His performing career began in 1971, and he received a Master of Fine Arts in acting from Temple University’s School of Media and Communication in 1979. He originally entered LaSalle University intending to become a history teacher, but instead became snared by the stage. As he recalled in a late 2001 interview after becoming AFTRA national president, “I stumbled into being an actor because some of my roommates in college were actors and thought it would do me good to take an occasional breather from the anti-[Vietnam] war movement, which was so all-consuming at that time, and lighten up a bit. I got the bug and got caught in the excitement of theater work, performing Shakespeare, which hooked me. I made sure that I burned all my bridges to any other possible form of employment so I never had the inclination to look back.”
He amassed nearly 200 stage credits, including the Broadway production of Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Joseph Papp’sNew York Shakespeare Festival production of The Golem with F. Murray Abraham and Randy Quaid, The Only Woman General opposite Colleen Dewhurst, The Iceman Cometh with Al Pacino,and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia.
Connolly recalled that he was hired for his first television role in 1988 for the CBS hit comedy Kate & Allie because he knew all the words to the Gilligan’s Island TV show theme and could play it on the ukulele. His feature film and television credits included When the Bough Breaks, Prayer of the Rollerboys, The Golden Girls, Law & Order, Any Day Now, NYPD Blue, Star Trek: The Next Generation, The West Wing, daytime TV soap operas General Hospital and The Young and the Restless, and hundreds of TV and radio commercials.
Prior to his election 2001 as national president of AFTRA, Connolly served as vice president of its New York Local from 1991 – 1996. He also served on the Screen Actors Guild National Board of Directors from 1995 – 1999. Connolly was an integral part of many film and television negotiations, including the AFTRA Network Code and joint Primetime Exhibit A negotiations with the Screen Actors Guild. He also led AFTRA during the 2003 Consolidation and Affiliation campaign — the second attempt to merge SAG and AFTRA.
Connolly took pride in his service to the union and, in 2007, wrote, “Being president of AFTRA has been one of the peak achievements of my life.”
He was awarded George Heller Memorial Gold Card No. 57 in Seattle in 2011, at what turned out to be AFTRA’s final national convention before merging with Screen Actors Guild.