(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
IN MEMORIAM
...Brian Dennehy...
(1938 - 2020)...
(© Poster 1995 TV-movie
'Jack Reed: One of Our Own') |
 American actor Brian Dennehy (voice of Babe Ruth) passed away
Nederlands
 NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (USA) -
American actor Brian Dennehy, who played a extensive variety of roles in movies, TV-series and on stage, passed away on Wednesday (April 15) at age 81.
Brian Dennehy, who was known as a dramatic actor, also played in some sports-related movies.
One of them was the animation-movie Everyone's Hero in which he was the voice of famous legendary slugger Babe Ruth.
Brian Manion Dennehy was born on July 9, 1938 in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
In college, he studied history and played American football at Columbia University, then dramatic arts at Yale University.
After having served for five years in the US Marines, he acted in regional theaters
At age 39, in 1977, he made his debut on television, playing small parts in episodes of some famous series, including Kojak, Police Woman, M*A*S*H and Lou Grant.
In following years, he made appearances in more series, including Dallas (1978), Knots Landing (1980), Dynasty (1981), Cagney & Lacey (1984) and Miami Vice (1987).
Between 1992 and 1996, Dennehy played the leading role of Cook County Sheriff's Homicide Investigator Jack Reed in a series of six TV-movies, which were very popular.
With his imposing stature of 1,91 m (6' 3''), Brian Dennehy became a recognizable actor in many movies and TV-series.
After initially having appeared in small parts in movies and television-series during the seventies, he got bigger parts shortly thereafter.
He then became a familiar face on TV and in movies thanks to his role as Sheriff Will Teasle in First Blood (1982) which starred Sylvester Stallone as Vietnam veteran John Rambo.
This role led to bigger supporting and starring roles, including thriller Gorky Park (1983) and science fiction-movie Cocoon.
Dennehy was praised for his part of Stourley Kracklite in The Belly of an Architect (1987) for which he won an award at the Chicago Film Festival.
Several of Brian Dennehy's productions were thrillers or crime-(TV)-movies in which he played men of power, such as a sheriff, police sergeants or military officers.
Brian Dennehy also played in stage-plays on Broadway, including Death of a Salesman (1999).
For his part in this play, he won a Tony Award.
The play also was made into a television-movie in 2000 and again Dennehy played the role of Willy Loman.
This time, he won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in an TV-movie and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor in a TV-movie.
Dennehy also won a Tony Award in 2003.
Four of Dennehy's movies had a sport subject, two of them baseball.
In 1992, Dennehy plays the role of boxing promoter Jimmy Horn in Gladiator, an action-drama about boxing, which also starred Cuba Gooding Jr..
In 2001, he played the role of baseball-coach John Schiffner in Summer Catch, which was a romantic comedy situated in Cape Cod telling the story of local player Ryan Dunne who dreams of playing in the Major League.
The role of Dunne is played by Freddie Prinze Jr..
Also starring in this film are Jessica Biel and Fred Ward.
The film is directed by Mike Tollin and former players Ken Griffey Jr., Kevin Youkilis, Hank Aaron and Carlton Fisk make cameos, as is famous announcer Curt Gowdy.
In 2002, Dennehy again plays a coach, this time basketball-coach Bobby Knight in the TV-film A Season on the Brink, which tells the story of the 1985-1986 season of the Indians Hoosiers, the basketball-team of Indiana University.
Brian Dennehy then appeared in another baseball-film in 2006.
This time in the computer-animated comedy Everyone's Hero, directed by (Superman-actor) Christopher Reeve, Daniel St. Pierre and Colin Brady.
The film is set in 1932 and Yankee Irving (voiced by Jake T. Austin) is a young 10-year old baseball fan, whose father works in Yankee Stadium.
At the stadium, a famous bat of Babe Ruth is stolen.
Brian Dennehy delivers the voice of the famous player.
Other wellknown actors who voiced in this film were Whoopi Goldberg, William H. Macy, Robin Williams, Robert Wagner, Forest Whitaker and Rob Reiner.
Then New York Yankees Manager Joe Torre also did a voice in this film, doing the voice of the New York Yankees Manager.
In 2007, Brian Dennehy also had a voice-part in the animated movie Ratatouille.
In 2018-2019, he appeared in eight episodes of the crime thriler TV-series The Blacklist.
His last two films have yet to be released and are currently in post-production.
This year, the biography/drama movie Son of the South, in which he plays the role of Grandfather, will be released.
The second one is the drama-movie Long Day Journey, which has no release date yet.
He was also scheduled to appear in the family-drama The Adventures of Buddy Thunder, which is currently in pre-production.
In this movie, legendary actress Angela Lansbury also will play a role.
The 94-year actress has a very long and impressive career in film and television and is known for playing Jessica Fletcher in 264 episodes of wellknown TV-series Murder, She Wrote.
She is also known as the voice of Mrs. Potts in the Disney-animation-movie Beauty and the Beast (1991).
In his acting career, Brian Dennehy won two Tony Awards, one Olivier Award, one Golden Globe Award, one Screen Actors Guild Award and was nominated for six Primetime Emmy Awards.
In 2010, he was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
(April 17)
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