Brian Dennehy

Born: July 8 1938
Where: Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA

The former stockbroker first attracted attention as Sheriff Will Teasle, the bigoted small-town cop pitched against Sylvester Stallone's Rambo in First Blood.

An accomplised character actor, often taking Irish roles, he made his feature debut in 1977 as a surgeon in Looking for Mr Goodbar.

Subsequent roles - often casting him as a villain - followed in Semi-Tough, F.I.S.T. and Little Miss Marker.

After First Blood he landed role in a number of high profile movies including Russian thriller Gorky Park, sci-fi drama Cocoon and Western Silverado.

In 1986 he played the cop who helped out Bryan Brown in the thriller F/X and enjoyed a lucrative career mainly shooting straight-to-video releases.

However, he impressed as Harrison Ford's attorney boss in the thriller Presumed Innocent in 1990.

Dennehy went on to work in TV occasionally emerging to appear in high profile movies such as the comedy Tommy Boy and Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet.

In 2000, he hit a career high when he won a best actor Golden Globe for the TV movie Death of a Salesman.

Recent work includes the woeful Spike Lee social satire You Got Me.