Brian Dennehy Speaks on Life, Career at Gold Coast Film Festival

The Gold Coast International Film Festival welcomed Tony Award-winning actor Brian Dennehy back to Long Island this past Saturday night at the Harbor Links Golf Club in Port Washington for a retrospective on his life in a sit-down chat with talk show host Phil Donahue. 

Dennehy, a veteran of both stage and screen, covered his career starring in such films as “Cocoon,” “First Blood,” “Tommy Boy,” Baz Luhrmann’s production of “William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet,” a guest appearance on “M*A*S*H” as well as the award-winning performance in the role of Willie Loman in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman.”

The 74-year old Emmy nominee had moved with his family to Mineola in order to attend Chaminade High School, the private all-male Roman Catholic prep school, before moving onto Columbia University. It was while at Chaminade as a member of the football team that football coach Chris Sweeny had inspired Dennehy to try out for the drama club.

“Chaminade was an extraordinary place to go to school and I’ll always be grateful to it,” Denneehy said. “Chris Sweeny... started me off acting, so he’s responsible for all this.”

Dennehy will return to the stage this summer at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival as the Earl of Shrewsbury in “Mary Stuart” and Pozzo in “Waiting for Godot.”