page_title: Brian Dennehy
section_title: Television
hierarchical_section_title: Brian Dennehy / Career / Television
caption_attribution_description: English: American actor Brian Dennehy, cropped from 031003-F-2185G-007 On a United Services Organization (USO) Tour, left to right, US Air Force (USAF) Lieutenant Colonel (LCOL) Manuel Hidalgo, Commander of the 332nd Expeditionary Mission Support Group (EMSG), LCOL Andre Whisnant, 332nd Expeditionary Services Squadron (ESS), US Army (USA) Major (MAJ) Elizabeth Shanley, 332nd Expeditionary Medical Group (EMG) and USAF Captain (CAPT) Edward Albert, 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing (AEW) Executive Officer (EO), escort actor Brian Dennehy around the Ziggurat of Uhr, Tallil Air Base (AB), Iraq (IRQ), during Operation IRAQI FREEDOM.
context_page_description: Brian Manion Dennehy was an American actor of stage, television, and film. Dennehy won two Tony Awards, an Olivier Award, and a Golden Globe, and received six Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He had roles in over 180 films and in many television and stage productions. His film roles included First Blood, Gorky Park, Silverado, Cocoon, F/X, Presumed Innocent, Romeo + Juliet, and Knight of Cups. Dennehy won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film for his role as Willy Loman in the television film Death of a Salesman.
  According to Variety, Dennehy was "perhaps the foremost living interpreter" of playwright Eugene O'Neill’s works on stage and screen. He had a decades long relationship with Chicago's Goodman Theatre where much of his O'Neill work originated. He also regularly played Canada's Stratford Festival, especially in works by William Shakespeare and Samuel Beckett. He once gave credit for his award-winning performances to the play's authors: "When you walk with giants, you learn how to take bigger steps." Dennehy was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2010.
context_section_description: Dennehy's early professional acting career included small guest roles in such 1970s and 1980s series as Kojak, Lou Grant, Dallas, Dynasty, and Hunter. He also appeared in an episode of Miami Vice during the 1987–88 season.
  Dennehy portrayed Sergeant Ned T. "Frozen Chosen" Coleman in the television movie A Rumor of War (1980) opposite Brad Davis. He continued to appear in such high-profile television films as Skokie (1981), Split Image (1982), Day One (1989), and A Killing in a Small Town (1990) opposite Barbara Hershey. He also played the title role in HBO's Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story.
  Dennehy had a lead role as fire chief/celebrity dad Leslie "Buddy" Krebs in the short-lived 1982 series Star of the Family. Despite his star power, that show was cancelled after a half-season. He starred in the crime drama Jack Reed TV movies.
  Dennehy was nominated for Emmy Awards six times for his television movies. In 1992, he was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie for his performance as John Wayne Gacy in To Catch a Killer, and he was nominated that same year in a different category, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie, for The Burden of Proof. Dennehy's other Emmy nominations were for his work in A Killing in a Small Town, Murder in the Heartland (1993) and his work in the Showtime cable TV movie Our Fathers (2005), which was about the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal. In 2000, Dennehy was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie for a television presentation for his performance as Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman which he had performed on Broadway. While not gaining the actor an Emmy win, the performance did, however, win him a Golden Globe Award. He also appeared as a recurring character in the NBC sitcom Just Shoot Me!.
  A cartoon version of Dennehy appeared in the 1999 film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut as well as in an episode of The Simpsons.
  In January 2007, he starred in the episode "Scheherazade" of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as a retired criminal who wants to reconnect with his daughter and admit his crimes before dying of a terminal disease thus eventually clearing a wrongfully imprisoned inmate. In April 2008, Dennehy guest-starred as a Teamster boss in "Sandwich Day", an episode of the TV series 30 Rock. He guest-starred in a 2009 episode of Rules of Engagement as the father of the main character, Jeff. Dennehy starred as Elizabeth Keen's grandfather on the NBC series The Blacklist.
  Dennehy also narrated many television programs  including the Canadian-Irish docudrama Death or Canada.
  At the time of his death, Dennehy was set to star in the Amazon Studios series Cocked which would co-star Jason Lee, Dreama Walker, Diora Baird, and Sam Trammell.
caption: Dennehy in 2003
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