LIFE AND 'DEATH' BRIAN DENNEHY HONORS CLASSIC 'SALESMAN' - AND ITS AUTHOR.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

Willy Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He's not the finest character that ever lived. But he's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. ... Attention, attention must finally be paid to such a person.

- Linda Loman, ``Death of Salesman''!

It's been 51 years since Linda's now-famous line was first delivered, and how ironic those words now seem. Have we ever not paid attention to Willy Loman? Can we ever stop? Certainly not while critics still have ink and college freshmen have to complete essays for intro to lit classes. Willy Loman's 15 minutes have lasted more than half a century.

And even though he's starring in a hot revival of the play, Brian Dennehy - the latest in a line of Lomans - would like to see some of that attention directed toward Willy's creator.

The actor himself is quiet and self-effacing despite the universal acclaim that has been showered on the most recent revival of ``Salesman.'' His turn as Willy originated at Chicago's Goodman Theater before moving - with playwright Arthur Miller's blessing - to Broadway to become the play's 50th-anniversary production. Dennehy won a Tony award, as did director Robert Falls and co-star Elizabeth Franz. They're all in Los Angeles to restage the production, which opens Wednesday at the Ahmanson Theatre.

Dennehy feels he delivered ``good work'' playing Willy Loman for more than 400 performances. But he'll never forget who made the entire experience possible.

``I've said many times, this is a gift to me,'' Dennehy said about a week before ``Salesman'' began previews. ``When people come backstage and say nice things to me, a part of me smiles graciously and I thank them. I do thank them, and I am grateful. But a very significant part of me says, 'You know, it's really Arthur's work.' It's a gift given to me by the playwright who's an extraordinary man.''

How extraordinary?

``It was Arthur's intention from the beginning to examine our society, to look at who we were and to try to explain himself to us, not with viciousness and scorn and cynicism, but with intelligence and understanding,'' Dennehy says, ``We don't have people like that anymore. Or if we do, I don't know who they are.

``He's the last of that group who, during the war and postwar years, made the theater a place where we could understand ourselves better,'' he continues. ``I don't know if the theater is that anymore, but it certainly was.''

The 61-year-old actor, dressed in a black sweatshirt and shorts and carrying what looks like a gym bag, shifts his barrel-chested frame in a chair in a Music Center rehearsal room, occasionally placing his feet up on a table. He looks more tired than relaxed, but it's not a Willy Loman fatigue. Just end-of-the-day winding down.

The day's rehearsal has concluded early, partially because Franz, who plays Linda Loman, was ill. But even with opening night two weeks away, nobody seems terribly concerned that an already-short rehearsal schedule has been further tightened. By now, the production is as close to a well-oiled machine as you're likely to find. It arrives in L.A. with the Broadway cast almost completely intact (Ron Eldard, who replaced Kevin Anderson as Biff Loman midway through the run on Broadway, plays the role in L.A.).

At its center is Dennehy, a veteran stage and film actor who won across- the-board acclaim from critics, a Tony award and an Emmy nomination for the film version, which played on Showtime. The role, he also admits, ``put me in the hospital once,'' forcing the production to shut down for three performances while Dennehy was treated for hypertension.

Still, there was little question that the ensemble would bring ``Salesman'' to L.A once Ahmanson artistic director Gordon Davidson set his sights on getting it.

``I actually have no doubt that it would still be running on Broadway if Brian had wanted to continue,'' says Falls, who went from `'Salesman'' to directing the Disney version of ``Aida'' on Broadway. ``It kind of became time to take a little break.''

That break concluded, Dennehy says he was happy to pick up the salesman's valises once again. With a part like Willy Loman, he says, the actor's work is never finished. There's so much for a performer - and an audience - to explore.

There's the father-son dynamics between Willy, the aging salesman, and his wayward 34-year-old son Biff. There's Willy facing a changing business climate that no longer seems to hold a place for him. And there's the man's deteriorating mental state, a function of age and circumstance.

The play was written in 1948, but no American classic has greater resonance or recognition. Willy Loman's plight hits people in their 40s squarely in the gut, says Dennehy, more so than any other play he has acted in.

``It has this wonderful kaleidoscopic quality of refracting significance according to the times in which one lives,'' he says. ``It's as current and as significant as it was 50 years ago, but in different ways. It just keeps evolving.''

Unlike, say, something like ``Survivor'' or the latest must-see sitcom?

``Doing something like this puts everything else into perspective,'' he says. ``With movies and television, for the most part, it's just not the same. It doesn't have the same kind of importance artistically. This kind of experience reminds you of why you're here and what you're trying to do.''

He's had more than a little experience on the big and small screens. In a career spanning four decades, Dennehy has appeared in more than 60 films and TV movies, often in a character role - the prosecuting attorney in ``Presumed Innocent,'' the alien expedition leader in the two ``Cocoon'' movies, countless cops. He recently had a stint as David Spade's father in the NBC series ``Just Shoot Me.''

But when he talks about the career still ahead of him, Dennehy says the plum assignments for an actor his age are on the stage.

``I'm looking forward to playing other O'Neill parts, Chekhovian parts, possibly Shakespearean parts,'' he says. ``There's great writing for people my age, and one of the nice things about about the theater is that I can do those parts in the theater. I can't do them in movies and TV because nobody will hire me to do them.''

Falls will certainly hire him - again and again. Friends since the mid- 1980s, the two men first collaborated on a production of Ron Hutchinson's ``Rat in the Skull,'' which Falls produced. He directed Dennehy in Brecht's ``Galileo,'' then in O'Neill's ``The Iceman Cometh'' and ``A Touch of the Poet.'' Falls said he would like to direct Dennehy again in O'Neill's ``Long Day's Journey Into Night.''

But for now, Dennehy's the salesman, the man whose performance figures to define the role for a generation of audiences. And, no, Falls wasn't going after immortality when he tabbed Dennehy to play it.

``I wanted Brian, someone with his size and stature. There's something moving about a man that big taking a fall,'' says Falls. ``With a lot of other actors, you're very aware of the star performance, of the actor playing the part. For me, with Brian, he just melts into it. He's up there as Willy Loman.''

``DEATH OF A SALESMAN''

Where: Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles. When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; through Nov. 5. Tickets: $15 to $60. Call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) `Salesman' of the Year

Brian Dennehy brings new honor to Arthur Miller's acclaimed play on its 50th anniversary

(2) Brian Dennehy, right, admonishes his willful son, Biff, played by Ron Eldard, in the 50th anniversary production of Arthur Miller's ``Death of a Salesman,'' which opens Wednesday at the Ahmanson Theatre.

(3) Dennehy rages in a scene with Howard Witt in ``Death of a Salesman.''