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went to a movie – A John Wayne double feature – with a buddy of mine.
This was pre-cell phone so I hadn’t been in touch with anybody.” Dennis
did have an answering machine and had gotten a message from Meshach
Taylor before he left but was running late so figured he’d just call him
when he got back from the movies. Dennis returned after midnight and
gave Meshach a call, whereupon he was told he’d been called back but no
one had been able to reach him.
Franz called his agent in the morning, but learned that the director
stepped on the gas. I banged garbage cans, really flew down the alleys. I
hoped I got it right; when we finished, Brian said, ‘That was good. That’s
what I’m after.’”
Both De Palma and Robert Altman gave Dennis the same advice: if
you want to do more TV or film work, you want to go to New York or
Los Angeles.
“Being from Chicago,” Dennis says, “L.A. was more inviting.”
THE MOVE OUT WEST
When it came time to move – he was living with a seamstress-
clothing designer in a loft space in downtown Chicago – they packed up
their stuff, along with some of Joe Mantegna’s belongings – he had agreed
to move to L.A. with them – and drove out with a buddy, Nick Faltas.
They hooked up Dennis’s girlfriend’s car – an orange Opel Cadet – and
pulled it behind a U-Haul. She flew out with their three cats.
They found a small apartment in Santa Monica and little by little
got more involved in the business. Dennis, who had only been to
Hollywood once before for some post-production work on “The Fury,”
says, “I remember the first time going into the studio gates – it was 20
th
Century Fox, which ended up being my home for twelve years with
‘NYPD Blue’ – how impressed I was, being in the presence of all that
history; it made me realize this was the place I wanted to be.”
He did some work for Altman and De Palma, got some guest spots
on various television shows, and got to know Steven Bochco, Dick Wolf,
Stephen Cannell – who at the time was doing “Rip Tide” and “Hunter”
– and others. “Once you get your foot in the door,” Dennis notes, “you
make other acquaintances, other connections...”
and his team had left town. Another meeting was arranged.
“I went in. Came out. The free-lance agent,” Dennis laughs, “asked
how it went and I said ‘I don’t know. I talked to some guy in there...’
“‘You talked to some guy?’
“‘Yeah.’
“‘That was Brian De Palma!’ the agent screamed.
“‘Well, he didn’t introduce himself so I didn’t know who it was,’”
Dennis replied.
He got the part, which turned out to be the beginning of a long
relationship with De Palma. Franz later worked for him, in “Dressed to
Kill,” “Body Double,” and “Blow Out.”
In “The Fury,” Dennis was cast as – coincidentally enough – an off-
duty Chicago cop who had just bought a new Cadillac and was going on
a drive to show it off to his partner. They get carjacked by Kirk Douglas,
who’s being chased by John Cassavetes. “I’m driving,” Dennis explains,
“and [Kirk’s character] leads me on this wild goose chase through the city
of Chicago. My car ends up flying off the bridge into Lake Michigan.”
De Palma had mounted numerous lights, cameras, and equipment on
the hood of the car.
“I’m going through alleys and going what I think is pretty fast and I
remember thinking nervously, ‘I’ve got Kirk Douglas in the car with me;
I’ve got a movie legend in my car, and I don’t want him to get hurt.’ He
was in the front seat with a gun on me and my partner.”
Brian kept insisting to Franz that he needed to go faster.
“Brian said, ‘We’re going to do it again,’ and he looked at me and
said, ‘Don’t be afraid to go fast.’ And I’m thinking, ‘That’s easy for
you
to
say, but look what I’ve got sitting on the front hood. It’s hard to see. And
the camera’s rolling and I had to be in the right position so they could pick
me up in the camera.
Plus, I’ve got Kirk Douglas in the car with me!’
“This was my first role and I wanted to make it good, so I thought,
‘The hell with it, I don’t care – if I wreck the car, I wreck the car’ – and I
Profiles
In Brian De Palma’s “The Fury” (1978), Michael O’Dwyer (left) and Dennis Franz played two
off-duty Chicago cops carjacked by Kirk Douglas (right); it was Dennis’s first real film role