Barry Dennen

Barry Dennen (February 22, 1938 – September 26, 2017) was an American actor, singer, and writer.

He played Pontius Pilate on the original recording, and later in the film, of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Life and career

Dennen was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1938. In New York City from 1960 to 1963, he had a relationship with Barbra Streisand. They lived 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 for fifteen years and in 1968 landed the starring role of the master of ceremonies in the London version of Cabaret. In 1970, he played Pontius Pilate on the album of Jesus Christ Superstar, and he played the same role in the Broadway production (1971). In the same year, he played Mendel in Norman Jewison's film of Fiddler on the Roof. According to Dennen's website, he suggested to Jewison that he direct a film version of Superstar. Jewison did so, and Dennen played Pilate again (1973). In 1982 Dennen played the role of Buddy in the TV adaptation of Beau Geste.

He was the voice actor who portrayed the Chamberlain SkekSil in The Dark Crystal (1982), and Tulku in The Shadow (1994). He has also done voice work on such cartoons as DuckTales, Batman: The Animated Series, The Pirates of Dark Water, Animaniacs, Avatar: The Last Airbender and Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

From that time on Dennen played a variety of small parts on American television shows including: Batman, Galtar and the Golden Lance, Tales from the Darkside and Justice League: Throne of Atlantis, and films, such as Madhouse (1974), Brannigan (1975), The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), The Shining (1980), Ragtime (1981), Trading Places (1983), Superman III(1983), Twin Sitters (1994) and Titanic (1997). He also played auto dealer Irwin Lapsey in Shock Treatment (1981), the sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He also did voices for many video games, including Fatman in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Master Li in Jade Empire, Police Chief Bogen in Grim Fandango, Mimir in the recent video game Too Human, Dean Domino in Fallout: New Vegas expansion "Dead Money", The Dark One in The Mark of Kri, the Kangxi Emperor in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties, Benedict Burgess Batteric III in Infinity Blade III, Chaos Knight, Phantom Lancer, and Rubick in Dota 2, and The venerable Odo and meister Glimmerheim in Dungeon Siege III.

He wrote the screenplay for an episode of Amazing Stories titled "The Secret Cinema" (1985) and cowrote an episode of The Comic Strip Presents... 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 gay.

Filmography

• The Juggler of Notre Dame (1970) as The Juggler
• Fiddler on the Roof (1971) as Mendel
• Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) as Pontius Pilate
• Madhouse (1974) as Gerry Blount
• Brannigan (1975) as Julian
• The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) as Claude LaMont (segment "High Adventure")
• Rabbit Test (1978) as Mad Bomber
• The Shining (1980) as Watson
• Shock Treatment (1981) as Irwin Lapsey
• Ragtime (1981) as Stage Manager
• The Dark Crystal (1982) as Chamberlain / Podling (voice)
• Trading Places (1983) as Demitri
• Superman III (1983) as Dr. McClean
• Memed, My Hawk (1984) as Hikmet
• Not for Publication (1984)
• Liquid Dreams (1991) as The Major
• Clifford (1994) as Terry the Pterodactyl
• The Shadow (1994) as Tulku (voice, uncredited)
• Twin Sitters (1994) as Thomas
• Titanic (1997) as Praying Man
• Manhood (2003) as Singing Groom
• Heavenly Sword (2014) as Flying Fox / Prophet Takashi (voice)
• Alleluia! The Devil's Carnival (2016) as Heaven's Denizen (uncredited)