Yesterday ComingSoon.net reported that much-loved character actor Brian Dennehy has passed away from natural causes at age 81. Dennehy was perhaps best known to movie lovers for his menacing performance as an authoritarian sheriff who butts heads with Sylvester Stallone’s John Rambo in 1982’s First Blood. Now Stallone himself has taken to Instagram to pay tribute to the late performer…
Of course, Stallone may be a little confused by tall tales Dennehy used to tell. While the late actor did serve in the Marines, his statements about serving in the Vietnam conflict were false (he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps from 1958 to 1963, including a brief stint on Okinawa playing inter-service American football), and the actor later apologized for it.
“I lied about serving in Vietnam, and I’m sorry,” Dennehy stated in 1998, “I did not mean to take away from 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. I was a peace-time Marine, and I got out in 1963 without ever serving in Vietnam… I started the story that I had been in ‘Nam, and I got stuck with it. Then I didn’t know how to set the record straight.”
RELATED: Character Actor Brian Dennehy Dies at Age 81
Dennehy’s daughter broke the news of her father’s death on Twitter yesterday…
It is with heavy hearts we announce that our father, Brian passed away last night from natural causes, not Covid-related. Larger than life, generous to a fault, a proud and devoted father and grandfather, he will be missed by his wife Jennifer, family and many friends. pic.twitter.com/ILyrGpLnc3
— Elizabeth Dennehy (@dennehyeliza) April 16, 2020
