Early life

Dennehy was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Hannah (Manion) and Edward Dennehy, a wire service editor for the Associated Press. He has two brothers, Michael and Edward. He is of Irish ancestry and was raised Roman Catholic. The family relocated to Long Island, New York, where Dennehy attended Chaminade High School in the town of Mineola.

Dennehy enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1959, serving active duty on Okinawa until 1963. In numerous interviews, Dennehy has claimed to be a Vietnam veteran who served a 5-year tour in Vietnam and recounted harrowing tales of his combat there, but according to the book Stolen Valor, Dennehy never served in Vietnam at all and never saw active combat. Stolen Valor and other books surmised that fabrications of PTSD and traumatic events in general were intended to gain honor or recognition. The author of Stolen Valor wrote to Dennehy regarding the discrepancy, but received no reply from the actor, although Dennehy later admitted in an interview that he had lied about his service and apologized for it.

After his Marine Corps service, Dennehy went on to attend Columbia, where he played football and majored in history, where he also became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, before moving on to Yale to study dramatic arts. He played rugby union for Old Blue RFC. Prior to his pursuit of an acting career, Dennehy worked as a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch in their main office in downtown New York in the mid 1970s.

Career

Film

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

His earlier films included several comedies, like Semi-Tough with Burt Reynolds (in which he portrayed a pro football player), Foul Play with Chevy Chase, and 10 with Dudley Moore (as an Acapulco bartender). He later portrayed a corrupt sheriff in the western Silverado and an alien in Cocoon, both released in 1985.

Memorable supporting parts featured Dennehy in such films as Split Image (1982), Legal Eagles (1986), F/X: Murder By Illusion (1986), Presumed Innocent (1990) and F/X2: The Deadly Art of Illusion (1991).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. 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.

Dennehy had a voice role in the animated movie Ratatouille as Django, the rat chef Remy's father. 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 began his professional acting career in small guest roles in such 1970s and 1980s series as Kojak, Lou Grant, Dallas and Dynasty. 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 movies as Skokie (1981), Split Image (1982), Day One, (1989), A Killing in a Small Town (1990) opposite Barbara Hershey, In Broad Daylight (1991), Scott Turow's The Burden of Proof and the miniseries A Season in Purgatory. 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 canceled after a half a season.

Dennehy was nominated for Emmy Awards six times for his television movies. He was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie for his performance as John Wayne Gacy in To Catch a Killer, and he was nominated that same year in a different category, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie, for The Burden of Proof (1992). Other Emmy nominatations were for his work in A Killing in a Small Town, Murder in the Heartland (1993) and for the Showtime cable TV movie Our Fathers (2005), which was about the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal. In 2000, Dennehy was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie for a television presentation of his performance as Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman which he had performed on Broadway. The performance did, however, precipitate a Golden Globe Award.

He has starred in the popular crime drama Jack Reed TV movies. He also appeared as a recurring character in the NBC sitcom Just Shoot Me!.

Dennehy was parodied in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) and an episode of The Simpsons.

In January 2007, he starred in the episode "Scheherazade" of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as a retired criminal who wants to reconnect with his daughter and admit his crimes before dying of a terminal disease thus eventually clearing a wrongfully imprisoned inmate. In April 2008, Dennehy guest-starred as a Teamster boss in an episode of 30 Rock.

Dennehy guest-starred in a 2009 episode of Rules of Engagement as the father of the main character, Jeff.

Dennehy has also narrated many television programs. He narrated Canadian-Irish docudrama Death or Canada.

Dennehy is set to star in the upcoming Amazon Studios series Cocked which will costar Jason Lee, Dreama Walker, Diora Baird, and Sam Trammell.

Most recently Dennehy starred as Elizabeth Keen's grandfather on the NBC series The Blacklist.

Theater

Dennehy has won two Tony Awards, both times for Best Lead Actor in a Play. The first win was for Death of a Salesman (for which he also won a Laurence Olivier Award for the production's London run), in 1999, and the second was for Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night in 2003. Both productions were directed by Robert Falls and were originally produced at the Goodman Theatre company in Chicago.

