Actors - Denis Leary

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	Actors - Denis Leary

Denis Colin Leary (born August 18, 1957) is an American actor, comedian, writer and director. He is known for his dirty and often angst-filled humor.

Early life

Leary was born in Worcester, Massachusetts to Irish Catholic immigrants John Leary (an auto mechanic who died in 1985) and Nora (a maid); Leary holds both Irish and American citizenship. Through marriage, Leary is a distant cousin of talk show host Conan O'Brien, and has jokingly said on Late Night with Conan O'Brien that "All Irish People are related." His name is often misspelled as "Dennis", instead of "Denis." This comes out in one of his comedy routines in which he mentions how his father had a peculiar way of writing which included "D's" that look like "P's"; it lead to notes that were written to Denis' teachers that looked like they said "Penis." This is how Leary got the nickname "PenisMan".

Career

Leary first became famous through an MTV-Sketch in which he ranted about R.E.M. Several other commericals for MTV followed, in which Leary would rant at high speeds about a variety of topics. He has released two records of his stand-up comedy: No Cure For Cancer (1993) and Lock 'N Load (1997). In late 2004 he released the EP Merry F#%$in' Christmas, which included a mix of new music, previously unreleased recordings, and some tracks from Lock 'N Load.

In 1994, his sardonic song about the American lower-middle-class male, "(I'm an) Asshole", achieved much notoriety. It was voted #1 in a major Australian youth radio poll (the Triple J Hottest 100) as well as reaching #2 in the singles chart in that country. The video also became a staple of MTV's late-night programming. 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 Sandlot
, Monument Ave.
, The Match Maker, The Ref
, Suicide Kings
, Wag the Dog
, Demolition Man, and Operation Dumbo Drop
. He has also starred in two television series, The Job and Rescue Me. In addition, Leary has provided voices for characters in animated films such as the saber-toothed tiger Diego in Ice Age
and 'Francis' in A Bug's Life
. He's produced (and still produces) numerous movies, television shows, and specials through his production company Apostle; these include Comedy Central's Shorties Watching Shorties and the movie Blow.

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 and claimed Leary was stealing his material. This was due to the similarity in topics covered and some of Hicks' punchlines, particularly those from Hicks' releases of Sane Man (1989) and Dangerous (1990), allegedly having variants in Leary's act. The friendship ended abruptly as a result. Leary has said he wanted to patch things up before Hicks died in 1994, though this confession happened several years after Hicks' death.

While it has never been proved that Leary stole material from anyone other than Bill Hicks (a claim which 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 Colin Quinn - and, according to some questionable sources, Janeane Garofalo, a Hicks fan and narrator of a 2003 documentary about Hicks) have formed close personal and/or professional relationships with Leary, which suggests that the opinion of him as a material thief is not shared by everyone within the profession.

This controversy was addressed in The Bill Hicks Story by Cynthia True:

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Denis Leary ]

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Actors - Denis Leary

Early life

Career

Material Controversy

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