About
Compact, feisty, and fierce character actor David Patrick Kelly was born in Detroit, Michigan. He burst onto the acting scene in 1979, playing the devious leader of the leather-clad gang "The Rogues" in Walter Hill's controversial New York City gang film The Warriors (1979). Kelly's tight-lipped expressions made him appear like a grenade with the pin pulled.
He locked horns with Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte in Walter Hill's 48 Hrs. (1982), was dropped over a cliff by Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando (1985), was a member of a trio of killers in David Lynch's Wild at Heart (1990), and played T-Bird, the leader of a gang of arsonist murderers in The Crow (1994). One of his most popular and influential performances came with the unforgettable, screeching cry of "Warriors, come out to plaaayyy."
Training Journey
David's training journey — which he considers to be still ongoing — was of the "school of hard knocks" variety. Considering going to Juilliard but unable to afford it, he deliberately set out to cobble together a do-it-yourself conservatory experience. That journey took him to Paris where he trained with Marcel Marceau, and back to America where he found his way into the avant-garde theater of Richard Foreman.
He studied with the legendary Russian coach Mira Rostova, who famously coached Montgomery Clift. David also asked for — and got — on-set tutorials from Christopher Plummer, Max Von Sydow, and Christopher Walken, in between takes on shared movie sets.