On stage, Dennehy has made frequent performances in the Chicago theater world, and made his Broadway debut in 1995 in Brian Friel's Translations. In 1999, he was the first male performer to be voted the Sarah Siddons Award for his work in Chicago theater. He made a return to Broadway in 2007 as Matthew Harrison Brady in Inherit the Wind opposite Christopher Plummer, then returned again opposite Carla Gugino in a 2009 revival of Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms.

In fall 1992, he played the lead role of Hickey in Robert Falls's production of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.

In 2008, Dennehy appeared at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, appearing in All's Well That Ends Well as the King of France, and a double bill of plays, Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape and Eugene O'Neill's Hughie, where Dennehy reprised the role of Erie Smith.

In 2010, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

In December 2010, he returned to Ireland to play the Bull McCabe in the Olympia Theatre of Dublin's stage version of John B. Keane's The Field.

In 2011, Dennehy returned to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in the role of Sir Toby Belch in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. He also played Max in Harold Pinter's The Homecoming, which is the first Pinter work to be produced there.

In April through June 2012, he played the role of Larry Slade in the Eugene O'Neill play The Iceman Cometh at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, which he reprised in 2015 when the production, with most of the Goodman Theater production cast, was revived at the BAM Harvey Theater in New York City.

Influence in popular media

In the comic book series Ultimate Spider-Man, that series' version of the villain Norman Osborn was rendered by artist Mark Bagley to resemble actor Brian Dennehy, as per writer Brian Michael Bendis' instructions.

Personal life

He is the father of the actress Elizabeth Dennehy.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1977	Semi-Tough	T.J. Lambert
1977	Looking for Mr. Goodbar	Surgeon
1977	Bumpers	Ernie Stapp
1978	Foul Play	Fergie
1978	F.I.S.T.	Frank Vasco
1979	10	Don the Bartender
1979	Butch and Sundance: The Early Days	O.C. Hanks
1980	Little Miss Marker	Herbie
1982	Split Image	Kevin Stetson
1982	First Blood	Sheriff Will Teasle
1983	Gorky Park	William Kirwill
1983	Never Cry Wolf	Rose Little
1984	Finders Keepers	Mayor Frizzoli
1984	The River Rat	Doc Cole
1985	Silverado	Sheriff Cobb
1985	Cocoon	Walter
1985	Twice in a Lifetime	Nick
1985	The Check Is in the Mail	Richard Jackson
1986	F/X	Lt. Leo McCarthy
1986	Legal Eagles	C.J. Cavanaugh
1987	The Belly of an Architect	Stourley Kracklite
1987	Best Seller	Lt. Dennis Meechum
1988	Miles from Home	Frank Roberts, Sr.
1988	The Man from Snowy River II	Harrison
1988	Cocoon: The Return	Walter
1989	Georg Elser - Einer aus Deutschland	Wagner
1989	Indio	Whytaker
1990	The Last of the Finest (Blue Heat)	Frank Daly
1990	Presumed Innocent	Raymond Horgan
1991	F/X2	Leo McCarthy
1992	Gladiator	Jimmy Horn
1994	Jackaboy Blue	Guggles McMillian
1995	Tommy Boy	Big Tom Callahan II
1995	The Stars Fell on Henrietta	Big Dave McDermot
1996	Romeo + Juliet	Ted Montague
1998	Dish Dogs	Frost
1999	The Virtuoso	Unknown
1999	Out of the Cold	David Bards
1999	Silicon Towers	Unknown
2001	Summer Catch	John Schiffner
2001	Warden of Red Rock	Sheriff Church	Television movie
2001	Three Blind Mice	Matthew Hope
2002	Stolen Summer	Father Kelly
2002	Code Yellow: Hospital at Ground Zero	Narrator
2002	Drawing First Blood	Himself	Short film
2004	She Hate Me	Chairman Billy Church
2005	Assault on Precinct 13	Jasper O'Shea
2005	Tommy Boy: Behind the Laughter	Himself	Short film
2005	10th and Wolf	Horvath
2006	The Ultimate Gift	Gus
2006	Everyone's Hero	Babe Ruth	Voice
2007	Ratatouille	Django	Voice
2007	War Eagle, Arkansas	Unknown
2008	Righteous Kill	Lt. Hingus
2009	Factory 9	Unknown
2010	Alleged	Clarence Darrow
2010	The Next Three Days	George Brennan
2010	Meet Monica Velour	Pop Pop
2010	Every Day	Ernie
2011	The Big Year	Raymond Harris
2015	Knight of Cups	Joseph	Awaiting Theatrical Release

