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, JD 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 JD has appeared, have been written by his good friend, Mike Petty. For example, "In Walked Monk", in which JD played the role of "Steven" during the summer of 1999, was written by Mike Petty, as was "Locked Up Down Shorty's", in which JD 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 plumber 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 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.
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