James Denton was born on 20th January 1963, the second of three children born to a dentist and his wife in Nashville, Tennessee.Although he spent four years selling advertising for two radio stations and then for the CBS affiliate in Nashville, Jamie's heart was already in another place, and after a short stint in North Carolina, he headed to Chicago to try his hand at acting full-time. In 1997, James got called to read for a role in a TV show called "the Pretender". He showed up for the audition with no idea what the producers wanted, flying blind. As he was leaving the audition, they called him back and said, "A little more Jimmy Stewart." Jamie had the offer to play the "possible recurring" part of "Mr. Lyle" before he even reached home. James plays his most famous role of Mike Delfino "Desperate Housewives". James resides in Southern California with his wife, the former actress Erin O'Brien,  and their two children.