Brian Dennehy Biography

Fast Facts

• Served in the U
• S
• Marine Corps from 1960 to '65
• Worked as a meat-truck driver, salesman, motel clerk and bartender before acting
• Attended Columbia University on a football scholarship
• Worked as a Wall Street stockbroker for a short time; one of his coworkers was Martha Stewart
• Big-screen breakthrough came with the role of Sheriff Will Teasle in 1982's First Blood
• Produced, wrote, directed and starred in a series of TV movies about police officer Jack Reed, beginning with 1992's Deadly Matrimony
• Played the role of Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman for more than 600 performances
• Narrated the 2009 docudrama Death or Canada, which chronicles the Irish immigration to Toronto during the potato famine; was inspired to do the project by his grandfather, who immigrated to the United States from Ireland as a boy
• Is an accomplished sailor