David Patrick Kelly (born January 23, 1951) is an American actor and musician who has appeared in several films, including some major roles.
Kelly was born in Detroit, Michigan, one of seven brothers and sisters. He is well-known for playing Luther in the 1979 cult film The Warriors, where he screeches the famous line, "Warriors... come out to play-ee-ay!!"; he also played a character named Luther in the 1982 hit film 48 Hrs.
His film credits include Commando, Crooklyn, Hammett, Wild at Heart, The Crow, Dreamscape, The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, Last Man Standing, "Songcatcher", K-PAX, The Longest Yard, and Flags of Our Fathers.
His largest television role was Jerry Horne on Twin Peaks; his television guest appearances include Miami Vice, Moonlighting, Spenser: For Hire, Ghostwriter, Third Watch, Hack, Kidnapped, and Law & Order.
Onstage Kelly has played some of the greatest roles in the World Classical canon on Broadway and at leading theatres throughout the USA. He has frequently appeared at the Hartford Stage Company in Hartford, Connecticut starring in the title roles in Woyzeck and Tartuffe, playing Iago in Othello and Hoss in Sam Shepard's Tooth Of Crime. At the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he played the title role in Pirandello's Enrico IV and starred in an adaption of the Yuan Dynasty Chinese classic Snow In June. On Broadway he played Feste in the Lincoln Center production of Twelfth Night. He appeared in four plays by avant garde master Richard Foreman: Pearls For Pigs, The Mind King, Film Is Evil/Radio Is Good, and The Cure. In 1998 he received an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence.
As a composer and musician he participated in New York's rock and cabaret scene playing such legendary venues as Max's Kansas City, Reno Sweeney's, CBGB, and The Lower Manhattan Ocean Club.
He married theater actress/writer Juliana Francis on August 14, 2005.
Compact, feisty and slightly crazy-looking character actor David Patrick Kelly burst onto the acting scene in 1979, playing the homicidal but cowardly leader of the leather-clad gang "The Rogues" in Walter Hill (I)'s controversial New York City gang film Warriors, The (1979). Kelly's tight-lipped expressions and attitude that made him appear like a grenade with the pin pulled, got him plenty of roles playing defiant young men, often in trouble with authority. He locked horns with Eddie Murphy (I) and Nick Nolte in Walter Hill (I)'s fast-paced 48 Hrs. (1982), was dropped over a cliff by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the violent Commando (1985), was a member of a trio of killers after Harry Dean Stanton in David Lynch (I)'s' Wild at Heart (1990), and again played a hood in the ill-fated Crow, The (1994). It's a pity Hollywood hasn't utilised Kelly in more versatile roles, as he is a wonderfully captivating character actor. Arguably, best known for his performance and unsettling screeching cries of "Warriors, come out to plaaayyy", from his debut on-screen role!
