Brian Dennehy of Connecticut, Legendary Actor, Tony Winning Broadway Star, Dies at 81

Brian Dennehy July 9, 1938 - April 15, 2020

Brian Manion Dennehy, an American actor of film, stage and television, died on Wednesday, April 15 at 10.03pm EST.

Brian Dennehy was born in Bridgeport Connecticut, the first son of Hannah Manion Dennehy and Edward J. Dennehy, both of Derby, Connecticut.

Brian and his two brothers, Michael and Edward were raised in Mineola, Long Island. While attending high school at Chaminade, a Catholic all-boys high school on Long Island, Brian discovered a love for both football and theater. A football scholarship brought Brian to Columbia University where he earned a BA in history. He then enlisted in the Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, where he and his first wife, Judith Scheff, welcomed their daughter Elizabeth, in 1960. Brian continued his military service (and played football) in Okinawa, Japan until 1963. Brian and Judy raised their three daughters, Elizabeth, Kathleen and Deirdre first in Amityville, then at West Gilgo Beach, both on Long Island.

Brian worked a number of jobs, as a truck driver, butcher and as a stockbroker alongside Martha Stewart at Moness, Williams, & Seidel in New York City. Brian and Martha Stewart maintained their unlikely friendship over the ensuing decades.

While juggling his several day jobs, Brian managed to act in plays all over Long Island, honing his skills in dinner theaters, then at Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, PA, which led to roles in off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway theaters in Manhattan. Encouraged by good reviews, a role in David Rabe’s production of Streamers and an agent, Brian quit his day job and moved to Los Angeles where he became a professional actor at the age of 38. Based on his natural style of acting, Brian soon worked in television, then in films like Semi-Tough, 10 and First Blood, which catapulted him into household name status.

Brian made a name for himself with innumerable television and film roles throughout the 80s and 90s, but never gave up his love for theater. In 1998, Robert Falls directed Brian in Death of a Salesman at the Goodman Theater in Chicago, which then moved to Broadway, where Brian won his first Tony Award for a lead actor in a play. The production moved to London in 1999 winning Brian an Olivier award for his iconic performance.

A second Tony award came in 2003, for his lead performance by an actor in Long Day’s Journey into Night opposite Vanessa Redgrave, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Robert Sean Leonard. Brian holds the unique distinction of being the first male actor to win Chicago’s distinguished Sarah Siddons award for excellence in theater performance in 1999. Brian’s televised performance of Willy Loman also garnered him a Golden Globe award in 2000. Nominated six times for his television work, the Emmy award ultimately proved elusive for the prolific actor, who last worked on Blacklist with James Spader in winter 2019.

Brian and Judy divorced in 1988. Brian married costume designer Jennifer Arnott in Sydney Australia in 1989. Their son Cormac was born in 1993 and daughter Sarah born in 1995. Brian is survived by his wife Jennifer Arnott; children, Elizabeth (James Lancaster and their sons Jack and William), Kathleen (Andrew Hussey and their daughter Clementine), and Deirdre (Richard Basile and their four daughters, Hannah, Molly, Olivia, and Lucy).

On April 15, 2020, Brian passed away at Yale-New Haven Hospital at age 81 of natural causes.

*Image credit Mike Piscitelli (film+photo)

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Submitted by New Milford, CT

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