September 2011

As Lewiston-native Patrick Dempsey launches into his final season on Grey’s Anatomy, his finish line is nowhere in sight.

Interview by Colin W. Sargent

His fans love him for his curly black hair and soft blue eyes. When you catch up with Patrick Dempsey, 45–if you catch up with him–you sense a bottomless well of energy, too, and a sense of wheels within wheels. Not only is the Harpswell dynamo famous for playing Dr. Derek Shepherd on TV, he’s busy acting in films, producing new films, cycling competitively, and by all accounts racing cars every bit as skillfully as Paul Newman or Steve McQueen ever did. Dempsey’s third-place finish at Daytona this year, where he himself was driving in the lead for 21 laps, is by some accounts the top driving achievement ever for a movie star. Sure he can juggle. But did you know he was a Maine state champion ski racer in high school? Enjoying September in Maine with his wife, Jillian, daughter Tallulah Fyfe, and twin sons Sullivan Patrick and Darby Galen, he’s excited about hosting the third annual Dempsey Challenge October 8-9, a world-class cycling event with 100 percent of the benefits going to the Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope and Healing at Central Maine Medical Center.

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