RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, Brian Manion Dennehy has been called to eternal life by the wisdom of God at the age of 81; and
WHEREAS, The Chicago City Council has been informed of his passing by Alderman Edward M. Burke; and
WHEREAS, Dennehy is survived by his wife, designer Jennifer Arnott, whom he married in 1988, and by their children, Cormac and Sarah, and three daughters, Elizabeth, Kathleen and Deirdre, from his first marriage to Judith Scheff; and
WHEREAS, Dennehy was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and grew up first in Brooklyn, New York, then at the age of 12 moved to Mineola, Long Island; and
WHEREAS, Dennehy was educated at Chaminade Middle School, where a teacher encouraged him to pursue a career in acting, but he chose sports instead and went to Columbia University on a soccer scholarship before joining the Marines; and
WHEREAS, After the Marines, he completed a bachelor's degree in dramatic arts at Yale and later worked as a shipping driver, butcher, bartender, and stockbroker; and
WHEREAS, Dennehy worked nonstop throughout his career and appeared in a series of TV films, five of which he also directed, as Chicago police Jack Reed, starting with Deadly Matrimony (1992), most recently he had a recurring role on television in Public Morals (2015) and The Blacklist (2016-2019); and
WHEREAS, Dennehy is best known for his breakthrough screen as a hostile small-town sheriff in First Blood (1982); and
WHEREAS, Dennehy won the Tony and Olivier awards for playing Willy Loman in New York and London in the production of Death of a Saleman (respectively in 1999 and 2005), as well as the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards for the 2000 version; and
WHEREAS, To his beloved family, Brian Manion Dennehy imparts a legacy of faithfulness, service and dignity; now, therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the Mayor and the members ofthe Chicago City Council, assembled this twentieth day of May, 2020, do hereby commemorate Brian Manion Dennehy for his grace-filled li...
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