50 Fun Facts About Denis Leary

Which saber-toothed tiger has Denis Leary voiced in the Ice Age films since the 2002 original?

Diego begins the 2002 film as a spy for his pack, ordered to bring back a human baby alive, before turning on his own leader to save a mammoth.

In The Sandlot, Denis Leary plays the stepfather whose prized baseball was signed by which legend?

Babe Ruth signed the ball that young Scotty Smalls borrows for a game, not knowing who the slugger was or what the autograph was worth.

In Pixar's A Bug's Life, Denis Leary voices Francis, a hot-tempered male of which insect?

Ladybug is the running joke: Francis is constantly mistaken for a female, which fuels his temper, and he ends up den mother to a troop of young ant scouts.

Which late-night talk show host and fellow comedian is a third cousin once removed of Denis Leary?

Conan O'Brien grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, the same state where his distant cousin Leary was raised by immigrant parents.

Denis Leary turned down the role of Sergeant Dignam in which Martin Scorsese crime film?

The Departed went on to win Best Picture, with Mark Wahlberg taking the sergeant's part that Leary passed up because of his Rescue Me schedule.

In The Ref, Denis Leary plays a burglar who takes a bickering couple hostage on which night?

Christmas Eve brings the couple's relatives to dinner, so the burglar has to pose as their marriage counselor to keep anyone from suspecting a thing.

What is the name of the troubled New York City firefighter Denis Leary plays in Rescue Me?

Tommy Gavin was Leary's own creation: he co-created the series and served as an executive producer and head writer as well as its star.

In The Amazing Spider-Man, which actress plays Gwen, daughter of Denis Leary's police captain?

Emma Stone plays Gwen, whose father George Stacy holds a grudge against Spider-Man, unaware the masked hero is one of her classmates.

Which actress starred opposite Denis Leary in Two If by Sea, a 1996 romantic comedy he co-wrote?

Sandra Bullock plays Roz, longtime girlfriend of Leary's petty thief, and the pair spend the film on the run with a stolen Matisse painting.

Which actor plays the art thief hunted by Denis Leary's detective in The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)?

Pierce Brosnan plays the bored billionaire who lifts a Monet from the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Steve McQueen's Crown in the 1968 original robbed banks instead.

Denis Leary plays underground rebel leader Edgar Friendly in which Sylvester Stallone film?

Demolition Man let Leary write his own comedy rants for the rebel, which then had to pass a long studio approval process before reaching the script.

Denis Leary is a citizen of the United States and which other country, his parents' homeland?

Ireland is where both parents came from: they emigrated from Killarney in County Kerry, his mother working as a maid and his father as an auto mechanic.

On which cable channel did Denis Leary's high-speed rants make him famous in the early 1990s?

MTV followed the first sketch with several more spots, and one of the rants even served as the introduction to a House of Pain music video.

Which actor plays the kidnapped ex-Mafia figure in Suicide Kings, co-starring Denis Leary?

Christopher Walken plays Carlo Bartolucci, seized by a group of students who need ransom money, while Leary appears as Lono Veccio.

Which singer voices Shira, love interest of Denis Leary's sabertooth in Ice Age: Continental Drift?

Jennifer Lopez joined the series as first mate to the pirate captain Gutt; her character changes sides and ends the film as a member of the herd.

Which Hollywood star directed Denis Leary in True Crime, a thriller about a death-row inmate?

Clint Eastwood also took the lead as a journalist who comes to believe the condemned man may be innocent, with Leary billed in support as Bob Findley.

In which animated series did Denis Leary voice himself, losing his phone to a prank-calling boy?

The Simpsons episode Lost Verizon has Bart claim the phone Leary hurls away on a golf course, then impersonate the comedian in a string of prank calls.

Recount casts Denis Leary as a Democratic strategist in a disputed presidential vote count in which state?

Florida's count ended when the Supreme Court halted it on December 12, and Leary's turn as the real-life operative Whouley earned him an Emmy nomination.

Which cable network aired both Rescue Me and Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, starring Denis Leary?

FX ran his firehouse drama from 2004 to 2011, then ordered ten episodes of his music-business comedy, which premiered in July 2015.

In Rescue Me, Denis Leary's character sees the ghost of a firefighter cousin killed in which event?

The September 11 attacks killed Jimmy Keefe, the cousin and best friend, along with 59 other firefighters the character had known.

In which Massachusetts city was Denis Leary born, where a 1999 warehouse fire killed his cousin?

Worcester lost six firefighters in the blaze, among them Leary's cousin Jerry Lucey and a childhood friend, which led him to set up his firefighters foundation in 2000.

At which Massachusetts school did Denis Leary found a comedy troupe that still performs on campus?

Emerson College kept him on after his graduation in 1981 to teach comedy writing for five years, and he met his future wife Ann there as her instructor.

Denis Leary is godfather to the son of which British actress, his co-star in the 2002 film Dawg?

Elizabeth Hurley made Leary a godfather to her son Damian, and Dawg was the second film the two actors had starred in together.

Which fellow comedian's act was Denis Leary accused of copying when his 1993 debut album came out?

Bill Hicks had been a friend for years, and the charge that Leary had lifted his material and stage persona ended the friendship abruptly.

Which Denis Leary stand-up show, recorded at Irving Plaza in New York, became his 1993 debut album?

No Cure for Cancer was shown in Britain on Channel 4 more than two weeks before Showtime carried it in the United States.

Denis Leary plays the Fad King in which satire about spin doctors who fabricate a war in Albania?

