Dean Winters

Dean Winters
Winters in October 2010
Born	July 20, 1964 (1964-07-20) (age 47) New York City, United States
Occupation	Actor

Dean Winters (born July 20, 1964) is an American actor, who has portrayed Ryan O'Reily on HBO's Oz, Johnny Gavin on FX Network's Rescue Me, and Dennis Duffy on NBC's 30 Rock. He was selected to portray "Mayhem" in an Allstate insurance advertising campaign that began airing in the summer of 2010.

Early life

Winters was born in New York City, and has three younger siblings: Bradford (a writer), Scott William, and Blair. Scott is also an actor, and portrayed Ryan O'Reily's brother Cyril on Oz.^[1]

Career

Winters has appeared in two of the Law & Order television series: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, where he was a regular in the first season, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. He has also made guest appearances on Sex and the City, Third Watch, NYPD Blue, CSI: Miami and 30 Rock as well as previously having a starring role in Rescue Me. He also starred in the 1999 romantic comedy Undercover Angel with Yasmine Bleeth and the 2002 direct-to-video horror film Hellraiser: Hellseeker. He played Tom in PS, I Love You. Winters played Detective Sam Tyler's father in the US version of Life On Mars. He also played Charley Dixon, Sarah Connor's love interest, in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Winters was cast in ABC drama pilot Happy Town from the creators of October Road, but was replaced by Steven Weber after shooting the pilot.^[2][3]

On June 20, 2010, Winters was introduced as "Mayhem," the recurring character in a new television and radio advertising campaign for Allstate Insurance created by the agency Leo Burnett Chicago. In an analysis of the 15-second teaser spots, Stuart Elliott, advertising columnist of The New York Times, called Mayhem "a throwback to a kind of ad character that was once hugely popular: the bad guy who causes problems that the product being advertised solves," comparing Winters' character to the Noid in ads for Domino's Pizza in the 1980s, or the Spotmaker in early Calgonite ads.^[4]

Personal life

Around June 19, 2009, after shooting the Happy Town pilot, Winters contracted a bacterial infection and collapsed upon arrival at his doctor's office, and while being transported across Central Park in an ambulance, Winters' heart stopped beating for 2½ minutes. Paramedics were able to revive him, and Winters was hospitalized in intensive care for three weeks. Over the course of the next year, Winters developed gangrene, requiring the amputation of two toes and part of a thumb (five-eighths) and ten subsequent operations. Aside from being replaced by Weber when the pilot was picked up for series production, Winters was away from acting until the spring of 2010, when Tina Fey brought him back to 30 Rock and he started work on the Mayhem campaign.^[5]

Filmography

Films

• Conspiracy Theory (1997)^[1]
• Lifebreath (1997)
• Firehouse (1997) (TV film)
• Undercover Angel (1999)^[1]
• Snipes (2001)
• Bullet in the Brain (2001)
• Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002) (direct-to-video)
• Strip Search (2004) (TV film)
• Brooklyn Bound (2004)
• Love Rome (2004)
• Bristol Boys (2005)
• Dead Calling (2006)
• P.S. I Love You (2007)
• Devil You Know (2009)
• Winter of Frozen Dreams (2009)
• Splinterheads (2009)
• 7 to the Palace (2009)
• Today's Special (2009)

TV series

• Homicide: Life on the Street (1995–1996)^[1]
• NYPD Blue (1996)
• Millennium (1997–1999)^[1]
• Oz (1997–2003)^[1]
• New York Undercover (1998)^[1]
• Sex and the City (1999)
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999–2000)^[1]
• Shyne- Bonnie and Shyne Music Video (2000)
• Deadline (2001)
• Third Watch (2002)
• The Twilight Zone (2002)
• CSI: Miami (2005)
• Rescue Me (2004–2011)
• 30 Rock (2006–present)^[6] ("Jack Meets Dennis", "Tracy Does Conan", "The Break Up", "Subway Hero", "Cooter", "Apollo, Apollo", "Anna Howard Shaw Day", "Operation Righteous Cowboy Lightning", "100")
• Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2008)
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008–2009)
• Life on Mars (2008–2009)
• Happy Town (2009)

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} "Biography for Dean Winters". Turner Classic Movies. http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/participant.jsp?spid=537831&apid=0. Retrieved January 4, 2011. 
2. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (2009-02-22). "Slew of pilots flesh out casts". Hollywoodreporter.com. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i2f1cb016d0c1784492ced5f59ee6542e. Retrieved 2010-05-20. ^{[dead link]}
3. ^ "Guide". TheFutonCritic.com. http://www.thefutoncritic.com/guide.aspx?id=in_and_out. Retrieved 2010-05-20. 
4. ^ Elliott, Stuart (2010-06-20). "Allstate Adds Villain, With Car Insurance as the Hero". nytimes.com. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/21/business/media/21adco.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1277229613-4DbSb9o7s3XCRQZvEn+TdQ. Retrieved 2010-06-22. 
5. ^ Page Six. "Dean Winters' amazing journey back from death". The New York Post. The New York Post. p. 6. http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/rock_star_back_from_dead_96z58EnG673W9mg08N2ZpL. Retrieved May 12 2011. 
6. ^ Ravitz, Justin (2008-03-17). "Bloomberg Films '30 Rock' Cameo". The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/17/bloomberg-films-30-rock_n_91827.html. Retrieved 2008-03-17. 

External links

• Dean Winters at the Internet Movie Database

Persondata
Name	Winters, Dean
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1964-07-30
Place of birth	New York City, United States
Date of death
Place of death