David Patrick Kelly makes a twitchy villain funny without making him harmless. We rate his precision in small parts, though the familiar screen menace can obscure an actor with more to offer than another threat.
Fi1m perspective
In 48 Hrs. (1982), David Patrick Kelly’s Luther is holding a girl hostage in a flat, and he is still allowed to be funny. James Remar’s Ganz kills without changing expression; Sonny Landham’s Billy Bear barely speaks. Kelly gives Walter Hill a twitchier villain, someone whose agitation changes the pace of a scene. We laughed at Luther’s nervous energy, then felt uncomfortable because the girl was still his prisoner. It is a small but useful distinction in a film whose other villains are nastier than the plot needs them to be.
Hill had already cast him as another Luther in The Warriors (1979), his screen debut, and would use him again in Last Man Standing (1996). That debut established the wiry, unstable antagonist who remains his most familiar screen presence. In Commando (1985), his Sully belongs to another cheerfully excessive action film, this time opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger. The film is entertaining despite its thin writing, and we would not pretend that every memorable supporting turn makes a part substantial. This is the limit of the casting: his wiry intensity can become a convenient way of identifying the villain.
David Lynch offered a different setting for that intensity through Wild at Heart (1990) and the role of Jerry Horne in Twin Peaks (1990). The latter role makes use of the particular physical and vocal details that distinguish Kelly’s small parts. He returned as Jerry for the 2017 revival. There were repeated collaborations with Spike Lee too, including Malcolm X (1992), Crooklyn (1994) and Chi-Raq (2015), giving him work beyond the genre films that first made him recognisable.
His musical and comic work as Feste in the stage Twelfth Night (1998) is a useful reminder of what the screen villains leave out. Later film work includes Charlie in John Wick (2014), another supporting part. The familiar early roles still carry much of his reputation, which is understandable but limiting. Of our reviewed films, 48 Hrs. makes the strongest case for seeking him out. Start there, provided a funny villain is enough compensation for some ugly dialogue.
Biography
David Patrick Kelly is an American actor and musician. Born in Detroit, Michigan, he graduated cum laude with a BFA from the University of Detroit and trained with Stella Adler and Marcel Marceau. He began his career in New York theatre before making his screen debut in 1979.
Kelly is known for his role as Luther in The Warriors (1979) and for repeating the name in 48 Hrs. (1982). His other film credits include Commando (1985), The Crow (1994), Crooklyn (1994), The Longest Yard (2005) and John Wick (2014). He has collaborated with Spike Lee and David Lynch, and appeared as Feste in a 1998 production of Twelfth Night. In 1998 he received an Obie Award for sustained excellence in theatre.
