That Dennehy was trending alongside Tommy Boy yesterday on Twitter baffled me…but then, I’m the horse’s ass who led the thread with this photo of Dennehy as John Wayne Gacy, in just one of the literal dozen true-crime properties he figured in. A chronological list of highlights:
1978: A Death In Canaan; Ruby And Oswald (he’s neither)
1990: A Killing In A Small Town (the ax murder in Wylie, TX; directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal)
1991: In Broad Daylight (it’s based on the book and named the same thing, but for some reason Ken McElroy — as whom Dennehy is, IMO, perfectly cast — is called “Len Rowan” instead)
1992: Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story and To Catch A Killer (Gacy)
1993: Murder In The Heartland (Starkweather, not played by Dennehy) and Prophet Of Evil: The Ervil LeBaron Story (Mormon predator, played by Dennehy)
1997: Indefensible: The Truth About Edward Brannigan (said truth: he assaulted Alice “Shadowcaster” Krige)
2003: The Crooked E: The Shredded Truth About Enron
2005: The Exonerated (this project seems like an If These Walls Could Talk-type project that spotlighted exonerees; Dennehy plays Gary Gauger)
2010: Alleged (tangentially the Scopes monkey trial; Dennehy is Darrow)
Honorable mention to his turn on SVU during what I would consider that show’s golden age, Seasons 8-10.
What’s your favorite Dennehy, true crime or not? And will you be investigating any of these to honor his passing? Memories and recs welcome. — SDB
This one really got me; I always remember a magazine captioning his picture "I name this child Brian Dennehy, and he shall play cops for the rest of his life." Not just cops of course (though I counted 7 Sheriff roles on his Wiki page), IMHO his Gacy is the best serial killer performance ever. Yes, better than Hopkins as Lecter or Harmon as Bundy or Renner as Dahmer, fact or fiction, the best. He was the best in whatever he did, I'd stick him next to Hackman in my personal actor Mt Rushmore.
I mainly remember that during a particularly tough time in the early 1990s, I had a dream that Brian Dennehey had me sit down in his kitchen and made me a really good sandwich. It was such a comforting dream and I hung onto the good feeling it left me with for days. — EB
I didn’t know he was in A Murder in Canaan, which I read last year. That would be a good one for me to check out. I saw him in NYC a million years ago, and he just looked like a rock - something that would last forever.
This one really got me; I always remember a magazine captioning his picture "I name this child Brian Dennehy, and he shall play cops for the rest of his life." Not just cops of course (though I counted 7 Sheriff roles on his Wiki page), IMHO his Gacy is the best serial killer performance ever. Yes, better than Hopkins as Lecter or Harmon as Bundy or Renner as Dahmer, fact or fiction, the best. He was the best in whatever he did, I'd stick him next to Hackman in my personal actor Mt Rushmore.
There's a funny (and NSFW) Dennehy story by Patton Oswald, audio is on YouTube if you hunt around. And there's also that twitter thread about his manager that's priceless https://mobile.twitter.com/quinncy/status/1060303097178673152?lang=en
I mainly remember that during a particularly tough time in the early 1990s, I had a dream that Brian Dennehey had me sit down in his kitchen and made me a really good sandwich. It was such a comforting dream and I hung onto the good feeling it left me with for days. — EB
I didn’t know he was in A Murder in Canaan, which I read last year. That would be a good one for me to check out. I saw him in NYC a million years ago, and he just looked like a rock - something that would last forever.