Brian Dennehy Movies
After majoring in history at Columbia University, brawny Brian Dennehy (born July 9, 1938) took a string of odd jobs to pay his way through Yale Drama School, and to afford private acting lessons. His first professional break came with the Broadway production Streamers. In films and TV from 1977, Dennehy is a most versatile actor, at home playing Western baddies (Silverado), ulcerated big-city... (read more) cops (F/X), serial killers (John Wayne Gacy in the made-for-TV To Catch a Killer), by-the-book military types (General Groves in Day One, another TV movie), and vacillating politicos (Presumed Innocent). One of his most rewarding film assignments was as dying architectural genius Stourley Kracklite in Peter Greenaway's The Belly of an Architect (1987).
In addition to his many TV-movie roles (one of which, good-old-boy Chuck Munson in 1993's Foreign Affairs, won him a Cable Ace Award), Dennehy has starred in the weekly series Big Shamus, Little Shamus (1977), Star of the Family (1981), and Birdland (1994), as well as the sporadically produced Jack Reed feature-length mysteries. It was in one of the last-mentioned projects, Jack Reed: A Search for Justice (1994), that Dennehy made his directorial debut. Aside from his work in film and television, Dennehy has also had considerable success on the stage, particularly with his Tony-winning portrayal of Willy Loman in the 1998 Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman.
The actor continued to show his range in the 1995 comedy Tommy Boy (starring David Spade and the late comedian Chris Farley), in which he became well known for his role as Big Tom Callahan, and for a voice role in Ratatouille (2007) as Django, the father of rat and aspiring chef Remy.
Dennehy joined Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino in Righteous Kill, a 2008 police drama, and worked alongisde Russell Crowe in the 2010 suspense film The Next Three Days. In 2011, Dennehy played the pivotal role of Clarence Darrow in Alleged, a romantic drama set during the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Alleged
2011
An ambitious and talented small town reporter struggles to balance morality with career ambition while covering the so-called "Scopes Monkey Trial" that took the theory of...
The Big Year
PG 2011
Three fanatical bird-watchers (Steve Martin, Owen Wilson, Jack Black) spend an entire year competing to spot the highest number of species as El Nino sends an...
The Next Three Days
PG13 2010
His wife convicted of a murder she swears she did not commit, a college professor plots to break her out of prison in this thriller starring Russell Crowe and Liam...
Meet Monica Velour
R 2009
A young man meets his dream woman (and isn't the least bit troubled that she's a washed-up porn actress 30 years his senior) in this independent coming-of-age comedy....
Every Day
R 2009
A man struggles to keep his family and himself together under trying circumstances in this independent drama from writer and director Richard Levine. Ned (Liev...
Righteous Kill
R 2008
Jon Avnet's thriller Righteous Kill stars Al Pacino and Robert De Niro as a pair of Big Apple police officers investigating a series of murders committed by a...
War Eagle, Arkansas
PG13 2008
Inspired by a true story, War Eagle, Arkansas follows the emotional journey of a talented young athlete wrestling with the difficult decision to leave his working-class town...
Ratatouille
G 2007
A scrawny rat named Remy (voice of Patton Oswalt) finds his dreams of culinary superstardom stirring up sizable controversy in the kitchen of a fine French restaurant in...
Welcome to Paradise
PG 2007
A community in desperate need of direction receives a special blessing in this inspirational family drama starring Crystal Bernard, Brian Dennehy, and Brad Stine....
Trumbo
PG13 2007
A documentary adaptation of the popular regional theatrical monologue -- in which such heavyweights as Paul Newman, Nathan Lane, and Joe Mantegna essayed the lead on...
Marco Polo
2007
A journey that starts as a die-hard mission to net Christian converts soon evolves into the adventure of a lifetime, in the sweeping historical epic Marco Polo. It is the 13th...
The Ultimate Gift
PG 2007
Filmmaker Michael O. Sajbel explores the relationship between wealth and happiness with this spiritual-minded tale about a privileged young man who receives a most unexpected...
Masters of Science Fiction: The Discarded
2007
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10th & Wolf
R 2006
A man is forced to go against his family and his principles in the name of serving his country in this drama inspired by actual events. Tommy Santoro (James Marsden) was...
Everyone's Hero
G 2006
A young baseball fan sets out on a cross-country quest to recover Babe Ruth's stolen bat and restore his father's good name in a computer animated family adventure that shows...
Our Fathers
R 2005
Based on the book by Newsweek senior editor David France, the made-for-cable Our Fathers dramatizes the pedophilia scandal that literally tore apart the Catholic Diocese...
The Exonerated
2005
Adapted by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen from their own off-Broadway play, The Exonerated dramatizes the real-life stories of six innocent citizens who spent anywhere...
Assault on Precinct 13
R 2005
This action-packed remake of the John Carpenter classic tells the tale of an under-manned Detroit police precinct on its last day of operation that finds itself under siege by...
She Hate Me
R 2004
Directed by Spike Lee, She Hate Me follows John Henry "Jack" Armstrong (Anthony Mackie), who is fired from a posh job in biotechnology after informing the proper...
Category 6: Day of Destruction
2004
Of all of the ways humankind can destroy the planet, none can hold a candle to the awe-inspiring and earth-shattering power of Mother Nature. As chief meteorologist for the...