Dylan McDermott was born in 1961 to teenage parents in Waterbury, Connecticut. At just five years old, he lost his 15-year-old mother, Diane, who was shot in a case long ruled accidental. He had been sent out of the house moments before the gun went off. Decades later, new evidence led police to reclassify her death as a murder, linking it to her abusive boyfriend, a small-time mobster who was later found dead himself.<\/p>\n
After the tragedy, Dylan and his sister were raised by their grandmother. As a teen, he worked in his father\u2019s Greenwich Village bar, growing up fast in an adult world. His stepmother, playwright Eve Ensler, encouraged him to pursue acting, helping launch his career. He later adopted the name \u201cDylan\u201d and went on to build a successful Hollywood r\u00e9sum\u00e9, winning a Golden Globe for The Practice<\/em> and starring in projects like American Horror Story<\/em> and Law & Order: Organized Crime<\/em>. He was even named one of TV\u2019s \u201cTen Sexiest Men.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite fame and success, the trauma of his mother\u2019s murder haunted him for years. McDermott has said losing a parent so young \u201chardens you for life,\u201d but he has tried to channel that pain into his work, keeping her memory alive through his art.<\/p>\n