Roy L. Dennis

Roy Lee "Rocky" Dennis (December 4, 1961 – October 4, 1978 ) was an American teenager who had craniodiaphyseal dysplasia, an extremely rare sclerotic bone disorder. The condition usually results in neurological disorders and death during childhood. His life was the basis for the drama film Mask in which he was portrayed by Golden Globe nominee Eric Stoltz.

Early life Roy Lee "Rocky" Dennis was born in Glendora, California, to Florence "Rusty" Tullis and Roy Dennis on December 4, 1961. When he was very young, Dennis frequently had ear and sinus infections. While undergoing a tonsillectomy at age two, doctors detected abnormalities in his x-rays. Over the next year, he visited doctors at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)'s medical center multiple times a week, culminating in a diagnosis of craniodiaphyseal dysplasia (CDD), an extremely rare bone disorder that causes bone tissue to build up excessively, including in the skull, causing gradual compression of the brain and thus intracranial hypertension.

In 1965, Rocky said doctors had told him there were seven recorded cases of CDD, His official cause of death was sudden arrhythmic death syndrome, a condition of unknown origin that may have been related to CDD.

In popular culture Peter Bogdanovich directed the drama film Mask (1985), from Anna Hamilton Phelan's screenplay, loosely based on Dennis's life. Most of the scenes and dialogue were altered for dramatic purposes. Rusty told a Chicago Tribune reporter that the film was mostly accurate but with two major departures from reality — the events occurred across 10 to 12 years, rather than one year as depicted in the film; and Dennis's older half-brother, Joshua, is not in the film.

Swedish pop musician Jens Lekman self-published a song titled "Rocky Dennis' Farewell Song to the Blind Girl", causing disc jockeys to mistakenly call the musician Rocky Dennis. In 2004, Lekman released Rocky Dennis in Heaven, an EP containing "Rocky Dennis' Farewell Song to the Blind Girl" and two other songs about him.