Denton lands plumb gig: Brickyard grand marshal

I might be movin' to Montana soon, just to raise me up a crop of dental floss ...
-- Frank Zappa, Montana

James Denton has been there, done that. Stage. Film. Television -- for a few more seasons, at least. Then it's off to Montana. But on Sunday, as grand marshal he'll drop the green flag on the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard (1 p.m. ET on ESPN).

James Denton

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• Career on imdb.com

A lifelong sports fan (and part owner of the Orange County Flyers independent baseball team), Denton isn't the typical celeb hawking his latest gig, though he admits, "I've been an Allstate customer for 20 years."

"I've always been a big sports fan. I grew up a Richard Petty fan, as many were in the 1970s, and Darrell Waltrip. Cale Yarborough was big, and Bobby Allison, but Petty and that No. 43 STP car ... I think kids just fell in love with it for some reason.

"But I've never been to a race."

OK, so he knows his old-school drivers and your first race has to come somewhere, right? But with the success of Desperate Housewives, there's no gig to hawk for the former real-life handyman. In fact, before landing the role as Mike Delfino, Wisteria Lane's resident plumber-next-door, Denton learned his way around an array of blue-collar jobs as a company member at The Griffin Theater and at Strawdog Theater Ensemble in Chicago.

"I cleaned bathrooms for the right to act for a long time in the Chicago theatre; you get good out of necessity," says Denton. "I'm pretty good with plumbing. I can replace a toilet and I can snake one, if I have to, and I installed the sinks in our new bathroom.

"I'm probably better [at plumbing] than most actors -- but that's because I'm cheap and I spent a lot of time in theatres, where you have to do all that yourself."

It paid off -- the acting, more so than the plumbing. Far removed from his first credited role (as Ray Higgs in 1994's Thieves Quartet), Denton contends that the short-lived ABC drama Threat Matrix remains close to his heart.

"It was a really interesting show, really fascinating -- but people weren't ready to watch it [because] it was right after Sept. 11. I'm really proud of the show; I thought it had a lot to say.

"I was the main character, an FBI agent fighting terrorism," he says. "No one saw it. It came on Thursday nights against the last season of Friends and Survivor ... we kinda got buried. That show and that role had a lot of potential but never really got off the ground."

Then came Desperate Housewives and the not-so-overnight sensation has been enjoying the ride ever since, even though Denton, 44, still hangs on to his stage roots.

"Theatre is a lot more fun because you're in control," he says. "I watch Housewives and wonder why in the world they picked certain takes or put it together like they did; you're really at [the producers'] mercy.

"In theatre, you get to do the whole character arc every night -- go from start to finish and tell the whole story. If you're good, you're good and it's your performance, and if you suck it's your fault." (Continued)