Brian Dennehy Biography (2)
He has twice won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. He was honored for playing James Tyrone in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night, and for playing Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. The latter production was also filmed for Showtime by director Kirk Browning, with Mr. Dennehy executive-producing. The television version subsequently earned Mr. Dennehy a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Emmy Award nomination. He will play Willy Loman in London's West End in 2005.
Mr. Dennehy is well-known to audiences worldwide for his performances in such popular films as Michael Ritchie's Semi-Tough, Colin Higgins' Foul Play, Blake Edwards' 10, Ted Kotcheff's First Blood, Ron Howard's Cocoon, Robert Mandel's F/X, Alan J. Pakula's Presumed Innocent, Peter Segal's Tommy Boy, and Baz Luhrmann's William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet.
His other notable screen credits include Michael Apted's Gorky Park, Carroll Ballard's Never Cry Wolf, Richard Lester's Finders Keepers, Lawrence Kasdan's Silverado, Bud Yorkin's Twice in a Lifetime, John Flynn's Best Seller, Peter Greenaway's The Belly of an Architect (for which he received Best Actor honors at the Chicago Film Festival), Spike Lee's She Hate Me, and Robert Moresco's upcoming 10th & Wolf.
Mr. Dennehy has starred in a wide range of television projects, receiving Emmy Award nominations for his performances in Mike Robe's miniseries The Burden of Proof, Robert Markowitz' miniseries Murder in the Heartland, Eric Till's miniseries To Catch a Killer (in which he played John Wayne Gacy), and Stephen Gyllenhaal's telefilm Killing in a Small Town.
His characterization of police investigator Jack Reed anchored a successful series of telefilms that he starred in for NBC throughout the 1990s, several of which he executive-produced, co-wrote, and directed. He also directed and starred in the telefilms Shadow of a Doubt (which he co-wrote) and Indefensible.
Mr. Dennehy has been associated for two decades with Chicago's Goodman Theatre, where he has starred in leading roles in Robert Falls' productions of Long Day's Journey Into Night, Death of a Salesman, A Touch of the Poet, Galileo, Hughie (which he also starred in at Providence's Trinity Square Rep), and The Iceman Cometh. The duo remounted the latter production at The Abbey Theatre in Dublin.
His other notable stage work includes the Broadway production of Translations; Hughie, at Trinity Repertory; Peter Brook's production of The Cherry Orchard at the Brooklyn Academy of Music; Trumbo, which he starred in off-Broadway and will be touring with in the winter of 2005; Wisdom Bridge Theatre's production of Rat in the Skull; Says I, Says He at The Mark Taper Forum in L.A. and The Phoenix Theatre in N.Y.; and Bob Balaban's production of The Exonerated, which he starred in off-Broadway and toured with. He also stars in the recently completed Court TV film version of the latter production, directed by Bob Balaban.
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