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1977	Kojak	Peter Connor	Episode: "The Godson"
1977	Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye	Longshoreman	Television movie
1977	It Happened at Lakewood Manor	Fire Chief	Television movie
1977	Lou Grant	Wilson	Episode: "Nazi"
1977	M*A*S*H	Ernie Connors	Episode: "Souvenirs"
1978	A Real American Hero	Buford Pusser	Television movie
1978	Pearl	Sgt. Otto Chain	3 episodes
1978	Dallas	Luther Frick	Episode: "Winds of Vengeance"
1978	Ruby and Oswald	George Paulsen	Television movie
1978	A Death in Canaan	Barney Parsons	Television movie
1979	Dummy	Ragoti	Television movie
1979	Big Shamus, Little Shamus	Arnie Sutter	2 episodes
1979	The Jericho Mile	Dr. D	Television movie
1979	Silent Victory: The Kitty O'Neil Story	Mr. O'Neil	Television movie
1980	A Rumor of War	Sgt. Ned Coleman	Television movie
1980	The Seduction of Miss Leona	Bliss Dawson	Television movie
1981	Dynasty	DA Jake Dunham	5 episodes
1981	Darkroom	Roland	Episode: "Make-Up"
1981	Skokie	Chief Arthur Buchanan	Television movie
1981	Fly Away Home	Tim Arnold	Television movie
1982	Star of the Family	Leslie Krebs	10 episodes
1983	I Take These Men	Phil Zakarian	Television movie
1983	Blood Feud	Edward Grady Partin	Television movie
1984	Cagney and Lacey	Michael MacGruder	Episode: "The Bounty Hunter"
1984	Hunter	Dr. Bolin	Episode: "Hunter"
1984	Off Sides	Sgt. Cheever	Television movie
1985	Evergreen	Matthew Malone	3 episodes
1985	The Last Place on Earth	Frederick Cook	2 episodes
1986	Acceptable Risks	Don Sheppard	Television movie
1987	The Lion of Africa	Sam Marsh	Television movie
1987	Miami Vice	Reverend Billy Bob Proverb	Episode: "Amen...Send Money"
1988	A Father's Revenge	Paul Hobart	Television movie
1989	Day One	General Leslie Groves	Television movie
1989	Perfect Witness	James Falcon	Television movie
1990	A Killing in a Small Town	Ed Reivers	Television movie
1990	Rising Son	Gus Robinson	Television movie
1990	Pride and Extreme Prejudice	Bruno Morenz	Television movie
1991	In Broad Daylight	Len Rowan	Television movie
1992	The Diamond Fleece	Lt. Merritt Outlaw	Television movie
1992	Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story	Jackie Presser	Television movie
1992	To Catch a Killer	John Wayne Gacy	Television movie
1992	The Burden of Proof	Dixon Hartnell	Television movie
1992	Deadly Matrimony	Sgt. Jack Reed	Television movie
1993	Foreign Affairs	Chuck Mumpson	Television movie
1993	Prophet of Evil: The Ervil LeBaron Story	Ervil LaBaron	Television movie
1993	Final Appeal	Perry Sundquist	Television movie
1993	Jack Reed: Badge of Honor	Jack Reed	Television movie
1993	Murder in the Heartland	John McCarthur	Television movie
1994	Leave of Absence	Sam	Television movie
1994	Midnight Movie	James Boyce	Television movie
1994	Jack Reed: A Search for Justice	Jack Reed	Television movie
1994	Birdland	Dr. Brian McKenzie	4 episodes
1995	Jack Reed: One of Our Own	Jack Reed	Television movie
1995	Shadow of a Doubt	Charlie Sloan	Television movie
1996	Dead Man's Walk	Major Chvallie	2 episodes
1996	Jack Reed: A Killer Among Us	Jack Reed	Television movie
1996	Jack Reed: Death and Vengeance	Jack Reed	Television movie
1996	A Season in Purgatory	Gerald Bradly	Television movie
1996	Undue Influence	Paul Madriani	Television movie
