All About Brian Dennehy's 5 Children (Including His Daughters with Their Own Hollywood Careers!)
- - All About Brian Dennehy's 5 Children (Including His Daughters with Their Own Hollywood Careers!)
Julie TremaineNovember 11, 2025 at 11:00 PM
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Brian Dennehy and his son during After party for "All Shook Up" in New York City ; Elizabeth Dennehy at the Future Artists Gala on March 18, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. -
Actor Brian Dennehy was a dad of five
He welcomed three daughters with ex-wife Judith Scheff and a son and a daughter with wife Jennifer Arnott
The Tommy Boy star died in April 2020 of natural causes
Brian Dennehy was a father of five.
The actor — who died on April 15, 2020, of natural causes — was famous for roles in films like Tommy Boy, Cocoon and First Blood, as well as television shows like The Blacklist. In his personal life, he was married twice and welcomed five children.
Dennehy wed Judith Scheff in 1959, and they had three daughters: Elizabeth, Kathleen and Deirdre. The couple divorced in 1987, and the next year, Dennehy married costumer designer Jennifer Arnott, per The New York Times. They shared son Cormac and daughter Sarah.
"One thing I've been able to pass along to my children — all of them — is a great passion for being who they are and doing what they want to do," he told Columbia College Today in 1999. "That I take credit for and am proud of. Too few people have it."
Here's everything to know about Brian Dennehy’s children: Elizabeth, Kathleen, Deirdre, Cormac and Sarah.
His oldest kids grew up in the theater
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Brian Dennehy attends Annual Charity Day on September 11, 2017 in New York City.
During his early career, Dennehy and brother Ed staged their own community theater productions on Long Island, which his three oldest children would participate in.
“They put on shows all over Long Island,” Elizabeth wrote for American Theatre in May 2020. “My sisters and I were fairies in The Tempest, the Snow children in Carousel, the no-necked monsters in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and chorus members in everything. At 15 I was props master for The Odd Couple and a protean in Forum at the Watermill Inn Dinner Theatre in Sayville.”
Dennehy’s breakthrough came when he was 36 years old, making Elizabeth, Kathleen and Deirdre teenagers.
“People often ask what it was like growing up with a ‘movie star’ dad,” Elizabeth continued. “My sisters and I inwardly roll our eyes. If only life were that romantic. It sounds romantic because we all know the ending. But how many actors at 25, with three kids, still living with their parents, juggling odd jobs during the week, amateur acting on the weekends, go on to not only support the family as a working actor, but go on to become internationally recognized as one of the greats?"
She added that her childhood was full of "crappy cars, unpaid bills, thawing frozen pipes with a hair dryer," but also "pool parties with the Travoltas and hot flamenco dancers.”
Dennehy moved to Hollywood to better support his kids
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Brian Dennehy and son Cormac.
When Dennehy's oldest children started looking at colleges, the actor shifted away from theater towards films and television.
“I had kids who were getting ready to go to college,” he told NPR in 1999. “And I knew I had the responsibility, which I did not resent, to make sure that they had good educations."
Dennehy added that he had "no regrets" about the move, sharing that he "learned a lot doing television.”
Dennehy didn’t want his children to act
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Brian Dennehy in 'Big Shamus, Little Shamus'.
Both Kathleen and Elizabeth chose careers in acting, just like their father.
While Dennehy didn’t forbid it, he encouraged them to look in other directions. Talking to The Orlando Sentinel in December 1988, Elizabeth said, “He always said, ‘If you can do anything else in this world (besides acting), do it.’ But acting is all I ever wanted to do.”
Kathleen has starred in movies with her dad
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Kathleen Dennehy as Janie in 'Family Ties'.
Kathleen has appeared in shows like ER and Law & Order. Like Dennehy, she's also a stage actor, having starred in a 1993 production of The Lights at Lincoln Center in New York City.
She also made cameos in two films with her father: 1994's Jack Reed: A Search for Justice and 2019's 3 Days with Dad.
Writing for American Theatre, Kathleen revealed that Dennehy offered moral support in her early days of acting.
“When I started acting myself, Dad and I would talk about auditions," she recalled. "He told me how much he missed auditioning. ‘I miss walking into the room and surprising people ... they see me and they’re sizing me up and they think they know what this guy can do. I loved blowing their minds and showing them how wrong they were.' ”
Elizabeth is a stage and screen actress
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Elizabeth Dennehy attends the Premiere of "Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1" on June 24, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
Like her sister and father, Elizabeth is an actress. She landed her breakout role on CBS' Guiding Light in 1988, playing the character Blake.
"On soaps, I think the key is to make it all appear very spontaneous, and that's what I try to bring to my role,” she told The Daily American in December 1988. “Blake is certainly ambitious and has been known to be manipulative, but I want the audience to like her and see some of her better qualities, such as her honesty."
Elizabeth has gone on to appear in films like Clear and Present Danger and Gattaca, in addition to television shows like Seinfeld and Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Cormac is a Hollywood agent
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Cormac Dennehy attends the Room to Read 2025 New York Gala on May 13, 2025 in New York City.
Like his siblings, Dennehy's only son, Cormac, works in Hollywood. He's a global branding and endorsements agent at The Gersh Agency in N.Y.C., according to his LinkedIn.
Before that, Cormac worked in music at Bailey Blues management group, managing artists like K. Flay and handling marketing for Idina Menzel, per his profile.
Dierdre appeared on Jeopardy!
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Brian Dennehy attends The 15th Annual Monte Cristo Awards on April 13, 2015 in New York City.
Dierdre may not have chosen a Hollywood career — but she still had her 15 minutes of fame when she appeared on a 2004 episode of Jeopardy!.
“The whole experience was fun, if a bit surreal,” she told her alma mater Union College after the show aired.
Deirdre was the only contestant to get the Final Jeopardy question right, but she lost to now-host Ken Jennings amid his record-setting winning streak.
Ironically, her father also appeared on the show, coming in second place on Celebrity Jeopardy! in 1999.
Sarah steers clear of the spotlight
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Brian Dennehy in 'Fly Away Home'.
Like her older sister Dierdre, Sarah prefers to live a life away from Hollywood. Not much is known about her life today.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
