Acting Heavyweight Brian Dennehy Dies, 81 | Canberra’s time

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Brian Dennehy, the beefy actor who started out in movies as a heavy macho and later in his career won applause for his stage work has died. He was 81 years old. Dennehy died Wednesday night of natural causes in New Haven, Connecticut, according to Kate Cafaro of ICM Partners, representatives of the actor. Known for his broad frame, his booming voice and his ability to play good and bad with equal balance, Dennehy has won two Tony Awards, a Golden Globe, a Laurence Olivier Award and has been nominated for six Emmy Awards. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2010. Among his 40 films, he played a sheriff who imprisoned Rambo in “First Blood”, a serial killer in “To Catch a Killer”, and a corrupt sheriff shot by Kevin Kline in “Silverado”. He also had a few benign roles: the bartender who consoles Dudley Moore in “10” and the alien level leader in “Cocoon” and his suite. “The world has lost a great artist,” wrote Sylvester Stallone in tribute on Twitter, saying that Dennehy had helped him build the character of Rambo. Dennehy had a long connection with the Goodman Theater in Chicago, which had a reputation for heavy drama. He appeared in “Galileo” by Bertolt Brecht in 1986 and later “Cherry Orchard” by Chekhov at wages far below those he earned in Hollywood. In 1990 he starred as Hickey in Eugene O’Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh”, a play he performed at Goodman with Nathan Lane in 2012 and at Brooklyn in 2015. In 1998, Dennehy appeared at Broadway in the classic role of Willy Loman, the scammer used in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” and won the Tony for his performance. He received another Tony in 2003 for his role in O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey into Night”, opposite Vanessa Redgrave, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Robert Sean Leonard. Dennehy was born July 9, 1938 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the first of three sons. His adventure in theater started when he was 14 and a student at a high school in Brooklyn. He played the title role in “Macbeth”. He played soccer on a Columbia University scholarship, and served five years in the United States Marines. Returning to New York in 1965, he continued his acting career while working in secondary jobs. The 6 foot 3 inch Dennehy went to Hollywood for his first film, “Semi-Tough” with Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson. Dennehy was paid $ 10,000 a week for 10 weeks of work, which he said “appeared to be all the money in the world”. He became a professional actor at the age of 38. He played serial killer John Wayne Gacy in the 1991 TV movie “To Catch a Killer” and union leader Jackie Presser in HBO’s “Teamster Boss” special a year later. “I try to play bad guys like they are good guys and good guys like they are bad guys,” he said in 1992. He worked deeply in his 70s, in projects such as “Hap and Leonard” from SundanceTV, the film “The Seagull” with Elisabeth Moss and Annette Bening and the play “Endgame” by Samuel Beckett at the Long Wharf Theater. His last Broadway foray was in “Love Letters” opposite Mia Farrow in 2014. “I’m just devastated to learn that the gorgeous Brian Dennehy has passed away. There’s no one I like to work with anymore. And there are few such valued friends in my life, “Farrow wrote on Thursday. He is survived by his second wife, costume designer Jennifer Arnott and their two children, Cormac and Sarah. He also leaves to mourn three daughters – Elizabeth, Kathleen and Deirdre – from a previous marriage to Judith Scheff. Australian Associated Press

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