- Born
- Birth nameDenise Dillon
- Height4′ 11″ (1.50 m)
- Tony Award-nominated stage, screen, television actress and comedian Denny Dillon was born on May 18, in Cleveland, Ohio. Her professional career began six weeks after moving to NYC in 1973, when she made her Broadway debut as Agnes in the highly anticipated revival of Gypsy starring Angela Lansbury. Other Broadway credits include The Skin of Our Teeth, Harold and Maude, Enchanted April, and the 1983 Gershwin musical: My One and Only starring Tommy Tune and Twiggy which garnered Dillon a Tony Award nomination (Best Featured Actress in a Musical).
In 1975 she and comedy partner Mark Hampton guest-starred on the third episode of the original Saturday Night Live performing their "Talent Night in the Convent". In 1980-81 she became a member of SNL's first replacement cast.
She scored a hit in her first motion picture, opposite John Travolta in an unforgettable cameo wiping his brow as Doreen in the 1977 iconic Saturday Night Fever. After that auspicious debut, Dillon went on to appear with Al Pacino in Arthur Hiller's Author! Author!, Sidney Lumet's Garbo Talks, Anthony Harvey's Grace Quigley opposite Katharine Hepburn and Betty Thomas' Only You. She voiced the character of Glyptodon in the first Ice Age film which was Oscar-nominated in 2003 for Best Animated Feature.
In 2006 she was part of Paul Greengrass' Oscar-nominated thriller, United 93 whose cast was awarded "best ensemble" by the Boston Critics Society. Recently she appeared in Academy Award winner Halle Berry's directorial debut Bruised as Crazy Esther, and is featured in the comedy Paint opposite Owen Wilson .
A familiar television face, Dillon won a CableACE award "Best Actress in a Comedy Series" for the hit HBO comedy series Dream On (1990-1996). Other television credits include: Women in Prison, Night Court, Designing Women, Nash Bridges, Louie, and Law & Order: SVU. She recently completed a guest stint on Darren Star's new TV comedy series for Netflix, Uncoupled starring Neil Patrick Harris.
Presently Denny is filming the fourth season of the supernatural-thriller television series created by M.Night Shayamalan: Servant on Apple TV+.
- IMDb mini biography by: Denny Dillon
- Ever-present bright and tight smile
- Breathy, little girl voice
- She was the shortest ever cast member of Saturday Night Live (1975) and is a full foot-and-a-half shorter than Randy Quaid, Chevy Chase and Kevin Nealon, and Charles Rocket, the tallest SNL cast members.
- Lives in New York's Hudson Valley where she teaches improvisation and is presently writing a book of memoirs. She shares her life with partner Barbara Smiley.
- She is the first lesbian actress ever to be a cast member on Saturday Night Live (1975).
- Received a CableACE Award in 1995 "Best Actress in a Comedy Series" for her role as Toby Pedalbee in HBO's Dream On (1990).
- Has the unique distinction of appearing in Saturday Night Fever (1977) and having been a regular on Saturday Night Live (1975) (she in fact first appeared on 'SNL' (in the series' third episode) two years before 'fever' was released). They are two similar-named, 1970s pop culture sensations that much of the public has often confused or misspoken of.
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