It feels good to be recognized and it boosts my ego!” At the beginning of November, Patrick Dempsey was interviewed by the American magazine People. The actor has just been crowned “sexiest man alive” by the weekly and he seems over the moon. “I’m delighted that this is happening to me at this stage of my life,” he adds. It’s true that being proclaimed an object of fantasy at 57 is not common, but he has learned patience. A value that his own father, William, passed on to him: it was late in life that this insurance agent had the son he hoped for so much, arriving on January 13, 1966. “He was already in his fifties when I was born, the actor recently confided to Fatherly. He was half-retired and therefore very available.
We did a lot of things together.” His mother Amanda, a secretary in a school, is also very present for Patrick and his two older sisters. The family lives in Lewiston, a small town in Maine, in a pretty house surrounded by apple trees. However, childhood was not kind to the young boy. In question, dyslexia which is not diagnosed to him and makes him feel “completely stupid”, in his words. “Everything related to school was painful and complicated to manage. Fortunately, we can also flourish in sport.” In his case, it is skiing, which he begins to practice in high doses. “Every morning before leaving for school, I got up very early and practiced going through gates on the hills behind our house,” he explained to the Swiss newspaper Le Temps.
I wanted to become a professional skier, represent the United States and be selected for the Olympics.” The teenager also dreams of joining a circus: an accomplished juggler, he even came third in a national championship… However, a few theater lessons received at school forged in him another vocation: comedy. At 17, he left his family to settle in New York. Big problem: his dyslexia has made him “effectively illiterate”, which greatly complicates the auditions. So, Patrick works hard. Before each casting, he has his lines read to him by a friend and then learns them by heart, so as not to show that he is struggling to decipher a text. And it works !
After appearing in a few plays, he landed his first film role in 1985 in Tutti Frutti, alongside Donald Sutherland. At not even 20 years old, that’s a great accomplishment! Especially since this first attempt allows him to make a series of films. You can’t buy love, Loverboy, Coupe de ville, then Les Indomptés with Christian Slater: the young lead doesn’t stop, until joining Scream 3 in 2000, then playing Reese Witherspoon’s fiancé in 2002 in Fashion Victim. But it was two years later that his life changed. At age 38, he was cast as Derek Shepherd on Grey’s Anatomy.
Well, chosen, yes, but by default… Because Shonda Rhimes, the creator of the medical show, initially wanted Rob Lowe and she only made Patrick Doctor Mamour after her favorite refused. What does it matter! The program was a hit and propelled Mister Dempsey to stardom. His character as a seductive neurosurgeon, with shiny locks and moist eyes, places him center stage. The cinema is clamoring for him from Disney’s Once Upon a Time to the blockbuster Transformers 3 – and he is accumulating filming, while remaining in the series which has made him a bankable guy. It must be said that the audiences are at the top and the prices bury the casting, which appears in troop mode, united and smiling, on the red carpets. Behind the scenes, however, the atmosphere is anything but friendly! And Patrick Dempsey does not appear to be the ideal colleague. At least according to Isaiah Washington, aka Dr Burke, who described him as racist and violent. Himself having been accused of having called a gay actor a “faggot”, his comments are perhaps unreliable. Except that on set, others have grievances against Patrick.
“He terrorized his colleagues”
Ellen Pompeo, his on-screen wife, for example, has difficulty forgiving him for his selfishness: paid half as much as him, she often asked him to negotiate the same salary together, as the hero of the soap opera… Not collecting for answer only repeated winds! “He was never interested in helping me,” she said in the columns of The Hollywood Reporter. Atmosphere ! When Patrick left Grey’s Anatomy in 2015, pushed out by boss Shonda Rhimes after eleven seasons, the interpreter of Meredith quickly got over it. And his costars may miss the character of Derek on screen, killed in a car accident, no one mourns him off camera. Because Ellen Pompeo is not the only one he would have mistreated. “He terrorized the whole team,” a former producer revealed in a book devoted to the series. “Several actors suffered from a sort of post-traumatic stress because of him. He was unmanageable and found it unfair to have to work every day.” A laziness that Ellen would have blamed him for, tired of his complaints and his incessant delays. “She could no longer stand hearing him say that her days were too long when she had twice as many scenes as him!”
