Harry Connick Jr.'s relaxed delivery makes warmth sound unforced, particularly in The Iron Giant. We rate him as an actor of useful, unshowy charm, and Copycat is a reminder that he can make us uncomfortable too.
Fi1m perspective
Listen to Dean McCoppin in The Iron Giant (1999): Harry Connick Jr. makes the beatnik junkman sound easy company. His delivery is warm and conversational, with little sense of a performer asking us to notice him. That is where we find him most persuasive as an actor. For someone also established as a singer and pianist, he is notably willing to keep the delivery small. We warmed to Dean because Connick's unforced delivery made his friendliness convincing.
His screen work has not always asked for reassurance. After his acting debut in Memphis Belle (1990), Copycat (1995) cast him as serial killer Daryll Lee Cullum, opposite Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter. The intensity of that supporting performance is a useful corrective to the idea that he can only be agreeable. Hope Floats (1998), alongside Sandra Bullock, then gave him his first major romantic lead. The shift makes sense: his relaxed manner is an obvious asset when affection is the job.
Brad Bird puts that ease to particularly good use in The Iron Giant. The boy's friendship with the robot is funny and tender, with enough cause for worry to make the affection matter. Connick's natural delivery suits a film that takes its young audience seriously; he does not need to insist that Dean is someone worth liking. The adults are sometimes too neatly drawn, and an affable voice cannot entirely remove that limitation. Even so, we would start with this supporting part rather than assume that the romantic leads tell us everything worth knowing about him.
Warmth is not a solution to every part. His work in Basic (2003) is solid without being especially memorable, while family material such as Dolphin Tale (2011) makes more comfortable use of his endearing presence. The risk in the gentler material is that being likeable becomes the whole job. We would welcome another part that asks him to be as unpleasant as he was in Copycat.
Biography
Harry Connick Jr. is an American actor, singer, pianist and composer. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, he studied at Hunter College and the Manhattan School of Music before releasing his first album at nineteen.
His film acting debut came in Memphis Belle (1990). He later appeared in Copycat (1995), Independence Day (1996), Hope Floats (1998) and voiced Dean McCoppin in the animated film The Iron Giant (1999). On television he played Leo Markus in Will & Grace from 2002 to 2006.
Connick has received Grammy and Emmy awards for his work in music and television.
