R.I.P Brian Dennehy 1938-2020

Brian Dennehy Dead: ‘Tommy Boy’ and ‘First Blood’ Star Dies at 81 – Variety

“It is with heavy hearts we announce that our father, Brian passed away last night from natural causes, not Covid-related. Larger than life, generous to a fault, a proud and devoted father and grandfather, he will be missed by his wife Jennifer, family and many friends,” his daughter Elizabeth Dennehy tweeted on Thursday.

His agency ICM also confirmed the news, which TMZ was first to report.

 

Also great in the F/X films.

 

A great actor.

 

"He drew first blood, not me".

RIP

Amazed I'm able to post in a RIP thread before the forum ghoul.

 

He played a great bad guy in First Blood. He also played a prosecutor late in season 1 and early in season 2 of, Dynasty, plus an episode of Cagney & Lacey.

 

loved him in Silverado... always a great bad guy... totally forgot about FX altogether! Need to rewatch it!

 

I need to rewatch Best Seller with Dennehy and James Woods.

 

Although the critics hated it, I loved him in Best Seller.

 

What a guy.

Probably my favorite story about him, told by Patton Oswalt (jump to 5:30):

 

Terrific actor.

 

Liked him in the remake of "Assault on Precinct 13" (2005) w/Laurence Fishburn and Ethan Hawke.

 

He was an incredible actor. You always believed he was who was playing. He just played a character who probably got told he looked like Brian Dennehy. His character probably said "I get that a lot" and went back to whatever the character did.

 

i liked his acting style. kind of understated. i'm thinking of "Cocoon" and the small part as a bartender in "10".

 

Good, not a great, for me. Worked a vast amount, though, and mostly enjoyed his work. Strangely, for all his "tough guy" roles, I think the one he was most oddly right in was as the alien "Walter" in "Cocoon." I suggested him once as an actor to play Hemmingway in a movie Andy Garcia was producing and I was shot down, told by another producer he was a "poor man's Gene Hackman." I guess they knew better than me.

Right on. "10" was another role where he stood out. When his sinister characteristics were used to be a "nice guy" - he was weirdly fascinating to watch. Probably would have made a great John Wayne Gacy.

 

RIP Brian...Just saw you in Rambo last week. Brilliant performance.

 

Oh wow. This is a shock.

 

He was great in Gorky Park (1983)....a cop investigating his brother's murder over in the USSR during the cold war. He was also terrific as a slimy lawyer in Presumed Innocent (1990).
Thanks for the movies Brian.

 

What was so great about his character in Silverado was just how much fun that character was having. Like when he pulled back his duster to reveal the badge - "Welcome to heaven."

RIP.

 

Brian was a great stage actor, too. I saw him play the lead character of The Bull McCabe in Joe Dowling's production of John B. Keane's great play 'The Field' in The Olympia Theatre, Dublin, about a decade ago. Also, as I read Elmore Leonard crime novels back in the '80s and '90s, I often used to visualize Brian Dennehy in the leading role in quite a few of them if they made it to screen stage. I think it's a shame it didn't happen more often. Rest in Peace, big man

 

RIP Brian. So many great parts. A bit of a Character Actor, but made so many of them very memorable.

 

His performance in First Blood is underrated. He's the antagonist, but he's not really a bad guy. He's not a malicious caricature like a lot of cops are portrayed in Hollywood films.

Dennehy plays the role from the perspective of a mostly decent cop trying to do the best he can in a tough situation. And he plays it perfectly.

That role would have been very different if the film had been made in the past 25 years.

 

Who’s the forum ghoul?

R.I.P. Brian Dennehy

 

Sorry to hear this, good actor and always enjoyed seeing him pop up in things.

 

Rest easy, Mr. Dennehy.

Still hate the sheriff in First Blood. He played that guy well.

 

I saw him opposite Christopher Plummer in Inherit the Wind on Broadway.