The Exonerated is a made-for- cable television film that dramatizes the stories of six people, some of whom, were wrongfully convicted of murder and other offenses, placed on death row , and later exonerated and freed after serving varying years in prison. It was based on a successful stage play of the same name written by Erik Jensen and Jessica Blank and first aired on the former CourtTV cable television network on January 27, 2005. It is directed by Bob Balaban and was produced by Radical Media .
32-480: Actors played the roles of the five men and one woman. It stars David Brown, Jr. (the only cast member to have appeared in the stage play - he played Robert Earl Hayes), Brian Dennehy as Gary Gauger , Danny Glover as David Keaton , Delroy Lindo as Delbert Tibbs , Aidan Quinn as Kerry Max Cook and Susan Sarandon as Sonia "Sunny" Jacobs . The script was based on the exonerees' personal experiences as well as court records and media accounts. Jessica Blank, who
64-426: A Golden Globe , and received six Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Dennehy had roles in over 180 films and in many television and stage productions. His film roles included First Blood (1982), Gorky Park (1983), Silverado (1985), Cocoon (1985), F/X (1986), Presumed Innocent (1990), Tommy Boy (1995), Romeo + Juliet (1996), Ratatouille (2007), and Knight of Cups (2015). Dennehy won
96-413: A B.A. in history. While acting in regional theater he supported his family by working blue-collar jobs including driving a taxi and bartending. He hated his brief stint as a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch in their Manhattan office in the mid-1970s. He later described how working odd hours allowed him to attend matinee theater performances that provided his acting education: "I never went to acting school—I
128-605: A Play. His first win was for Death of a Salesman (for which he also won a Laurence Olivier Award for the production's London run), in 1999, and the second was for Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night in 2003. Both productions were directed by Robert Falls and were originally produced at the Goodman Theatre company in Chicago, Illinois. His acting in the "Salesman" was called "the performance of Dennehy's career". On stage, Dennehy frequently performed in
160-502: A Small Town (1990) opposite Barbara Hershey . He also played the title role in HBO 's Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story . Dennehy had a lead role as fire chief /celebrity dad Leslie "Buddy" Krebs in the short-lived 1982 series Star of the Family . Despite his star power, that show was cancelled after a half-season. He starred in the crime drama Jack Reed TV movies. Dennehy
192-692: A Small Town , Murder in the Heartland (1993) and his work in the Showtime cable TV movie Our Fathers (2005), which was about the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal . In 2000, Dennehy was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie for a television presentation for his performance as Willy Loman in Arthur Miller 's Death of a Salesman which he had performed on Broadway . While not gaining
224-689: A ceremony at the Gershwin Theatre in New York City, where the plaques containing the names of the inductees are hung. Since 1998, full accounts of the annual induction ceremonies, with quotes from both inductees and their presenters, have appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . An index to these articles is on the ATCA website. An annual Theater Hall of Fame Fellowship Luncheon has been held annually since 2004 to salute
256-742: A pro football player), Foul Play (1978) with Chevy Chase , and 10 (1979) with Dudley Moore (as a Manzanillo bartender). He appeared in the 1983 thriller Gorky Park as William Kirwill opposite William Hurt and Lee Marvin . He later portrayed a corrupt sheriff in the western Silverado and an alien in Cocoon , both released in 1985. Dennehy had memorable supporting parts in such films as Split Image (1982), Never Cry Wolf (1983), Legal Eagles (1986), Cocoon: The Return (1988), F/X : Murder By Illusion (1986), Presumed Innocent (1990), F/X2 : The Deadly Art of Illusion (1991) and Prophet of Evil (1993). Dennehy gradually became
288-499: A retired criminal who wants to reconnect with his daughter and admit his crimes before dying of a terminal disease thus eventually clearing a wrongfully imprisoned inmate. In April 2008, Dennehy guest-starred as a Teamster boss in " Sandwich Day ", an episode of the TV series 30 Rock . He guest-starred in a 2009 episode of Rules of Engagement as the father of the main character, Jeff. Dennehy starred as Elizabeth Keen's grandfather on
320-708: A script. The play was first presented in New York City ; the final performance was in Minneapolis in 2002. For their efforts, Jensen and Blank received the Champion of Justice Award from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers . At the end of the movie, each actor is voiced over by the real life exonerees and then fades to show them as their current selves at the time of filming. Aidan Quinn reprised his role as Kerry Max Cook in
