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Denis Leary Pictures & Biography
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Denis Leary Photos & Filmography |
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Denis Leary (born August 18, 1957 in Worcester, Massachusetts) is an actor/comedian/writer/director, whose father immigrated to Worcester from Ireland. He is a graduate of Emerson College in Boston, where he also taught comedy writing classes for five years after graduating. Leary is a distant cousin through marriage of Conan O'Brien; contrary to popular belief, they are not actually related through a recent common ancestor.
Leary first became famous through an MTV sketch in which he ranted about REM. He has also released two records of his stand-up comedy: No Cure For Cancer (1993) and Lock 'N Load (1997). No Cure For Cancer was written with contributions from the English comedians Frank Skinner and David Baddiel when Leary was forced to stay over in London for a short period due to his son's premature birth there and ensuing health problems.
In 1994, his sardonic commentary song on the American lower-middle-class male, "Asshole", achieved much notoriety. It was voted #1 in a major Australian youth radio poll, the Triple J Hottest 100, and the video became a late-night MTV staple. Due to its explicit and controversial content, however, it received limited airplay on mainstream American radio stations.
Although he says he is most at home on stage doing stand-up, Leary has appeared as an actor in over 40 movies, including The Match Maker, The Virgin Suicides, The Ref, Wag the Dog, and Demolition Man, and has starred in two television series, The Job and Rescue Me. He also provided voices for characters in animated films such as the sabertoothed tiger 'Diego' in Ice Age and 'Francis' in A Bug's Life. Leary also produces numerous movies, television shows, and specials, including Comedy Central's Shorties Watching Shorties and the movie Blow, through his production company, Apostle.
Material controversy
For many years, Leary had been friends with fellow comedian Bill Hicks. However, when Hicks heard Leary's 1993 release No Cure For Cancer, he was upset to find that Leary was stealing his material, due to the perceived similarity in topics covered and some punchlines of Hicks', particularly those on Hicks' releases of 1989 (Sane Man) and 1990 (Dangerous). The friendship ended as a result, though Leary has said he wanted to patch things up before Hicks died in 1994.
While it has never been proven that Leary took any of his jokes from other comedians (a claim he fiercely denies), some comedians (notably Joe Rogan and Greg Giraldo) and especially fans loyal to Hicks consider aspects of Leary's act and persona to be stolen. However, many other comedians - including Jon Stewart, Janeane Garofalo, Colin Quinn, and Lenny Clarke - have formed close personal and professional relationships with Leary, which suggests that the opinion of him as a material thief is not shared by everyone within the profession.
The controversy was addressed in the Bill Hicks Story by Cynthia True.
"Leary was in Montreal to host the Nasty Show at Club Soda and Colleen [one of Bill's managers] was coordinating the talent so she was standing backstage when she heard Leary doing material that sounded incredibly similiar to old Hicks riffs, including his perennial Jim Fixx joke: ("Keith Richards outlived Jim Fixx, the runner and health nut, dude. The plot thickens.")
When Leary came offstage, Colleen said, more stunned than angry, "Hey, you know that's Bill Hicks' material! Do you know that's his material?" Leary stood there, stared at her without saying a word, and briskly left the dressing room."
The book cites several other examples of lines on No Cure for Cancer that Leary used from older Bill Hicks rants.
Denis Leary Filmography
Actor
• Dawg (2003)
• The Secret Lives of Dentists (2003)
• The Secret Lives of Dentists (2003)
• Ice Age (2002)
• We Were Soldiers (2002)
• Double Whammy (2001)
• Final (2001)
• Lakeboat (2001)
• Company Man (2001)
• Sand (2000)
• Silent Witness (2000)
• Jesus' Son (2000)
• The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
• True Crime (1999)
• A Bug's Life (1998)
• Monument Ave. (1998)
• Small Soldiers (1998)
• Suicide Kings (1998)
• Wide Awake (1998)
• The Real Blonde (1998)
• Love Walked In (1998)
• Wag the Dog (1998)
• The Second Civil War (1997)
• Subway Stories (1997)
• The Matchmaker (1997)
• National Lampoon's Favorite Deadly Sins (1996)
• Underworld (1996)
• The Neon Bible (1996)
• Two if by Sea (1995)
• Operation Dumbo Drop (1995)
• The Ref (1994)
• Gunmen (1994)
• Judgment Night (1993)
• Demolition Man (1993)
• Who's the Man? (1993)
• The Sandlot (1993)
• National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 (1993)
Director
• National Lampoon's Favorite Deadly Sins (1996)
Producer
• Blow (2001)
Voice
• Ice Age (2002)
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