Dylan McDermott

Dylan McDermott (born Mark Anthony McDermott; October 26, 1961) is an American actor. He is known for his role as lawyer and law firm head Bobby Donnell on the legal drama series The Practice, which earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama and a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.

McDermott is also known for his roles in the first two seasons of American Horror Story, entitled American Horror Story: Murder House and American Horror Story: Asylum, portraying Ben Harmon and Johnny Morgan, respectively. He was also the series lead on the TNT series Dark Blue, portraying the role of Lt. Carter Shaw. He also starred as Detective Jack Larsen on the CBS series Stalker.

Early life

McDermott was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, the son of Diane and Richard McDermott. He is of Italian (from his maternal grandfather), Irish, English, and French descent. Diane was 15 and Richard was 17 when McDermott was born; by 1967, the couple had divorced, and Diane and her two children were living with her mother, Avis (Rogers) Marino. On February 9, 1967, Diane was killed. Her death was originally ruled an accident, but police later claimed that evidence they had found would be enough to file murder charges against John Sponza, who had been living with Diane at the time. Sponza told authorities that Diane accidentally shot herself after picking up a gun he had been cleaning. Sponza, who police say had ties to organized crime, was killed in 1972; his body was found in the trunk of a car in a Waltham, Massachusetts grocery store parking lot.