Greenbrier might not be the first place one thinks of when planning to kickstart an acting career, but Dean Denton is fine with that.
The 56-year-old actor, who lives with his family in Greenbrier, is steadily landing gigs in film and on TV.
He plays Sheriff Lord in the second episode of Bluff City Law, the new NBC legal drama starring Jimmy Smits and Caitlin McGee that debuts Monday, and that's him as a football coach in the recent film Brian Banks. He also played a detective in The Highwaymen, the 1930s-based Netflix movie starring Kevin Costner, Woody Harrelson and Kathy Bates.
Denton has wanted to be an actor since he was 7 and first saw True Grit, the John Wayne film based on the novel by Arkansas author Charles Portis. When he was a student at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, he appeared as an extra in the 1982 miniseries The Blue and the Gray.
"I was so nervous," he says. "If they had given me lines, I don't think I could have handled it."
He moved to Dallas after his sophomore year and enrolled in acting classes.
"The very first class I had, the instructor told me he didn't think I would ever work as an actor," Denton says. "That crushed me."
He gave up acting for about a year, then enrolled in the Film Actors Lab and studied under Lou Diamond Phillips and veteran character actor Adam Roarke in Dallas.
"Both of them really encouraged me," he says. "I was probably really bad the first year, but somehow it clicked."
He started booking local commercials and picked up roles on Dallas. After a class with a Los Angeles casting director, and armed with her business card, he promptly moved to L.A. and looked her up.
It was 1989, and she got him small roles on the soap opera Days of Our Lives. Through that work, he got an agent and bit parts in films and TV shows such as Born on the Fourth of July and Quantum Leap.
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Denton met his wife, Julie, also an Arkansas native, in California. Their first son, who is 22 now, was born in California, and the Dentons decided to move back here to be closer to family in 1998. They have two daughters, ages 19 and 17.
After almost a decade out of showbiz and living in Greenbrier, Denton started looking for acting gigs, taking parts in low-budget films like 2010's Step Away from the Stone, Summertime Christmas and others. In 2018, he played a police officer in God's Not Dead: A Light in Darkness.
Denton's day job is with AT&T in Conway, and he squeezes in acting projects on weekends and during his vacation time.
"I decided no matter where I had to go, I was going to get back into it one way or the other," he says.
Yancey Prosser of Little Rock's The Agency, Inc., has known Denton since they attended Conway High School together. Now, he's Denton's agent.
"He has hung in there, worked hard and finally he's started striking gold," Prosser says. "He's starting to get some good roles, and it's been really fun to watch."
As an actor, Denton "is very natural with his delivery," Prosser says. "He's more comfortable in his skin, and his acting skills are becoming more effortless."
Along with The Agency, Denton is also represented by Brenda Pauley and Jennifer Hummel with People Store in Atlanta.
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When we as viewers see an actor in a role, we're seeing a small success that happened long before the performance. The actor was chosen for the role, often from a highly competitive field.
What we don't see are all the times the actor wasn't picked. Rejection is a way of life in this business.
"A lot of actors always stay up, and they're never down," Denton says. "I'm not like that. I've been told 'No' over 1,200 times. It's tough. I try to focus on my family and forget about it, but it's hard when it's something you really want."
Auditions are often recorded and submitted to casting directors, he says.
"It's a lot easier. I don't have to drive to auditions. I don't have to go into live auditions much anymore."
His favorite role so far was playing Deputy Bob Alcorn in The Highwaymen, which was filmed near New Orleans.
"That was a dream come true," he says. "Kevin Costner answered just about every question I had, and he was so nice and giving."
Bluff City Law tells the story of how Sydney Strait (McGee) reluctantly joins with her estranged father (Smits) in his Memphis law firm. Denton appears in the Sept. 30 episode "You Don't Need a Weatherman."
"I can't talk a whole lot about it. Jimmy Smits and his daughter -- who are two attorneys -- show up, and I talk with them about the crime scene."
He isn't sure if his character will return, but it's possible, he says.
In the meantime, he landed a role in Love Finds You in Mountain View, a movie that starts shooting next week in Mountain View, and he's busy with auditions, including one for a Matt Damon film and one for a part on the Fox drama The Resident.
"This has been a lifelong dream, ever since I saw True Grit," he says. "I just couldn't give that dream up."
MovieStyle on 09/20/2019