Jeffrey Dean Morgan Biography

Jeffrey Dean Morgan (born April 22, 1966) is an American actor. He is known for playing John Winchester on Supernatural, Denny Duquette in the medical drama Grey's Anatomy, The Comedian in the 2009 superhero film Watchmen and Negan on The Walking Dead.

Early life

Morgan was born in Seattle, Washington to Sandy Thomas and Richard Dean Morgan. He attended Ben Franklin Elementary School, Rose Hill Junior High, and Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, Washington, where he played football and captained the basketball team. He went on to play basketball at Skagit Valley College before being sidelined by injury.

Career

Starting with Uncaged (1991), Morgan has appeared in over 25 feature films. However, the bulk of his work has been in television. He was the star of the 1996-1997 television series The Burning Zone; his character, Dr. Edward Marcase, appeared in 10 out of 19 episodes that season. In 2005 and 2006, Morgan simultaneously appeared in three television series: in the CW series Supernatural as John Winchester, in a recurring role on ABC's Grey's Anatomy as heart transplant patient Denny Duquette, and as Judah Botwin in two episodes of the Showtime series Weeds. He has also guest-starred in a number of television series, including ER; JAG; Walker, Texas Ranger; Angel; CSI: Crime Scene Investigation; Sliders; The O.C.; and Monk.In 2007, Morgan was cast in a proposed project by Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes. The series, tentatively titled "Correspondents", was to have started production in summer 2007. ABC instead picked up a spin-off of Grey's Anatomy, called Private Practice, that was also created by Rhimes. As a result, "Correspondents" was shelved. Another 2007 film starring Morgan is The Accidental Husband, which finished filming in New York City in March 2007 and was not released on DVD until 2009.

Morgan starred in the thriller The Resident and the drama film Days of Wrath in 2008.

In 2009, Morgan portrayed The Comedian, a cigar-chomping antihero, in Watchmen, based on Alan Moore's graphic novel. The same year, Morgan appeared in Taking Woodstock, and played Clay in a comic book movie adaptation of The Losers.

Morgan appeared in the Texas crime thriller Texas Killing Fields as a homicide detective in 2011. The following year, Morgan starred in the television drama series Magic City, which centered on mob life in 1950s Miami. The same year, Morgan appeared in the horror thriller The Possession, and the war film Red Dawn. It was announced in January 2014, that Morgan had been cast in the lead role in Jons Cuarn's Desierto.

In November 2014, Morgan was cast as Joe DiMaggio opposite Kelli Garner as Marilyn Monroe in The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe, a Lifetime four-hour miniseries based on J. Randy Taraborrelli's book of the same name.

In 2015, Morgan portrayed Deaf Smith in Texas Rising, a five-part mini-series which aired on the History Channel. Also in 2015, he became a regular cast member for season 2 of the CBS sci-fi drama Extant. He appeared in an uncredited role in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, as Bruce Wayne's father, Thomas Wayne.

He played the character of a freelance investigator Jason Crouse in the popular TV show The Good Wife. Afterward, Morgan portrayed the character Negan on the AMC TV series The Walking Dead. He made his first appearance in the sixth-season finale and serves as the primary antagonist of the seventh season.

Personal life

On May 30, 1992, Morgan was married to actress Anya Longwell in Las Vegas. In 2007, he was briefly engaged to his former Weeds costar Mary-Louise Parker; their engagement ended in April 2008.

In 2009, Morgan began a relationship with actress Hilarie Burton. The couple's son was born in March 2010. In July, 2015, Morgan said that despite media reports to the contrary, he and Burton were not yet married but that they intended to wed when he could get enough time off from work.

Morgan and Burton made their home in the town of Rhinebeck in Dutchess County, New York on a working farm with cows, chickens and alpacas. Since 2014, they have been co-owners (along with Morgan's friend, actor Paul Rudd) of Samuel's Sweet Shop, a Rhinebeck candy store they saved from being closed down after the previous owner, a friend of theirs, died suddenly.

In a June 2015 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, he was asked how many children he had and replied "I have one", referring to his son with Hilarie Burton.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1991	Uncaged	Sharkey
1995	Dillinger and Capone	Jack Bennett
1995	Undercover Heat	Ramone
1997	Legal Deceit	Todd Hunter
1999	Road Kill	Bobby
2003	Something More	Daniel	Short film
2004	Dead & Breakfast	The Sheriff
2004	Six: The Mark Unleashed	Tom Newman	Direct-to-DVD
2005	Chasing Ghosts	Det. Cole Davies	Direct-to-DVD
2007	Live!	Rick
2007	Fred Claus	Man Getting Parking Ticket	Cameo
2007	Kabluey	Brad
2007	P.S. I Love You	William Gallagher
2008	The Accidental Husband	Patrick Sullivan	Direct-to-DVD
2008	Days of Wrath	Bryan Gordon
2009	Watchmen	Edward Blake / The Comedian
2009	Taking Woodstock	Dan
2010	Shanghai	Connor
2010	The Losers	Clay
2010	Jonah Hex	Jeb Turnbull	Uncredited
2011	'	Max
2011	Peace, Love & Misunderstanding	Jude
2011	Texas Killing Fields	Brian Heigh
2011	The Courier	The Courier	Direct-to-VOD
2012	The Possession	Clyde Brenek
2012	Red Dawn	Sgt. Maj. Andrew Tanner USMC
2014	The Salvation	Delarue
2014	They Came Together	Frank	Cameo
2015	Solace	Agent Joe Merriweather
2015	Heist	Luke Vaughn	Direct-to-VOD
2015	Desierto	Sam
2015	Guns for Hire	Bruce
2016	Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice	Thomas Wayne	Uncredited

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	Extreme	Jack Hawkins	2 episodes
1995	JAG	Weapons Officer	Episode: "Shadow"
1996	Sliders	Sid	Episode: "El Sid"
1996	In the Blink of an Eye	Jessie	Television film
1996-1997	The Burning Zone	Dr. Edward Marcase	11 episodes
2000	Walker, Texas Ranger	Jake Horbart	Episode: "Child of Hope"
2001	ER	Firefighter Larkin	Episode: "The Crossing"
2002	The Practice	Daniel Glenn	Episode: The Test"
2002	JAG	CIA Technician Wally	2 episodes
2002	Angel	Sam Ryan	Episode: "Provider"
2002	The Division	Father William Natali	Episode: "Forgive Me, Father"
2003	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Undercover Agent #1	Episode: "All for Our Country"
2003	Star Trek: Enterprise	Xindi-Reptilian	Episode: "Carpenter Street"
2004	The Handler	Mike	2 episodes
2004	Tru Calling	Geoffrey Pine	Episode: "Two Pair"
2004	Monk	Steven Leight	Episode: "Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan"
2005	The O.C.	Joe Zukowski	Episode: "The Accomplice"
2005	Weeds	Judah Botwin	2 episodes
2005-2007	Supernatural	John Winchester	12 episodes
2006	Jam	Dale	Television film
2006-2009	Grey's Anatomy	Denny Duquette	23 episodes
2012-2013	Magic City	Ike Evans	16 episodes
2014	Shameless	Charlie Peters	Episode: "Lazarus"
2015	The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe	Joe DiMaggio	2 episodes
2015	Texas Rising	"Deaf" Smith	5 episodes
2015	Extant	JD Richter	13 episodes
2015-2016	The Good Wife	Jason Crouse	19 episodes
2016-present	The Walking Dead	Negan	Special Guest Star (Episode: "Last Day on Earth") Main Role (season 7-present) Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Guest Performer in a Drama Series Pending"?Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best TV Supporting Actor (2017) Pending"?Saturn Award for Best Guest Starring Role on Television