David Patrick Kelly - Biography

Compact, feisty and slightly crazy-looking character actor David Patrick Kelly was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Margaret Elizabeth (Murphy) and Robert Corby Kelly, Sr., an accountant. He burst onto the acting scene in 1979, playing the homicidal but cowardly leader of the leather-clad gang "The Rogues" in Walter Hill's controversial New York City gang film Les guerriers de la nuit (1979). Kelly's tight-lipped expressions and attitude that made him appear like a grenade with the pin pulled, got him plenty of roles playing defiant young men, often in trouble with authority. He locked horns with Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte in Walter Hill's fast-paced 48 heures (1982), was dropped over a cliff by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the violent Commando (1985), was a member of a trio of killers after Harry Dean Stanton in David Lynch's' Sailor & Lula (1990), and again played a hood in the ill-fated The Crow (1994). It's a pity Hollywood hasn't utilised Kelly in more versatile roles, as he is a wonderfully captivating character actor. Arguably, best known for his performance and unsettling screeching cries of "Warriors, come out to plaaayyy", from his debut on-screen role!