352-457: A son and a daughter. Dennehy died on April 15, 2020, of cardiac arrest due to sepsis . in New Haven, Connecticut . He was survived by his wife and his five children. American Theater Hall of Fame The American Theater Hall of Fame was founded in 1972 in New York City . The first head of its executive committee was Earl Blackwell . In an announcement in 1972, he said that
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#1732782516887384-535: A valuable character actor but also achieved leading-man status in the thriller Best Seller (1987) co-starring James Woods . That same year, he also starred in the Peter Greenaway film The Belly of an Architect , for which he won the Best Actor Award at the 1987 Chicago International Film Festival . Commenting upon this unusual venture, Dennehy said, "I've been in a lot of movies but this
416-545: A voice role in the 2007 animated movie Ratatouille as Django, father of the rat chef Remy. He appeared as the superior officer of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in the 2008 cop drama Righteous Kill and as the father of Russell Crowe in the 2010 suspense film The Next Three Days . Dennehy starred as Clarence Darrow in Alleged , a film based on the Scopes Monkey Trial , the famous court battle over
448-487: Is married to Erik Jensen, got the idea for the play when she moved from Minneapolis, Minnesota to New York City . She and Jensen attended a conference about the death penalty and listened to stories about wrongful convictions and confessions gained via torture , threats and deception. The couple spent the summer of 2000 interviewing exonerees throughout the United States and adapted the stories of six people into
480-601: Is the first film I've made." He went on to star as Harrison in the Australian film The Man from Snowy River II in 1988. One of his most well-known roles came in the 1995 Chris Farley - David Spade comedy Tommy Boy as Big Tom Callahan. He also was reunited with his 10 co-star Bo Derek in Tommy Boy , in which she played his wife. The following year, he played Romeo's father in Romeo + Juliet . Dennehy had
512-537: The Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film for his role as Willy Loman in the television film Death of a Salesman (2000). Dennehy's final film was Driveways (2019), in which he plays a veteran of the Korean War, living alone, who befriends a young, shy boy who has come with his mother to clean out his deceased aunt's hoarded home. According to Variety , Dennehy
544-716: The Chicago theater world, and made his Broadway debut in 1995 in Brian Friel 's Translations . In 1999, he was the first male performer to be voted the Sarah Siddons Award for his work in Chicago theater . He made a return to Broadway in 2007 as Matthew Harrison Brady in Inherit the Wind opposite Christopher Plummer , then returned again opposite Carla Gugino in a 2009 revival of Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under
576-927: The Elms . In fall 1992, he played the lead role of Hickey in Robert Falls's production of Eugene O'Neill 's The Iceman Cometh at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. In 2008, Dennehy appeared at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival , in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, appearing in All's Well That Ends Well as the King of France, and a double bill of plays, Samuel Beckett 's Krapp's Last Tape and Eugene O'Neill's Hughie , where Dennehy reprised
608-645: The NBC series The Blacklist since the third season until his death from sepsis. He is replaced by actor Ron Raines during the show's eighth season. In 2015 Dennehy co-starred in the Amazon Studios pilot Cocked with Jason Lee , Dreama Walker , Diora Baird , and Sam Trammell . Dennehy also narrated many television programs including the Canadian-Irish docudrama Death or Canada . Dennehy won two Tony Awards, both times for Best Lead Actor in
640-537: The actions and the sacrifices of the ones who did really serve there... I did steal valor . That was very wrong of me. There is no real excuse for that." Dennehy married for the first time while in the Marines in 1959. Before he finished college he and his first wife had three daughters. Two of them became actresses, including Elizabeth Dennehy . After his first marriage ended in divorce in 1987, he married Jennifer Arnott, an Australian, in 1988, they had two children,
672-472: The actor an Emmy win, the performance did, however, win him a Golden Globe Award . He also appeared as a recurring character in the NBC sitcom Just Shoot Me! . A cartoon version of Dennehy appeared in the 1999 film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut as well as in an episode of The Simpsons . In January 2007, he starred in the episode " Scheherazade " of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as
