Biography
Barry Dennen is a character actor and voiceover artist. He was born in Chicago, and moved to New York for his acting career. In the early 1960s, he had a romantic live-in relationship with Barbra Streisand, and reportedly was an early mentor for her night-club act. In the early 1970s, Dennen translated his stage performances to the screen, first in Norman Jewison's musical "Fiddler on the Roof" in 1971, and then again with Jewison in his screen adaptation of the musical "Jesus Christ, Superstar." Dennen played Pontius Pilate in the film, reprising the role from both the stage and album versions of the production. In 1975, Dennen switched gears substantially, genre-wise, taking on a supporting role in the John Wayne-starring crime drama, "Brannigan," and in 1980 he had a small supporting role in the Stanley Kubrick horror classic, "The Shining," as Bill Watson. In the 1980s, in addition to numerous brief appearances on dramas and comedies, Dennen began doing voice work for animated series. His gigs included the adventure cartoons "Jonny Quest" in 1986, Disney's "DuckTales" in 1987, and "The Pirates of Dark Water" from 1991 to '93. Dennen continued his voice work well into the 2000s, adding video games to the mix, including parts on the fantasy "Fantastic Four" in 2005, and the action game "Titan Quest" in 2006. Dennen is also an author, having written teleplays and a book about his rleationship with Streisand called "My Life with Barbra: A Love Story."