In the same work, the brunette will defend himself by recalling that “working fifteen-hour days for ten months a year is a challenge”, while recognizing that “the financial compensation was up to the task”. That’s an understatement, with a fee of more than €350,000 per episode! “I had a hard time saying goodbye to all that, especially not knowing if I would work again afterwards.” It’s certain that apart from Bridget Jones 3 in the cinema and The Truth About the Harry Québert Affair on TV, we will see him much less on our screens, after the series. When he was asked to return in 2020, in the form of a ghost, he accepted, for a few episodes. Successful operation for the cathodic surgeon, who remembered the good memories of the producers. Now starring in the horror film Thanksgiving, he hopes to turn the page. Fifty Shades of Grey’s Anatomy, he doesn’t find it sexy!
Maëlle Brun
In campaign !
Although he has toured little in recent years, the actor has managed to secure a nice income. How ? By improvising as a muse. From L’Oréal cosmetics to Silhouette glasses, from TAG Heuer watches to Versace shoes: he does not hesitate to promote a wide variety of products. But this car fan’s favorite collaboration undoubtedly remains its partnership with Porsche. Long live self-promotion!
A passion that takes your breath away
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The actor may feel good on set, but it is on the circuits that he really exults. A true driver, we have already seen him in legendary races, such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and he has his own team, Dempsey Racing. “Motor racing allowed me to find myself in a world close to that of skiing: the intensive training, the athletic side, the endurance, the discipline that it requires,” he explained to the newspaper Le Temps. He also collects vintage cars, whatever their price. Checkout!
The women in his life
In 1987, Patrick Dempsey married for the first time. He has just celebrated his 21st birthday and the lucky lady, who is twenty-seven years older than him, is called Rocky Parker. She’s his best friend’s mother! If she became the young actor’s manager, the union was not made to last, ending in a divorce in 1994. However, this was not enough to dissuade the actor from appearing again in front of the mayor, in 1999. This time, he said yes to the hairdresser Jill Fink, with whom he had Tallulah, in 2002, then the twins Sullivan and Darby, in 2007. In 2015, the couple decided to separate. Are the rumors of infidelity of the star, who allegedly had an affair with an assistant from Grey’s Anatomy, to blame? The Dempseys reconcile after marriage therapy. The (happy) end.
By the looks of it…
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Going through surgery is a rite in Hollywood. And Patrick Dempsey is no exception, he who underwent a rhinoplasty at the start of his career. A way to repair his nasal septum, he will say, referring to a hockey injury dating back to adolescence. However, he obviously took the opportunity to reduce the size of his nose, just in time to become a star. Is that what you call having flair?
HIS CAREER
1985: TUTTI FRUTTI
First appearance in the cinema, in this feature film about teenagers who rebel against the norms of their very strict school. Patrick is 19 years old.
1987: LOVE CAN NOT BE BOUGHT
In this teen movie, he plays a stuck-up high school student who invents a life for himself in order to become popular. The role earned him a Young Artist Award.
2000: SCREAM 3
If this opus is not the most successful in the Wes Craven saga, the actor stands out as Inspector Mark Kincaid.
2002: VICTIM FASHION
In this successful romantic comedy, he is the wealthy fiancé of Reese Witherspoon shared between two men.
2005: GREY’S ANATOMY
Patrick Dempsey becomes Derek Shepherd, aka neurosurgeon Dr. Mamour. A character that he played for eleven seasons.
2007: ONCE UPON A TIME
In this Disney blockbuster, he plays Prince Charming alongside Amy Adams. The film is a huge success. A fairy tale !
2016: BRIDGET JONES BABY
He is the new lover of the iconic bachelor in this third part which sees Renée Zellweger’s character have a baby.