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#1732782516887704-1198: The first Pinter work to be produced there. In April through June 2012, he played the role of Larry Slade in the Eugene O'Neill play The Iceman Cometh at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, which he reprised in 2015 when the production, with most of the Goodman Theater production cast, was revived at the BAM Harvey Theater in Brooklyn, New York, New York. Dennehy enlisted in the United States Marine Corps serving from 1958 to 1963, including playing football on Okinawa . In several interviews, he described being wounded in combat and repeatedly claimed to have served in Vietnam. In 1999, he apologized for misrepresenting his military record, stating: "I lied about serving in Vietnam, and I'm sorry. I did not mean to take away from
736-602: The new Theater Hall of Fame would be located in the Uris Theatre, which was then under construction, and is now the Gershwin Theatre . James M. Nederlander and Gerard Oestreicher, who leased the theater, donated the space for the Hall of Fame; Arnold Weissberger was another founder. Blackwell ordered that the names of the first honorees "be embossed in bronze-gold lettering on the theater's entrance walls flanking its grand staircase and escalator". The first group of inductees
768-610: The plays’ authors: "When you walk with giants, you learn how to take bigger steps." Dennehy was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2010. Brian Manion Dennehy was born on July 9, 1938, in Bridgeport, Connecticut , to Hannah (Manion), a nurse, and Edward Dennehy, a wire service editor for the Associated Press . He had two brothers, Michael and Edward. He was of Irish ancestry and
800-697: The role of Erie Smith. In 2010, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame . In December 2010, he returned to Ireland to play Bull McCabe in the Olympia Theatre of Dublin 's stage version of John B. Keane 's The Field . In 2011, Dennehy returned to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in the role of Sir Toby Belch in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night . He also played Max in Harold Pinter 's The Homecoming ,
832-638: The staging of The Exonerated at the Dublin Theatre Festival in Dublin , Ireland , in October 2006 as well as the stage version in New York City. David Soul took over the role of Gary Gauger for several of the Dublin performances. Brian Dennehy Brian Manion Dennehy ( / ˈ d ɛ n ə h i / ; July 9, 1938 – April 15, 2020) was an American actor of stage, television, and film. He won two Tony Awards , an Olivier Award , and
864-636: The teaching of evolution in American public schools. Dennehy's early professional acting career included small guest roles in such 1970s and 1980s series as Kojak , Lou Grant , Dallas , Dynasty , and Hunter . He also appeared in an episode of Miami Vice during the 1987–88 season. Dennehy portrayed Sergeant Ned T. "Frozen Chosen" Coleman in the television movie A Rumor of War (1980) opposite Brad Davis . He continued to appear in such high-profile television films as Skokie (1981), Split Image (1982), Day One (1989), and A Killing in
896-399: Was "perhaps the foremost living interpreter" of playwright Eugene O'Neill 's works on stage and screen. He had a decades-long relationship with Chicago's Goodman Theatre where much of his O'Neill work originated. He also regularly played Canada's Stratford Festival , especially in works by William Shakespeare and Samuel Beckett . He once gave credit for his award-winning performances to
928-589: Was a truck driver and I used to go see everything I could see—Wednesday afternoons". In the 1970s, stage performances in New York led to television and film work. Dennehy was primarily known as a dramatic actor. His breakthrough role was as the overzealous sheriff Will Teasle in First Blood (1982) opposite Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo . His earlier films included several comedies, like Semi-Tough (1977) with Burt Reynolds (in which he portrayed
960-588: Was announced in October 1972. Eligible inductees come from disciplines including actors, playwrights, songwriters, designers, directors, and producers who have had a career in American theater for at least 25 years and at least five major production credits on Broadway . Selections are made each year by voting members of the Theater Hall of Fame and the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA). Induction takes place at
992-484: Was nominated for Emmy Awards six times for his television movies. In 1992, he was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie for his performance as John Wayne Gacy in To Catch a Killer , and he was nominated that same year in a different category, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie, for The Burden of Proof . Dennehy's other Emmy nominations were for his work in A Killing in
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1024-432: Was raised Catholic . The family relocated to Long Island, New York, where Dennehy attended Chaminade High School in the village of Mineola . He entered Columbia University in New York City on a football scholarship in the fall of 1956. He interrupted his college education to spend five years in the U.S. Marines. He was stationed in the U.S., Japan, and Korea. He returned to Columbia in 1960 and graduated in 1965 with
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