Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s 11 Best Roles, According To IMDB

While Jeffrey Dean Morgan has appeared in tons of highly-rated series since he started acting in the early ’90s, a lot of his roles were one-offs in a single episode of each. Among such credits include appearances on shows like ER, Walker, Texas Ranger, Angel, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Enterprise, Tru Calling, Monk, and The O.C.

It wasn’t until he got his big break as the villain Negan on The Walking Dead that Morgan finally got noticed in Hollywood as a true talent who could lead a series and take on movie roles. But which have been his best roles to date? For the purposes of this list, based on IMDb rankings, the focus is on movie and television roles where Morgan appeared in more than just a single episode, and for shows that lasted at least a full season.

11 The Secret Life Of Marilyn Monroe (2015) – 6.9

A three-way tie for the final spots includes this TV miniseries based on The New York Times bestseller of the same name by J. Randy Taraborrelli. Morgan starred as Major League Baseball player Joe DiMaggio, one of Marilyn Monroe’s many exes in real life, her second husband, and an integral part of her life story.

While their marriage didn’t work out, theirs was a fascinating lifelong (and beyond) love story. Their divorce prompted DiMaggio to quit alcohol and get therapy. They remained friends, with him securing her release from a psychiatric clinic in 1961 and attempting to remarry her. Following her death by suicide, DiMaggio made Monroe’s funeral arrangements and delivered a half dozen roses to her crypt three times a week for the next 20 years.

10 Days of Wrath (2008) – 6.9

As Bryan Gordon in this drama, Morgan had a starring role alongside Laurence Fishburne and Wilmer Valderrama. The film is about a gangster named Danny Boy who, during a carjacking gone wrong, ends up accidentally killing the former girlfriend of a local TV station manager (Gordon) and the mother of the gang’s leader.

Morgan gets top billing for this movie, which might just be one of those hidden gems that never got hype during the time of its release but could be worth watching.

9 The Burning Zone (1996-1997) – 6.9

Way back in the ’90s, Morgan starred in this sci-fi drama for UPN about a government task force that investigates chemical and biological threats.

Morgan plays Edward Marcase, a virologist who was initially one of the two central characters of the series alongside Dr. Kimberly Shiroma. But they were both removed in the middle of the season due to low ratings and replaced with two new characters, played by Michael Harris and Bradford Tatum. The show still ended up getting canceled after its first season.

8 P.S. I Love You (2007) – 7.0

While Morgan didn’t have a starring role in this film, he did have a supporting one as William, a character that wasn’t originally in the Cecelia Ahern novel on which the romantic drama is based.

Holly is a young widow whose husband, who died of a brain tumor, arranged to have special notes delivered to her after his death. William is a man Holly meets through her travels, a singer who reminds her a lot of her husband.

7 Magic City (2012-2013) – 7.6

Morgan got the lead in this short-lived drama about Ike Evans, the owner of a glamorous hotel in Miami who is forced to make a deal with the Jewish Mob in order to keep his hotel going.

Set in 1959 following the Cuban Revolution, the show aired on Starz and lasted for two seasons of 16 episodes total. But there is talk of a potential movie spin-off that would see Morgan reprise his role. Major stars like Bruce Willis and Bill Murray are in talks to appear as well.

6 Watchmen (2009) – 7.6

In one of the few film roles on this list, Morgan played The Comedian Edward Blake in the 2009 film adaptation of this DC superhero story (not the more recent HBO miniseries adaptation.)

He is part of an ensemble cast for Watchmen, in a story set in an alternate history in the year 1985 during the Cold War. Blake is one of the Watchmen, semi-retired superheroes who are brought back into an investigation when one of their own is murdered. And while his character is (spoiler alert) killed off pretty quickly, he’s an integral part of the story, nonetheless.

5 Grey’s Anatomy (2006-2009) – 7.6

Arguably Morgan’s second-most recognizable role, he played Denny Duquette in this top medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, the love interest of Izzie Stevens. He was not a fellow doctor but actually a patient who was waiting in hospital for a desperately needed heart transplant. Tragically, his character died from a stroke even after a successful surgery.

While his character had one of the most emotional deaths of the entire series, he appeared twice after death as a ghost-type figure, once to Meredith and another time to Izzie.

4 Weeds (2005) – 7.9

He only appeared in two episodes of this very popular series, which aired for eight seasons. However, he was a critical character as he was the husband of the main character Nancy, who’s death drove her to sell drugs to try and provide for her family.

After her husband Judah suffered a heart attack, Nancy was left a young and broke widow and turned to desperate measures to feed her family, which became the premise of Weeds.

3 The Walking Dead (2016-2020) – 8.2

His most recognizable and most high-profile role, Morgan signed on to play the barbed wire bat yielding villain Negan on The Walking Dead and continues to play this role on the long-running series.

He first appeared in 2016 and while opinions about the character and his interpretation of him have been mixed, Negan has evolved considerably and Morgan has been able to play him from a wisecracking, overconfident brute to a vulnerable prisoner.

2 The Good Wife (2015, 2016) – 8.3

The center of the story on The Good Wife is Alicia, a woman who finds herself forced back to work as a litigator after her attorney husband is sent to jail following a sex and corruption scandal.

Morgan was in 19 episodes in season seven as Jason Crouse, a former lawyer and now investigator after being disbarred for punching a judge. Alicia eventually begins a romantic relationship with him, despite warnings that he is a dangerous sociopath.

1 Supernatural (2005-2019) – 8.4

Morgan had a recurring role on this long-running series about two brothers who hunt evil supernatural beings roaming the Earth. He played John Winchester, their father, who first sought out the demon that killed his wife.

He appeared in 14 episodes of Supernatural overall through the series’ lengthy run, originally sent to Hell in order to save his son then escaping as a spirit.

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