Dennehy seems to kidnap you by force, trapping you inside Willy’s psyche.” “Yet these emotions ring so unerringly true that Mr. “What this actor goes for is close to an everyman quality, with a grand emotional expansiveness that matches his monumental physique,” wrote Ben Brantley in his review of the play for The New York Times. In 1998, Dennehy appeared on Broadway in the classic role of Willy Loman, the worn-out hustler in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” and won the Tony for his performance. In 1990 he played the role of Hickey in Eugene O’Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh,” a play he reprised at the Goodman with Nathan Lane in 2012 and in Brooklyn in 2015. He appeared in Bertolt Brecht’s “Galileo” in 1986 and later Chekhov’s “Cherry Orchard” at far lower salaries than he earned in Hollywood. Those days are gone.”ĭennehy had a long connection with Chicago’s Goodman Theater, which had a reputation for heavy drama. “Movies used to be fun,” he observed in an interview. “The world has lost a great artist,” Sylvester Stallone wrote in tribute on Twitter, saying Dennehy helped him build the character of Rambo.Įventually Dennehy wearied of the studio life.
BRIAN DENNEHY DEATH OF A SALESMAN MOVIE
Tributes came from Hollywood and Broadway, including from Lin-Manuel Miranda, who said he saw Dennehy twice onstage and called the actor “a colossus.” Actor Michael McKean said Dennehy was “brilliant and versatile, a powerhouse actor and a very nice man as well.” Dana Delany, who appeared in a movie with Dennehy, said: “They don’t make his kind anymore.”Īmong his 40-odd films, he played a sheriff who jailed Rambo in “First Blood,” a serial killer in “To Catch a Killer,” and a corrupt sheriff gunned down by Kevin Kline in “Silverado.” He also had some benign roles: the bartender who consoles Dudley Moore in “10” and the levelheaded leader of aliens in “Cocoon” and its sequel.