Patrick Dempsey (born January 13, 1966 in Lewiston, Maine) is an actor who achieved Hollywood fame during the late 1980s.

Patrick Dempsey lived in Buckfield, Maine, as a teenager. He was also an adept juggler, placing third in a National Juggling Competition .

In 1985, he debuted as an actor, in the movie Heaven Help Us .

In 1987, he participated in Meatballs 3 , where he played a janitor, Rudy. This movie gave him some fame. Soon after, he married actress Rocky Parker , twenty seven years his senior.

It wasn't until another 1987 release, Can't Buy Me Love , that he achieved major movie star status. The movie, in which he played Ronald Miller, was a geek to popular type of comedy which launched him and co-star Amanda Peterson to teen idol status, and Dempsey and Peterson appeared constantly on the covers of such teen magazines as Teen Beat, Tiger Beat, 16 , Bop and others. In 1989, he shared credits with Charo and Kirsty Alley in Loverboy , where he played a pizza delivery boy.

Just like in Peterson's case, Dempsey's time on the main spotlight was short. He made several movies during the 1990s, of which most were box office bombs, straight to video releases or television movies. There were a few notable exceptions, however, such as 1991's Mobsters, where he played Meyer Lansky, 1993's , where he played John F. Kennedy, 1994's With Honors, and 1995's Outbreak, alongside Dustin Hoffman.

In 2000, he acted in another significant box office hit, Scream 3, alongside Neve Campbell. In 2002, he was in Sweet Home Alabama, with Reese Witherspoon.

In 2004, he starred in the HBO TV movie, Iron Jawed Angels, about the women's suffrage movement, with Anjelica Huston and Hilary Swank. Parts of the movies were filmed in Richmond, VA.

Overall, Dempsey has participated in more than forty movies.

Dempsey divorced Rocky Parker in 1994. He remarried in 1999, to actress Jill Fink . The couple has one child.