Brian Dennehy — the veteran actor whose career spanned 5 decades on the stage and screen — has died at age 81.
Law enforcement said Dennehy died Wednesday night in Connecticut, he passed of natural causes and there will not be an official autopsy.
The actor’s career began in the ’70s with a run of small guest roles on TV shows like “Kojak,” “M*A*S*H,” “Lou Grant” and “Dallas”, before landing a recurring role on “Dynasty” in 1981.
That led to his big breakout movie role the following year — playing the Sheriff in Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo action film, “First Blood.”
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Dennehy would go on to star in several films in the ’80s and ’90s, including “Silverado,” “Cocoon,” “The Belly of an Architect,” “Best Seller,” “Presumed Innocent” and “Romeo + Juliet.”
Brian’s most notable comedy role came in 1995, when he played Big Tom Callahan in the classic Chris Farley-led laugh-fest, “Tommy Boy.”
In more recent years, he voiced the character Django in “Ratatouille” and appeared on the hit show, “The Blacklist.” All in all, he has nearly 200 film and television credits to his name, and he won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in 2001 for the TV movie, “Death of a Salesman.”
Dennehy was also an accomplished theater actor, winning 2 Tony Awards for Best Actor , his first for “Death of a Salesman” a couple years before his TV role, and the second for “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” in 2003.
