Patrick Dempsey Biography

Patrick Dempsey
Biography

Birth Name
Patrick Dempsey
Date of birth (location)
13 January 1966
Lewiston, Maine, USA

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A dark-haired, handsome, stage-trained player, Patrick Dempsey has managed to transcend his teen idol beginnings to emerge as a versatile and talented actor equally adept at comedy or drama. The Maine native started his career as a teen performing as a juggler and amateur magician at local venues like the Elks Club. After making his stage debut with the Maine Acting Company in "On Golden Pond", Dempsey landed the role of David, the adopted son of a gay man, in a San Francisco production of "Torch Song Trilogy" and later spent a year touring as the wisecracking authorial stand-in Eugene Jerome in Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoirs".

In 1985, the actor made his screen debut as one of the Catholic school boys in the amusing "Heaven Help Us". The following year, Dempsey stepped into the role of Mike Damone (created on the big screen by Robert Romanus) in the short-lived CBS sitcom "Fast Times", based on "Fast Times at Ridgemont High". Over the next several years, he was cast in parts that often underutilized his capabilities and in projects that weren't exactly blockbusters. Dempsey essayed such real-life figures as teen lothario Sonny Wisecarver in "In the Mood" (1987) and gangster Meyer Lansky in "Mobsters" (1991) and was the titular pizza deliveryman who offered special services in "Loverboy" (1987).

In the early 90s, the actor made a conscious effort to distance himself from the pin-up type of roles. Dempsey had a particularly meaty role as a rebel in "Coup de Ville" (1990), about a trio of brother traveling cross-country. The following year, he returned to his roots and offered an impressive turn as a returning WWII veteran watching as his parents' marriage crumbles in the Off-Broadway revival of "The Subject Was Roses". While his feature directorial debut (a joint effort with then-wife Rocky Parker), "Ava's Magical Adventure" (1994) went largely ignored, Dempsey acquitted himself nicely as the future US President in the ABC miniseries "JFK: Reckless Youth" (1993). He was equally compelling as the outsider who becomes embroiled in the cover-up of a murder in "A Season in Purgatory" (CBS, 1996) and as Raskolnikov in "Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment" (NBC, 1998).

After landing the plum role of a detective investigating a series of murders on a film set in "Scream 3" (2000), Dempsey began recurring roles on two TV series that exemplified his range and versatility. With impeccable comic timing, he essayed the role of a closeted gay sportscaster who dated lawyer Will Truman (Eric McCormack) in "Will & Grace" and offered a realistic turn as the schizophrenic brother of Lily (Sela Ward) on ABC's "Once and Again", a role that netted him an Emmy nomination in 2001.

The actor portrayed a semi-fictional version of Charlie Chaplin Jr. in the 2001 CBS miniseries "Blonde" and reunited with director Michael Hoffman (with whom he had previously worked on 1989's "Some Girls") for a supporting role in the film adaptation of Ethan Canin's fiction "The Emperor's Club" and a romantic lead opposite Reese Witherspoon in "Sweet Home Alabama" (both 2002). In the HBO telepic "Iron Jawed Angels" (2004) Dempsey played early-20th-century Washington Post cartoonist Ben Weissman, the stymied love interest for obsessed suffragette Alice Paul (Hilary Swank).
After a three-episode stint as a dentist on the final season of "The Practice" in 2004, Dempsey formally segued into series television for ABC's medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" (2005 - ) with a regular role as the raffish yet likable Dr. Derek Shepherd, a member of the surgical team overseeing a new group of interns who also becomes romantically entangled with his colleague Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo).