James Denton

James Denton has made all of America wish for faulty pipes due to his role as the world's sexiest plumber, Mike Delfino, on ABC's smash hit, Desperate Housewives. Along with the rest of the cast, Denton was honored with the 2005 SAG Award for Best Ensemble in a Comedy.

A native of Nashville, Denton has been one of Hollywood's busiest actors since he hit town with a training background that has launched many performers into stardom -- a solid body of respected work in the Chicago theatre.

Originally attending college on a basketball scholarship, Denton wasn't bitten by the acting bug until he was 20. He landed the role of George Gibbs in a Nashville production of "Our Town," got fine reviews, but thought there was a more solid career in selling advertising. He did that in Tennessee and then in North Carolina for four years, before taking off for Chicago to risk everything to become a professional actor.

He was soon accepted as one of the town's brightest and busiest actors. After earning a key casting when the "Untouchables" series came to town to film, Denton was drawn to Los Angeles, where his strong theatre reputation had preceded him, and he was quickly locked in with choice turns in film, on TV and on stage.

He started building his big screen profile with performances in such films as "Primary Colors," "Face/Off" and "That Old Feeling," but soon off-beat roles in adventurous TV series were claiming his time. In 1997 he landed the role of the eerily sociopathic Mr. Lyle on NBC's hit drama show, "The Pretender." The NBC series' multi-year run was followed by "The Pretender" television films, "Pretender 2001" and "Pretender: The Island of the Haunted."

In 2001 Denton was cast by ABC to star opposite Kim Delaney in Steven Bochco's "Philly" series, which was critically acclaimed but short-lived. But his growing reputation soon led to a new series casting him as a top player in this nation's homeland security community, Special Agent Jon Kilmer on "Threat Matrix."

Acting obviously is serious work for the handsome and athletic star. Denton's first role in Chicago theatre was as Stanley Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire," and his last was the terrorist on the French farce, "Lapin, Lapin." He was a company member of the Griffin Theatre and at the Strawdog Theatre Ensemble. He added a steady string of roles and accolades to his quickly growing list, 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 coveted Joseph Jefferson Best Actor nomination. For these performances, Denton was listed as one of Chicago's hottest actors by Screen Magazine. In Los Angeles he appeared in the premieres of "Asylum" at the Court Theatre, "Locked Up Down Shorty's" at the Powerhouse Theatre and "In Walked Monk" at the Hudson Theatre.

In addition to his series-starring roles on TV, his guest appearances include "JAG," "Slider," "Dark Skies," "Two Guys and a Girl," "Ally McBeal" and "The West Wing."
(courtesy of ABC)
After bit parts in the John Woo martial arts extravaganza Face/Off (1997) and guest-starring appearances on the weekly series Ally McBeal and The Drew Carey Show, Jamie Denton (also billed under his formal prename, James Denton) achieved national recognition for his contribution to the darkly comic prime-time soap opera Desperate Housewives. In that program, Denton played Mike Delfino, the very eligible bachelor plumber, tossed like a volleyball in between sexy suburbanites Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan) and Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher).

The eldest child of a Nashville, TN, dentist, Denton attended Goodlettsville High School and junior college prior to enrolling in the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. At that institution, he majored in television and journalism, and graduated with honors, a degree in advertising under his arm. Grassroots experience acting in a number of regional plays -- including a local production of Thornton Wilder's +Our Town -- imparted to Denton a permanent love of acting, and thus shifted his career path; he spent four years making a living by selling advertising to radio stations, but nothing could outshine the passion and drive he felt for acting. Thus, after a short theatrical stint in North Carolina, Denton set out for Chicago to pursue drama full-time. In the Windy City, Denton landed roles in such productions as +A Streetcar Named Desire and +Lapin, Lapin, and signed on as a semi-permanent member of the Griffin Theater and the Strawdog Theater Ensemble.

Denton subsequently scored the key role of Mr. Lyle in the NBC fantasy-adventure series The Pretender, and worked on a number of other small-screen programs, including The Untouchables, Sliders, and Dark Skies. Cinematically, he landed bit parts in not only Face/Off, but Primary Colors and That Old Feeling. Regular roles on the series Threat Matrix and Philly suggested great promise, but unfortunately, those series folded before they could snag a sizeable audience.

Not one easily daunted, Denton held out for a bigger break, and that arrived in the form of his Housewives role. Shortly after the series premiered in October 2004, it rocketed up to become one of the most popular and scintillating new dramas on television. Fans of cult horror could also catch Denton as miscreant Elmer Winslow in the comic slasher movie Undead or Alive: A Zombedy