Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Life After Grey's Anatomy

This has been a very big year for actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan. After playing scattered parts all over television for the last decade (including appearances in episodes of "Sliders," "ER," "The Practice," "Angel," "CSI," "Enterprise," "Monk," "The OC," and "Weeds," just to name a healthy cross-section of his credits), Morgan finally hit the jackpot. He landed a recurring role on The WB's "Supernatural" as John Winchester and then added to that a recurring role on "Grey's Anatomy" as Denny Duquette.

Both characters played major parts in their respective shows, particularly in the season finales. "Supernatural" left Morgan's character unconscious and half dead when a truck slammed into his side of the car. However, all indications hint that John Winchester will be back in the second season (though that isn't a guarantee that he would last the whole season). Fans had been fearful that their mighty Winchester patriarch would be killed off, but "Grey's" fans also feared that their lovable and mischievous Denny would die, and come the last episode of the season, they were sadly proven right.

Denny suffered the inevitable complication from a heart transplant that was waiting to happen since Denny's entrance and throughout his subsequent romance with Izzie (Katherine Heigl, "Roswell"). It was something any nail-biting viewer could see coming miles away, and the show made sure that no one would forget Denny or the pain of seeing him lost after all the fighting he did to live. Morgan and his character certainly made a profound impression, and even though the tides seem to have left him high and dry, at least as far as "Grey's Anatomy" goes, he couldn't be in a better position to make his next move.

Shonda Rhimes created "Grey's Anatomy" and fell in love with Denny just as the audience did. Zap2It.com quoted Rhimes as saying, "[Denny] was my 'you jump, I jump' guy. He was my imaginary future husband." And, with the ratings for the Season Two finale of "Grey's" racking up a conservative estimate of 20 million hangers-on, Rhimes is definitely not alone in having grown so attached to the character. Morgan himself has made jokes about Denny having a twin brother named Lenny, but the truth is that Morgan may have something else in the works courtesy of his satisfied and smitten fan/writer Shonda Rhimes.

ABC is in the process of whipping up a pilot for an untitled show that would be about women journalists, and the series would feature Morgan as a regular member of the cast, thanks to Rhimes. Morgan's success in the 2005-2006 TV season has opened the door for him to become more of a fixture on a few shows than a floater between many. Denny from "Grey's" and John from "Supernatural" have earned him a good amount of attention from the media and fans alike, bringing him out into the spotlight where he's shown he belongs. The stage is set for him to shine on another show, and of course, to continue to shine on "Supernatural," mythology permitting.