by swimming in the aliens’ pool. The movie was shot in Florida. For an article marking its 25th anniversary, Mr. Dennehy told The St. Petersburg Times that cicadas had been in season and chirping loudly during the filming — so loudly that before Mr. Howard called “action,” a crew member would fire a gun to quiet the insects. “You could get two or three minutes when they would shut up, and you could actually shoot and record,” Mr. Dennehy said. “That would be the last thing done before we’d roll the cameras.”
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7 Memories, Stories & Photos about Brian

Brian Manion Dennehy
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
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04/16/2020
Brian Dennehy
A photo of actor Brian Manion Dennehy when he was young. Born in Connecticut and dying in Connecticut, he spent his school years on Long Island, NY.

Brian attended college at Columbia University, where he majored in history, played football and rugby, and was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity. He went on to get a grad degree from Yale in dramatic arts and then work for as a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch in their Manhattan office in the mid 1970s.

But in 1977, Dennehy really moved into acting. His first film, "Bumpers", and his first tv film, "Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye" both came out that year.

A winner of one Golden Globe, two Tony Awards and a recipient of six Primetime Emmy Award nominations, he performed on stage, screen, and tv. He married twice and had 5 children.
Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.
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Photo of AncientFaces AncientFaces
411 favorites
04/16/2020
Golden Globe and two time Tony winner, as well as recipient of six Primetime Emmy Award nominations, Brian Dennehy died yesterday. We'll miss your talent and how you entertained us, Mr. Dennehy.
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Photo of Wannetta Clark Wannetta Clark
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04/16/2020
LOVED HIM😢😥😓
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Other Biographies

Other Brian Dennehy Biographies

Dennehy, Brian (Oct 26, 1977 - Aug 13, 2005)
Dennehy, Brian (Jan 15, 1953 - Mar 1984)

Other Dennehy Family Biographies

Dennehy, Timothy (Nov 15, 1894 - Aug 1981) Dennehy, Emma (Feb 27, 1915 - Jan 2, 1993) Dennehy, Edward (May 13, 1925 - Jan 15, 2002) Dennehy, Paul (Jul 20, 1922 - Oct 4, 2004) Dennehy, Robert (Mar 6, 1927 - Jun 6, 1990) Dennehy, Donna (Aug 20, 1952 - May 11, 2009) Dennehy, Jeanne (Jul 8, 1928 - Jan 4, 2008) Dennehy, Lillian (Sep 21, 1912 - Feb 1985) Dennehy, Francis (Jul 20, 1913 - Apr 1970) Dennehy, Edmund (Dec 10, 1921 - Dec 15, 1994)
Dennehy, Clara (Jan 20, 1927 - Oct 11, 2003) Dennehy, Carrie (Jun 25, 1889 - Sep 1979) Dennehy, Dorothy (Jan 4, 1898 - Jul 1973) Dennehy, Helen (Jul 19, 1918 - Aug 28, 2008) Dennehy, Jeremiah (Feb 2, 1901 - Sep 1980) Dennehy, Helen (Feb 12, 1906 - Jan 1969) Dennehy, Thomas (Feb 22, 1916 - Jun 1978) Dennehy, Cornelius (Aug 2, 1910 - Apr 29, 1993) Dennehy, Dennis (Nov 8, 1918 - Jul 12, 1992) Dennehy, Ronald (Feb 16, 1932 - Nov 15, 2009)
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