David Patrick Kelly

David Patrick Kelly is an American actor, musician and lyricist who has appeared in numerous films and television series. He is best known for his role as the main antagonist Luther in the cult film The Warriors (1979). Kelly is also known for his collaborations with Spike Lee, in the films Malcolm X (1992), Crooklyn (1994), and Chi-Raq (2015), and with David Lynch, appearing in Wild at Heart (1990) as well as Twin Peaks (1990–91) and its 2017 revival.

Kelly's other credits include roles in 48 Hrs. (1982), Commando (1985), The Crow (1994), The Funeral and Last Man Standing (both 1996), The Longest Yard (2005), as President Harry S. Truman in Flags of Our Fathers (2006), and a recurring role in The Blacklist (2015).

He performed in a few off-off-Broadway theater productions during the 1970s and 1980s. These included Wilford Leach's C.O.R.F.A.X. (Don't Ask), produced at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in 1975, and Ireneusz Iredyński's An Altar to Himself, as adapted by Michal Kobialka and Liz Diamond and directed by Virlana Tkacz at La MaMa in 1989. He also appeared in the April 1974 production of Mr. Jello, written and directed by George Birimisa, and then performed a song for which he wrote the music from Mr. Jello, at a benefit hosted by La MaMa to honor H.M. Koutoukas, called "For the Benefit of Harry", also in 1974. In 1976, he performed in La MaMa's "Cracker Club Country Fair Gala" in segments from Paul Foster's Silver Queen and Leonard Melfi's Horse Opera.

In 1998, Kelly played the role of Feste in the Lincoln Center production of Twelfth Night directed by Nicholas Hytner. Kelly originated the role of Da in Once on Broadway, which was awarded the 2012 Tony Award for Best Musical. Kelly sang and played mandolin on the Grammy Award-winning soundtrack for Once.

Kelly has frequently appeared at the Hartford Stage Company in Hartford, Connecticut, starring in the title roles in Georg Büchner's Woyzeck and Molière's Tartuffe. He played Iago in Othello and Hoss in Sam Shepard's Tooth Of Crime. At the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he played the title role in Luigi Pirandello's Enrico IV and starred in an adaption of the Yuan dynasty classic Snow in June.

He has appeared in four plays by avant-garde playwright Richard Foreman: Pearls for Pigs, The Mind King, Film Is Evil/Radio Is Good, and The Cure. In 2015, he appeared as Michaud, alongside Keira Knightley, in the Roundabout Theatre Company's production of Helen Edmundson's adaptation of Thérèse Raquin in the Studio 54 space.

In 2022, Kelly played the Narrator and the Mysterious Man in Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods at Encores! and later at the St. James Theatre on Broadway and on the 2023 national tour.

In 2024, Kelly played King Sextimus the Silent in Once Upon a Mattress at Encores!

Kelly played Morten Kiil in Amy Herzog's new adaptation of An Enemy of the People at Circle in the Square Theatre on Broadway, directed by Sam Gold.