Patrick Dempsey

For someone whose acting career was at a virtual standstill for about a decade, Patrick Dempsey may hold the bragging rights to having arguably one of the greatest career comeback stories of his time. Famous for starring in the '80s romantic-comedy hits Can't Buy Me Love, Some Girls, Loverboy, and Happy Together, Dempsey found it difficult to move forward from his pigeonholed teenage characters to more mature roles during the '90s. It was only after his appearance opposite Reese Witherspoon in Sweet Home Alabama (2002) that his fading career was jolted back into life. In 2005, Patrick once again achieved Hollywood heartthrob status as he portrayed the role of Dr. Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd in the popular medical drama, Grey's Anatomy.

Patrick, who as a child had his difficulties in school, made up for his academic deficiency by focusing his efforts and energy towards other endeavors. As a teen, he engaged and excelled in skiing, unicycle riding, and juggling, the activity which he considers gave him purpose and led him towards the performing arts. During the early 1980s, Dempsey went to New York to enter a talent competition and eventually found himself an agent. His first professional acting job was playing David in the San Francisco production of Torch Song Trilogy. Skipping acting school altogether, he continued with stage acting and toured playing Eugene Jerome in Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs. In 1985, Patrick first appeared on the big screen with Heaven Help Us followed by a slew of "rom-com" flicks in the late 80s and a starring role as Mike Damone on Cameron Crowe's high school comedy Fast Times.

In the 1990s, apart from the film With Honors (1994), where he starred alongside Joe Pesci, Brendan Fraser, and Moira Kelly as the eccentric yet charming playboy Everett Calloway, Patrick never made a significant stride in his movie career. After a long list of unremarkable made-for-TV movie credits, Dempsey decided to return to Maine, where he bought and restored a farm. In 2000, the resurrection of his career began to take form as he was cast as Sela Ward's schizophrenic brother in the ABC family drama Once and Again, which earned him an Emmy nomination in 2001.

He also made multiple appearances on Will & Grace (2001) as a gay customer in the clothing outlet where Jack McFarland worked, and on The Practice (2004) as "wolf-in-sheep's-clothing" doctor on trial for malpractice. The medical coat seemed to suit Dempsey well as his acting career was fully resuscitated on the Fall of 2005 when he landed the role of a lifetime as the brilliant and charismatic Seattle Grace neurosurgeon, Derek Shepherd, on the award-winning series, Grey's Anatomy, where his romantic onscreen relationship with Meredith Grey (played by Ellen Pompeo) has drawn phenomenal fan support and fame.