Early life

Denton was born January 20, 1963, in Nashville, Tennessee, and grew up in nearby Goodlettsville, the second of three children. His father, J.T. Denton (1930-1993), was a dentist who had served in the military. His mother, Mary Jean Woolslair Denton, died from breast cancer in 2002.

Denton was raised Southern Baptist and became a minister of music at Westmoreland United Methodist Church in Westmoreland, Tennessee.

Denton graduated from Goodlettsville High School and he attended the University of Tennessee where he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, majored in television/journalism and earned a degree in Advertising. Before he became an actor, he sold advertising for two radio stations. He began acting at the age of 23, at a community theater in Nashville. He eventually moved to California to become a full-time actor. He was for a time credited as Jamie Denton, for example in the film That Old Feeling.

Career

While living in Chicago, Denton's first role was as "Stanley" in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and his last was as the terrorist "Bebert" in the French farce "Lapin Lapin". In the years that came between the two, Denton was a company member at The Griffin Theater and at Strawdog Theater Ensemble. He added a steady string of roles and accolades to his quickly growing list of achievements, including one of the leads in the world premiere of "Flesh and Blood", performing in and composing the music for "the Night Hank Williams Died", and his portrayal of Kentucky preacher "C.C. Showers" in "The Diviners" - which gained him a nomination for a Best Actor "Joseph Jefferson Award" (Chicago's only theater award).

After moving to Los Angeles, Denton continued to perform on stage, usually during hiatus from whichever TV series to which he was attached at the time, and many of the plays, as well as the independent movies in which Denton has appeared, have been written by his friend, Mike Petty. For example, "In Walked Monk", in which Denton played the role of "Steven" during the summer of 1999 and Locked Up Down Shorty's", in which he played the role of "Danny", during the summer of 2001.

Denton has appeared in several films, including That Old Feeling (1997), Face/Off (1997) and Primary Colors (1998).

He has also appeared in various television shows including Sliders, Dark Skies, Two Guys and a Girl, Ally McBeal, The West Wing, and JAG, and has had recurring roles in The Pretender, Philly, The Drew Carey Show and Reba. In 2003, he had the lead role of Special Agent John Kilmer in the short-lived crime thriller series Threat Matrix. In 2004, Denton won his most famous role as love interest Mike Delfino on the series Desperate Housewives.

Since first appearing in Desperate Housewives, Denton has continued to act in various made-for-TV and direct-to-DVD movies such as Assumption (2006), Beautiful Dreamer (2006), Undead or Alive (2007), Custody (2007), Tortured (2008) and All-Star Superman (2011). In 2009, Denton appeared in country star Phil Vassar's music video "Bobbi with an I".

Denton plays guitar in the charity band Band from TV along with Hugh Laurie and ex Desperate Housewives co-star Teri Hatcher, among others. Denton has been cast in Killer in the Family alongside Holly Marie Combs. The movie is currently in development and is scheduled to be released in 2011. Denton modeled for Daniel Hechter's 2012 Spring-Summer advertising campaign.

Personal life

In high school, Denton dated country music artist Deana Carter. He has been married twice. He was married to Jenna Lyn Ward from 1997 to 2000. On December 16, 2002 he married Erin O'Brien, a personal trainer at Life Time Fitness. They have two children: a son, Sheppard (b. March 2003) and a daughter, Malin O’Brien (b. March 22, 2005). They had a house in Glendale, California. After Desperate Housewives ended, the family moved to Chanhassen near Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Denton is part of the owners group of an independent minor league baseball team in Fullerton, the Orange County Flyers (part of the Golden Baseball League), who won the GBL Championship in 2008. The Orange County Flyers play at Cal State Fullerton in Fullerton, California.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	Thieves Quartet	Ray Higgs
1994	Basic Football	The Quarterback	Short film
1995	Hunter's Moon	Nick
1996	Sliders	Jack Bullock	1 episode: 'The Good, the Bad and the Wealthy'
1996	Moloney	Rocky Talese	1 episode: 'Friendly Fire'
1996	Dark Skies	Robert Winter	1 episode: 'Hostile Convergence'
1996-2003	JAG	Lieutenant Commander Bruce Carmichael / Geoffrey Roizman	2 episodes: 'Hemlock', 'Fortunate Son'
1997	That Old Feeling	Keith Marks
1997	Face/Off	Buzz
1997-2000	The Pretender	Mr. Lyle	Series regular
1998	Primary Colors	Mitch
2000	Locked Up Down Shorty's	Danny
2000	Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place	Dr. Howard Zaunaveld	1 episode: 'The Monitor Story'
2000	Ally McBeal	Jimmy Bender	1 episode: 'Do You Wanna Dance?'
2000	The West Wing	Tom Jordan	1 episode: 'The midterms'
2001	The Pretender 2001	Mr. Lyle	TV movie
2001	The Pretender: Island of the Haunted	Mr. Lyle	TV movie
2001-2002	Philly	Judge Augustus Ripley	Series regular
2002	The Drew Carey Show		2 episodes: 'The Man in the Iron Chair', 'Drew Tries Hot Salsa'
2003-2004	Threat Matrix	Special Agent John Kilmer	Series regular
2004	Jumbo Girl	Jack	Short film
2004-2012	Desperate Housewives	Mike Delfino	Main character Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (2005, 2006) Nomination -Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (2007, 2008, 2009) Teen Choice award for Best TV actor
2005-2006	Reba	Dr. Morgan	2 episodes: 'Date of Mirth', 'The Trouble with Dr. Hunky'
2006	Assumption	John	Short film ShockerFest Science Fiction Genre Award for Best Actor Fantasy / Science Fiction
2006	Beautiful Dreamer	Dr. Kessler
2007	Ascension Day	Brother John
2007	Undead or Alive: A Zombedy	Elmer Winslow
2007	Masters of Science Fiction	Barney Curran	1 episode: 'The Discarded'
2007	Custody	John Sullivan
2008	Tortured	Agent Murphy	Direct-to-DVD
2010	Group Sex	Luke	Uncredited
2011	All-Star Superman	Superman/Clark Kent (voice)	Direct-to-DVD
2012	Hot in Cleveland	Kerouac Cowboy	1 episode: 'Storage Wars'
2012	Karaoke Man	Slim
2013	Grace Unplugged	Johnny Trey
2014	Stranded in Paradise	Carter
2015-present	Good Witch	Dr. Sam Radford	TV Series Regular
2016	Devious Maids	Peter	Guest Star: 7 Episode ; Protagonist

Charities

James Denton supports the following charitable causes: Breast Cancer, Cancer.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]