Patrick Dempsey Goes from Acting to Racing

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PMB 353 Scottsdale, Arizona, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) February 13, 2012 -- Patrick Dempsey has owned many titles over the years, including Broadway actor, vaudeville performer and even "McDreamy," the nickname he earned in his role as Dr. Derek Shepherd on ABC's popular drama Grey's Anatomy. But recently, he's added another title to his resume, that of a professional race car driver. And believe it or not, he's actually pretty good.

But before we get into the nuances of his life behind the wheel, Dempsey's story prior to the racetrack deserves to be told.

Dempsey didn't start his life wanting to be an actor. As he was growing up in Maine, the plan was to become an Olympic long skier, so he focused most of his time and energy on the slopes. But in the off season, he would ride a unicycle just for a bit of fun. "I picked up the unicycle and I got involved in a vaudeville troop," Dempsey explains. "I started performing and got used to being in front of an audience, and then I started acting. One thing led to another, and all of these opportunities came up. I found myself in New York City, acting — quite by accident, actually."

It was the 1980s, and although he wasn't quite old enough to strike out on his own, he went ahead and did it anyways, running away to join the theatre in New York. The opportunities started to come after that, and he appeared in some pretty big movies of the era, culminating with the 1987 classic Can't Buy Me Love. Things looked pretty promising for the young actor with the striking good looks.

But then things started to stumble a little bit, with the roles becoming less prominent, and a lesser man might have given up on his dreams. But not Dempsey. "I had to kind of stick it out, and I'm glad I did, because it really taught me a lot going through that experience. I had a lot very early on, so I learned what that was like, and then I learned what it was like to be cold and not getting the roles," Dempsey recalls. "I was always working, but it was also a very difficult thing to get a job."

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