Barry Dennen (b. February 22, 1938 in
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and with more than 2.8 million people, the 3rd largest city in the United States...
,
IllinoisIllinois , the 21st state admitted to the United States of America, is the most populous and demographically diverse Midwestern state and the fifth most populous state in the nation...
) is an American actor, singer, and writer.
Dennen was born in
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and with more than 2.8 million people, the 3rd largest city in the United States...
,
IllinoisIllinois , the 21st state admitted to the United States of America, is the most populous and demographically diverse Midwestern state and the fifth most populous state in the nation...
. In
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
from 1960 to 1963, he had a relationship with
Barbra Streisand Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, film and theatre actress. She has also achieved note as a composer, liberal political activist, film producer, and film director. She has won two Academy Awards, ten Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, and a Peabody all by the age of...
, including living together for a year, during which time he helped her develop the nightclub act that began her successful career as a singer and actress.
He moved to
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
for fifteen years and in 1968 landed the starring role of the
master of ceremoniesA master of ceremonies, microphone controller or MC , sometimes called a compère or an MJ for "microphone jockey," is the host of an official public or private staged event or other performance. The MC usually presents performers, speaks to the audience, and generally keeps the event moving...
in the London version of
CabaretCabaret is a musical with a book by Joe Masteroff, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and music by John Kander. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned a 1972 film as well as numerous subsequent productions....
.
Barry Dennen (b. February 22, 1938 in
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and with more than 2.8 million people, the 3rd largest city in the United States...
,
IllinoisIllinois , the 21st state admitted to the United States of America, is the most populous and demographically diverse Midwestern state and the fifth most populous state in the nation...
) is an American actor, singer, and writer.
Dennen was born in
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and with more than 2.8 million people, the 3rd largest city in the United States...
,
IllinoisIllinois , the 21st state admitted to the United States of America, is the most populous and demographically diverse Midwestern state and the fifth most populous state in the nation...
. In
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
from 1960 to 1963, he had a relationship with
Barbra Streisand Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, film and theatre actress. She has also achieved note as a composer, liberal political activist, film producer, and film director. She has won two Academy Awards, ten Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, and a Peabody all by the age of...
, including living together for a year, during which time he helped her develop the nightclub act that began her successful career as a singer and actress.
He moved to
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
for fifteen years and in 1968 landed the starring role of the
master of ceremoniesA master of ceremonies, microphone controller or MC , sometimes called a compère or an MJ for "microphone jockey," is the host of an official public or private staged event or other performance. The MC usually presents performers, speaks to the audience, and generally keeps the event moving...
in the London version of
CabaretCabaret is a musical with a book by Joe Masteroff, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and music by John Kander. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned a 1972 film as well as numerous subsequent productions....
. In 1970, he played
Pontius PilatePontius Pilate was the Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea from AD 26–36. Typically referenced as the fifth Procurator of Judea, he is best known as the judge at Jesus' trial and the man who authorized his crucifixion.Pilate appears in all four canonical Christian Gospels...
on the album of
Jesus Christ SuperstarJesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera that became a musical by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. It highlights the political and interpersonal struggles of Judas Iscariot and Jesus. The rock opera is based on St John's Gospel account of the last week of Jesus' life, beginning with the preparation...
, and he played the same role in the
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
production (1971). In the same year, he played Mendel in
Norman JewisonNorman Frederick Jewison, CC, O.Ont is a Canadian film director, producer, actor and founder of the Canadian Film Centre.-Early life:...
's film of
Fiddler on the RoofFiddler on the Roof is the 1971 American film adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name. It was directed by Norman Jewison. The film won three Academy Awards, including one for arranger-conductor John Williams...
. According to Dennen's Web site, he suggested to Jewison that he direct a film of
Superstar. Jewison did so, and Dennen played Pilate again (1973).
He was the voice actor who portrayed the Chamberlain SkekSil in
The Dark CrystalThe Dark Crystal is a 1982 fantasy film directed by puppeteers Jim Henson and Frank Oz, creators of The Muppet Show. Although still marketed as a family film, it was notably darker than previous material created by them. Characters for which they are famous do not appear, but some of the same...
.
Since that time Dennen has had a variety of small parts on American television shows and films, including:
BatmanBatman is a 1960s American television series, based on the DC comic book character of the same name, which starred Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin, two crime-fighting heroes who defended "Gotham City". It aired on the American Broadcasting Company network for two and a half seasons...
;
Superman IIISuperman III is a 1983 superhero film that is the third of five films in the Superman film series produced from 1978 to 2006 based upon the long-running DC Comics superhero....
;
The Kentucky Fried MovieThe Kentucky Fried Movie is an American comedy film, released in 1977 and directed by John Landis. The film's writers were the team of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker. This same team would go on to write and direct Airplane!, Top Secret! and the Police Squad! television show and its...
;
The ShiningThe Shining is a 1980 psychological horror film directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on Stephen King's novel of the same name. Though it had mixed reviews from the critics upon its release it was wildly popular with moviegoers and financially successful...
;
Galtar and the Golden LanceGaltar and the Golden Lance is an animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera.-Premise:The series is about the mythical adventures of three companions: Galtar, Princess Goleeta, and her younger mind controlling brother, Zorn...
;
Tales from the DarksideTales from the Darkside is an anthology horror TV series produced by George A. Romero; it originally aired in syndication from 1983 to 1988. Similar to Amazing Stories, The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, The Outer Limits, and Tales From The Crypt, each episode was an individual short story that...
and
TitanicTitanic is a 1997 American romantic drama film directed, written, co-produced and co-edited by James Cameron about the sinking of the RMS Titanic. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson and Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater, two members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the...
. He played auto dealer Irwin Lapsey in
Shock TreatmentShock Treatment is a 1981 American comedy-musical film and a follow up to the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show. While not an outright sequel, the movie does feature several characters from the movie portrayed by different actors and several Rocky Horror actors portraying new characters...
, the sequel to
The Rocky Horror Picture ShowThe Rocky Horror Picture Show is a 1975 British musical comedy film that parodies science fiction and horror films. Still in limited release 34 years after its premiere, it has the longest-running theatrical release in film history. It gained notoriety as a midnight movie in 1977 when audiences...
. He has also done voices for many video games, including Fatman in
Metal Gear Solid 2, Police Chief Bogen in
Grim FandangoGrim Fandango is a personal computer game in the graphic adventure genre released by LucasArts in and primarily written by Tim Schafer. It is the first adventure game by LucasArts to use 3D computer graphics overlaid on pre-rendered 2D backgrounds...
, and Mimir in the recent video game
Too HumanToo Human is an action-RPG video game developed by Canadian developer Silicon Knights and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360 console...
.
He wrote the screenplay for an episode of
Amazing Stories titled "The Secret Cinema" (1985) and cowrote that for an episode of
The Comic Strip Presents...The Comic Strip is a group of British comedians, known for their television series The Comic Strip Presents.... The core members are Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson and Jennifer Saunders, with frequent appearances by Keith Allen, Robbie Coltrane, Daniel...
titled "Demonella" (1993). His autobiographical book,
My Life With Barbra: A Love Story (1997), deals with their relationship and with his gradual realization that he was a homosexual.