Brian Dennehy Update
WE INTERUPT YOUR NFL SUNDAY FOR A QUICK DEATH UPDATE
I wrote a blog yesterday that referenced the 1982 hit movie Rambo, and in it, I mentioned some of the movie's stars, including David Caruso (from CSI "fame") and Brian Dennehy, who I was not sure was alive or not.
Since I sometimes have to pretend to care about facts, I looked it up, and I am sad to report that Brian Dennehy is indeed dead.
He passed away this April in New Haven, CT from cardiac arrest brought on by sepsis. At the time of his passing, he was surrounded by his second wife (who he was with for 32 years) and his five loving children.
Doing even MORE research on him, it seems that not 1… Not 2… But 3 of my favorite Barstool personalities eulogized Dennehy (all within an hour of each other) on the day that he passed.
Jeff Lowe's blog was a well-written look back, but more from a general movie fan's perspective.
Carl wrote in detail about Brian's role in Tommy Boy because of course Carl would do that.
And finally, Rear Admiral gave the big man a sendoff as if he and Dennehy went to high school together (they didn't, but more on that later).
I hyperlinked all three of those blogs, and I am now hyperlinking merchandise attached to those three gentlemen- Jeff D Lowe, Carl, and Rear Admiral, all of which are available in the Barstool Store right now!
(I believe I am all out of hyperlinks now, but no regrets.)
Back to those 3 blogs… You would think that would be MORE than enough coverage on this site for the over-6-month-prior-death of a man considered to be a character-actor in most circles, butt-fuck it… I am going to talk about him today for a little bit. Plus, I think if the Dennehy clan were to see their dad mentioned in any Barstool article at this point, a benign blog written as a follow-up to one highlighting wrist flamethrowers would probably make them smile.
Also… Why the fuck not talk about a guy you loved almost a year after he's gone? If you were a Dennehy stan or simp (I really don't know the difference), you were probably overwhelmed with the outpouring of tributes in mid-April, so here's a little something extra now that the dust has settled.
I was devastated when John Candy died, and probably missed a ton of salient facts about his life in the days after his passing… I guess I'll do Candy next.
And, finally, this will be a respectful reflection on a seemingly great man because blogging unkindly of the dead sometimes doesn't work out too well in these parts.
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(miss you, buddy)
Brian Dennehy went to Chaminade High School in Long Island… I went to Chaminade once for an open house for a college that I would later attend, and the campus at Chaminade bested any HS campus that I had seen up to that point in my life. The opulence of it all explained why Chaminade's rivals would sometimes sing (to the tune of 'Camptown Races'), "Chaminade boys take bubble baths!… Doo-Dah!… Doo-Dah!" at local sporting events to rile up the seemingly filthy-rich and incredibly-spoiled kids in the opposing dugout.
(High-school aged Rear Admiral would HATE kids from Chaminade much like Will Hunting hated kids from Harvard.)
Brian later went on to Columbia University on a football scholarship… I have never visited Columbia's campus, so I have no charming story about rich-shaming in the Ivy Leagues, and I have already referenced Francis above.
Brian played both ways as a lineman in high school and college AND was invited to training camp with the Green Bay Packers at one point.
Not a ton of negatives attached to BD… There was a small incident of "stolen valor" after Dennehy misrepresented his military record in a 1989 interview (for which he later apologized), but Brian did proudly serve in the Marine Corp from 1958 to 1963, which included a brief stint in Okinawa.
He also had a brief stint as a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch in their Manhattan office in the mid-1970s, which he fucking HATED (And I don't blame him… "Merril Lynch guys take bubble baths!… Doo-Dah!… Doo-Dah!" is what I used to sing), so he began acting full time and his stage performances in New York led to television and film work.
And act he did…
His movie credits were touched upon by the other fellas, even though the little tidbit of how he appeared in 2 movies with the iconic Bo Derek (the movie '10' and then 'Tommy Boy' nearly 20 years apart) slipped through the cracks.
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I was going to go into some facts about Bo Derek here because she is one interesting broad, but I think I am going to save them for a new installment of Ass From The Past later this week instead.
Back to Dennehy's impressive resumé.
The last film I saw Brian in was an uncredited role as Chilli's stoner dad in 2018's 'TAG'… I found the movie to be very enjoyable, and Dennehy's small cameo-ish role was a goddamned perfect little way to get people watching the movie to point at their screens and say, "Is that fucking Brian Dennehy?"
I think Rear mentioned this, but he had recurring roles as Detective Leo McCarthy in FX and FX2, and as an alien leader simply named Walter in Cocoon and Cocoon: The Return… Two movies that collectively employed the most elderly Jewish actors since Schindler's List.
Dennehy was the voice of Ratatouille's dad… That character's name was Django but had nothing to do with the Django you are thinking of, you fucking racist.
He voiced Babe Ruth in the animated movie Everyone's Hero… A movie directed by Christopher Reeve right before he died.
And the rest of his lengthy movie list is littered with flicks that both I and your dad probably enjoyed immensely.
Then there was his stage work, which is two high-brow for a slob like me to mention here (although Carl mentioned BD's extended Tony-winning run as Willy Loman in his blog).
And then there was TV…
With over 50 credited TV Series appearances and over 50 credited TV Movie roles, brian Dennehy really was the king of TV.
Household names like Kojak and MASH* and Dallas and Knot's Landing and Dynasty and Cagney & Lacey and Hunter and Miami Vice and The West Wing and Law & Order and 30 Rock and (most recently) The Blacklist all had to have him on at one point.
Then dozens of non-household TV movie names also clamored for his presence… Especially to play the character mentioned in the movie's title. I'll explain…
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In Silent Victory: The Kitty O'Neil Story, he played Mr. O'Neil.
In Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story, he played Jackie Presser.
In Prophet of Evil: The Ervil LeBaron Story, he played Ervil LeBaron.
In Marco Polo, he played Kublai Khan, but only because he couldn't swim with his eyes closed.
(Random, but impressive!)
In The Roman Spring of Mr. Stone, he played Tom Stone.
In Indefensible: The Truth About Edward Brannigan, he played Eddie Brannigan.
And finally in Too Rich; The Secret Life of Doris Duke, he played Louis Bromfield BUT ONLY because actors were cast based on gender back in the dark ages of 1999.
I think at this point, even the Dennehy family is probably saying, "Enough, Large… We get it… You liked our dad (but not enough to know that he passed away in April).", but I will close after highlighting just one more role.
One that I included in the thumbnail for this blog, and my favorite Brian Dennehy role of all time.
Brian played Barstool Eddie's favorite serial killer, John Wayne Gacy, in a 1992 two-part TV film called To Catch A Killer and he fucking NAILED it. I had just turned 21 when I first saw it, and I remember it had me sleeping with the lights on.
I do this podcast called Twisted History (that I would've hyperlinked here, if I didn't waste all my links on stupid Jeff, Carl, and Rear) that loves to swim around in the deep end of the serial killer pool, and at some point, I will give Gacy his own episode, but just know that Dennehy received a letter from Gacy following the film's US broadcast, in which Gacy chastised him for taking part in a "fraud" film, and maintained his claim that "lots of people had access to that crawl space."… A crawlspace where police found the bodies of over 2 dozen boys.
And whenever I read that little tidbit, I have to think that nobody was happier than Brian when we all heard the news that 52-year-old John Wayne Gacy was executed by lethal injection in the Spring of 1994.
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Welp… That's all I got… Except for belated condolences to the Dennehy family and a Rest In Peace for Brian Dennehy.
Enjoy the Bears game.
Take a report.
-Large