1996	Nostromo	Joshua C. Holyrod	4 episodes
1997	Indefensible: The Truth About Edward Brannigan	Eddie Brannigan	Television movie
1998-2003	Just Shoot Me	Red Finch	4 episodes
1998	Voyage of Terror	U.S. President	Television movie
1998	Thanks of a Grateful Nation	Senator Riegle	Television movie
1999	Netforce	Lowell Davidson	Television movie
1999	Sirens	Lt. Denby	Television movie
1999	Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke	Louis Bromfield	Television movie
2000	Fail Safe	Gen. Bogan	Television movie
2000	Death of a Salesman	Willy Loman	Television movie
2001	The Fighting Fitzgeralds	Fitzgerald	10 episodes
2002	A Season on the Brink	Bobby Knight	Television movie
2003	The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone	Tom Stone	Television movie
2004	Category 6: Day of Destruction	Andy Goodman	Television movie
2005	Our Fathers	Father Dominic Spagnolia	Television movie
2005	The Exonerated	Gary Gauger	Television movie
2005	The West Wing	Senator Rafe Framingham	Episode: "Ninety Miles Away"
2006	The 4400	Mitch Baldwin	season 3 episode 8
2007	Law and Order: Special Victims Unit	Judson	Episode: "Scheherezade"
2007	Marco Polo	Kublai Khan	Television movie
2007	Masters of Science Fiction	Bedzyk	Episode: "The Discarded"
2008	30 Rock	Mickey J	Episode: "Sandwich Day"
2009	Rules of Engagement	Roy	Episode: "Dad's Visit"
2010	Rizzoli & Isles	Detective Kenny Leahy	Episode: "Boston Strangler Redux"
2012	The Good Wife	Bucky	2 episodes
2013	The Challenger	Chairman William Rogers	Television movie
2013	The Big C	Mr. Tolkey	Episode: "The Finale"
2015	Public Morals	Joe Patton	7 episodes
2016	The Blacklist	Dom	Episode: "The Artax Network"

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Nominated work	Result
1990	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	A Killing in a Small Town	Nominated
1992	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	The Burden of Proof	Nominated
1992	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	To Catch a Killer	Nominated
1993	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Murder in the Heartland	Nominated
1994	CableACE Awards	Best Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Foreign Affairs	Won
1997	Satellite Awards	Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film	A Season of Purgatory	Nominated
1999	Drama Desk Awards	Outstanding Actor in a Play	Death of a Salesman	Won
1999	Satellite Awards	Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film	Thanks of a Grateful Nation	Nominated
1999	Tony Awards	Best Actor in a Play	Death of a Salesman	Won
2000	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Death of a Salesman	Nominated
2001	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film	Death of a Salesman	Won
2001	Producers Guild Awards	Outstanding Producer of Long-Form Television	Death of a Salesman	Won
2001	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie	Death of a Salesman	Won
2003	Drama Desk Awards	Outstanding Actor in a Play	Long Day's Journey Into Night	Nominated
2003	Tony Awards	Best Actor in a Play	Long Day's Journey Into Night	Won
2005	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Our Fathers	Nominated
2005	Satellite Awards	Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film	Our Fathers	Nominated

[ Source: Wikipedia ]