Wag the Dog pairs Robert De Niro's spin doctor with Dustin Hoffman's Hollywood producer, who stage the fake conflict to bury a presidential sex scandal.

Which sitcom veteran won a 2009 Emmy for guest-starring in five episodes of Denis Leary's Rescue Me?

Michael J. Fox won Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for the appearances, a year before he began a long-running guest part on The Good Wife.

Denis Leary narrated an official World Series championship film for which team he supports?

Red Sox fan Leary narrated the official film of their 2004 World Series win; he also follows the Bruins, the Celtics and, less predictably, the Green Bay Packers.

Denis Leary's rapid-fire voice-overs sold which pickup truck in ads, starting with the 2009 model?

Ford F-150 ads were one of several voice jobs built on his rant style, which he also turned on baseball in commercials for the video game MLB 2K8.

Which Boston Bruins great asked Denis Leary to help stage the charity benefit Comics Come Home?

Cam Neely set up his foundation after the deaths of both his parents, and the show, with Leary as presenter, became the longest-running comedy fundraiser in the United States.

In Judgment Night, Denis Leary's villain hunts four friends bound for a boxing match in which city?

Chicago is the destination, but the four friends witness a murder on the way and spend the night fleeing Leary's character, Fallon, and his gang.

Denis Leary plays Gil Mars, a defense contractor boss who buys a toy company, in which 1998 film?

Small Soldiers, directed by Joe Dante, turns on a shortcut: a designer skips safety testing and gives toy commandos a military microprocessor.

Which actor stars with Ray Liotta and Denis Leary as a Green Beret in Operation Dumbo Drop?

Danny Glover and his squad have to deliver a replacement elephant to a South Vietnamese village in 1968, after the villagers' own animal is killed.

Denis Leary filmed a prison-inmate role that was cut from which 1994 film starring Woody Harrelson?

Natural Born Killers credits Leary among its prison inmates alongside wrestler Bret Hart, though his part never reached the finished film.

In the 2014 film Draft Day, Denis Leary plays Vince Penn, head coach of which NFL team?

Cleveland Browns general manager Sonny Weaver Jr., played by Kevin Costner, so enrages Penn with his draft-day dealing that the coach threatens to resign.

Which filmmaker wrote and directed Wide Awake, a drama about a grieving boy starring Denis Leary?

M. Night Shyamalan saw the film released the year before The Sixth Sense; it follows a ten-year-old wrestling with his faith after his grandfather's death.

Which Oscar winner played Maggie, the unbalanced sister of Denis Leary's firefighter, on Rescue Me?

Tatum O'Neal joined the cast in 2005, three decades after she became the youngest person ever to win a competitive Academy Award, for Paper Moon at age ten.

Which Boston comic and longtime friend of Denis Leary played Uncle Teddy on Rescue Me?

Lenny Clarke goes back decades with Leary: in 1980 he wrote and starred in a local late-night show that featured both Leary and Steven Wright.

Which network aired The Job, the 2001 sitcom starring Denis Leary as police officer Mike McNeil?

ABC ran the single-camera sitcom from March 2001 to April 2002, and its lead was close kin to the fireman Leary went on to play in Rescue Me.

Denis Leary executive produced Burn, a 2012 documentary about the fire department of which city?

Detroit's Engine Company 50 is the film's focus, working through an economic collapse and rising arson, and the documentary won the Audience Award at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Which director made The Ref and Monument Ave. with Denis Leary, plus Blow, which Leary produced?

Ted Demme, a nephew of the director Jonathan Demme, also directed both of Leary's 1990s stand-up specials before his death in 2002.

Which writer of Analyze This co-created both The Job and Rescue Me with Denis Leary?

Peter Tolan came to the partnership from The Larry Sanders Show, where he won an Emmy for co-writing the series finale with Garry Shandling.

Which garage-rock band's song C'mon C'mon is the opening theme of Denis Leary's Rescue Me?

The Von Bondies released the track on their breakthrough album Pawn Shoppe Heart in 2004, the same year the firehouse drama began, and a shortened version opens each episode.

A Denis Leary comedy song topped which Australian radio station's Hottest 100 poll for 1993?

Triple J listeners voted the track number one, and in Britain it went on to soundtrack lager commercials in which Leary himself appeared.

Monument Ave. casts Denis Leary as a crook bound by a code of silence in which Boston neighborhood?

Charlestown's code of silence drives the plot, and the film was also released as Snitch in the United States and as Noose in Australia.

Which rock band did Denis Leary rant about in the early-1990s sketch that first earned him fame?

R.E.M. were the target of the sketch, and its success quickly led to a series of further high-speed rants that played off the growing alternative scene.

Denis Leary's son was born prematurely during a visit to which city, as told in his wife's memoir?

London is where the couple were visiting when their son arrived early, the story Ann Leary tells in her memoir An Innocent, a Broad.

Denis Leary joined which Law & Order spin-off in 2022 as NYPD officer Frank Donnelly?

Organized Crime eventually unmasked his character as the leader of the Brotherhood, a syndicate of corrupt officers working inside the NYPD.

Which actress plays Caroline, the wife in the feuding couple Denis Leary holds hostage in The Ref?

Judy Davis and Kevin Spacey play Caroline and Lloyd Chasseur, who are in the middle of a marriage counseling session when the film opens.

Which comedian leads The Matchmaker (1997), with Denis Leary as a senator's chief of staff?

Janeane Garofalo plays Marcy Tizard, a senator's assistant sent overseas by Leary's character to dig up the politician's ancestors before an election.