Husband to Hilarie Burton and star of The Walking Dead, Jeffrey Dean Morgan has had a full and exciting career that’s led him to the biggest show on TV.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan: Loving Husband, Fearsome Villain
With rugged good looks and charisma to spare, it’s hard to believe that Jeffrey Dean Morgan is now best known as one of the evilest villains in TV history. In real life, he’s a fun-loving guy who seems like a blast to be around on set and clearly loves his family, but he’s able to transform into someone much uglier on screen. Since 2016, Morgan has embodied the role of Negan, the most notorious villain from the pages of The Walking Dead graphic novels, now brought to life on the mega-popular TV series. With a chilling monologue and two gruesome deaths at his hand, Negan’s introduction was easily one of the most memorable in the show’s history. Jeffrey Dean Morgan has quite the history of becoming other people; his TV and film resume is chock full of appearances on some of the most popular series and movies of the past two decades. From playing a superhero in Watchmen (not to mention a superhero’s ill-fated father in Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice) to romancing Katherine Heigl’s Izzie on Grey’s Anatomy, Morgan is an actor we’ve been seeing for years on TV and in movies. Before The Walking Dead, he was probably best known as John Winchester, father to Sam and Dean on CW’s Supernatural.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan is quite the charmer and while his characters tend to have a rogue quality about them, he’s been cast as a love interest opposite actresses like Juliana Margulies in the final season of The Good Wife and Mary Louise Parker in Weeds (to whom he was briefly engaged). Off screen, he’s been with Hilarie Burton since 2009 and their Instagram accounts give us a peek into their happy life together. They both share a love for animals and spending time with their son, Gus. On The Walking Dead, Morgan sheds all that likability and becomes a monster. It’s violent, it’s ugly, and sometimes it can be hard to watch. But like with all of his work throughout his career, Jeffrey Dean Morgan is just so good in the role, you can’t look away. Find out more about this incredible actor, his age, net worth, family, and unexpected connection to Paul Rudd.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan, husband to Hilarie Burton
In 2005, Jeffrey Dean Morgan guest starred on the Showtime series, Weeds, opposite Mary Louise Parker, as a character named Judah Botwin. The two ended up engaged by 2007, though they decided to call it off in April 2008. At the time, they didn’t give a reason for their break-up. Soon after ending things with Mary Louise Parker, Jeffrey Dean Morgan began dating Hilarie Burton and the two have been happily together ever since. The couple is known for being very private but over the years they have shared brief insights into their happiness. When talking to Entertainment Tonight earlier this year, Morgan gushed about his wife, “There’s no one stronger than her. How she’s able to balance all the things that she balances and be a strong voice for good is amazing and I just couldn’t be more proud.” The two met thanks to one of Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s TV sons, Jensen Ackles from Supernatural. The way Morgan tells it is that while working on the show, Ackles said to him, “I’ve got a girl you should meet.” So at the age of 40, he joined Ackles and his wife and went to a bar for a blind date of sorts with Hilarie Burton. He said that after a few drinks the two hit it off so well that she quickly agreed to come visit him in New Mexico while he filmed an upcoming movie and the two have been together ever since.
Meet Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Hilarie Burton’s Family
In March of 2010, at the age of 28, Hilarie Burton gave birth to her son with Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Augustus (who they call Gus), and in a 2011 interview with E!, Morgan said that parenthood had been “spectacular.” While the happy couple continues to be relatively private, they do frequently share pictures of them with their son on Instagram, spending time with animals and going on other outings. They will soon have another little one tagging along when the couple welcomes their first daughter next year. It wasn’t initially the plan for them to make it known that they would be having a girl this time around, but Jeffrey Dean Morgan let it slip in front of a crowd of people so there was no keeping it a secret after that. While speaking at a New Jersey Supernatural fan convention, Morgan was talking a bit about anticipating his second child and he froze and covered his face when he realized he was using the words “she” and “her.” Morgan later said in an Instagram post that Hilarie Burton was pretty understanding of her husband, saying, “After all these years she’s come to expect me to be a dope… thank god she gets it and loves me regardless.”
He Guest Starred on Grey’s Anatomy and Supernatural
Whether playing opposite Mary Louise Parker in Weeds or romancing Julianna Margulies’s character in the final season of The Good Wife, Jeffrey Dean Morgan has appeared on a number of popular TV series over the past couple of decades. In fact, it’s pretty likely that when you first saw Negan appear on screen in The Walking Dead, your first thought may have been, “Wait…where do I know that guy from?” There are a lot of possibilities given his extensive TV resume, but one of his most popular roles was as Denny in Grey’s Anatomy. Appearing in 23 episodes at the height of the show’s popularity, Denny was a heart patient who became romantically involved with Katherine Heigl’s character, Izzie. As so often happens on Grey’s Anatomy, tragedy struck and Denny died from a stroke due to complications from a heart transplant. It was one of the most heartbreaking stories the show had ever done and the love story between Denny and Izzie continues to be celebrated by fans on YouTube and across the internet. Morgan later returned as Denny in a couple of episodes, appearing to Meredith as a ghost after she nearly drowned and later to Izzie when she became sick with cancer. “Ghost Denny” is pretty polarizing among Grey’s Anatomy fans, but regardless of how people feel about that appearance, the character of Denny certainly struck a chord and this was a turning point role for Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
One of the other game-changing roles for Morgan that increased his profile and net worth was as John Winchester, father to Sam and Dean on CW’s long-running series, Supernatural. Anyone that watches the show knows that John didn’t exactly have it easy; his wife was killed by a demon, he became a hunter and trained up his sons to do the same in order to take revenge against the supernatural and he later went to Hell to save one of his son’s lives. Through all of the life and death stories of Supernatural that includes all kinds of demons and creatures of the night, the foundation of the show is family. As we follow these two brothers hunting down every different type of supernatural evil, it’s impossible to not get invested in this family and their mission. As the weary patriarch of the family, John instills values of dedication and sacrifice and shows he’s willing to go to any lengths to protect his family. As one of the most important characters in the Supernatural universe, Jeffrey Dean Morgan quickly became a fan favorite and has frequently appeared at fan conventions for years.
Watchmen & More: Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Biggest Films
In the late 1980s, a graphic novel called Watchmen arrived, written by Alan Moore with art by Dave Gibbons and color by John Higgins. It’s an iconic piece of work and has a cult following among fans of comic books and graphic novels, so when Zack Snyder set out to make a movie adaptation in 2009, it was was pivotal that they get the casting right. As a result, Jeffrey Dean Morgan ended up with another one of his most popular roles as part of a team of darker, edgier superheroes than the ones you’re used to. In Watchmen, Morgan plays The Comedian, a complex character that does several fairly reprehensible things throughout the course of the story. Morgan said that he struggled with finding the character because he had to reconcile some of the awful things he did but Snyder said he was perfect for the role because it’s hard to find a “man’s man in Hollywood.” Along with his work in Watchmen, Jeffrey Dean Morgan has had parts in a number of movies that include P.S. I Love You, The Losers, and Texas Killing Fields. He even appeared briefly as Thomas Wayne in Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Morgan’s first role was in a movie called Uncaged back in 1991 and he found steady work throughout much of the 90s, but it wasn’t until Grey’s Anatomy and Supernatural on TV and Watchmen on the big screen that fans really began to take notice.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan Owns a Candy Store With Paul Rudd
One of the more unexpected fun facts about Jeffrey Dean Morgan is that along with being an actor, husband, and father, he’s also….a candy shop owner? Not the most typical way for an actor to increase his net worth but it’s true. In Poughkeepsie, New York there is a little place called Samuel’s Sweet Shop on East Market Street and it faced closure when its owner, Ira Gutner, passed away in 2014. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Paul Rudd, their wives, and another couple all decided to invest in the store to keep it open. As frequent customers themselves, they didn’t want to say goodbye to all the sweets and pastries that Samuel’s is known for.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan Is The Walking Dead’s Negan
Jeffrey Dean Morgan has assembled an impressive body of work through TV and movies and a net worth of around $8 million, but, at the age of 51, his iconic role as Negan on The Walking Dead has catapulted his star status to a whole other level. The Walking Dead is such a popular graphic novel that every character they’ve brought to life has come with a tremendous amount of pressure, but perhaps none more so than the character of Negan. The ruthless villain, and leader of a group called the Saviors, Negan’s first appearance on the TV series included him giving a long, profane monologue on the life or death ultimatum he was offering and eventually leading to the brutal deaths of two beloved characters. Before Jeffrey Dean Morgan got the part, there were plenty of internet rumors about actors such as Timothy Olyphant and Garrett Dillahunt being considered for the role and the show’s casting directors admit that it was an extensive worldwide search for the right actor. Ultimately, Morgan is perfect for the part, able to play the violent, impulsive leader with just the right flash of charisma that makes it believable that people would trust and follow him. Of course, if they don’t fall for his charisma, his baseball bat affectionately named Lucille usually does the trick. Since Negan’s introduction to the show, things have been turned completely upside down for Rick and his group desperately trying to survive in the midst of this new status quo. Despite the chaos, there have been glimpses to Negan’s humanity and hints about his history and how he ended up the way that he is, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan has expressed interest in doing a Negan-centric flashback episode to learn even more.
Future Plans for Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Whether you fell in love with him through his movie or TV roles, it’s clear that Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a devoted father and husband, a hard worker and an actor that can pour himself into a variety of different roles. For the foreseeable future, he’ll continue to appear on The Walking Dead, Sunday nights on AMC, but given the high body count on that show, that could change at any point. In 2018, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Hilarie Burton will be welcoming the birth of their first daughter and Morgan will appear in the new film, Rampage, alongside Dwayne Johnson and former Watchmen co-star, Malin Ackerman.
