Dennis Deter Haysbert is an American actor best known for his role as President David Palmer in the hit US TV show ‘24’ Starring Kiefer Sutherland.
Dennis was born on the 2nd June 1954 in San Mateo, California. His father was a deputy sheriff and his mother was a housewife. He grew up around a large family of 8 brothers and sisters and had a great love of acting from a very early age.
He was offered various different sports scholarships but decided that he wanted to pursue his true love of acting and got his first role in 1979 in ‘The White Shadow’. He has also had several guest roles in TV shows including: Lou Grant, Laverne & Shirley, The A-Team, Dallas, Magnum, P.I., Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and Duckman.
His extensive TV work later spawned a successful movie career and Dennis began to get cast in films such as Absolute Power, Far From Heaven and Random Hearts. In 1989 he starred in ‘Major League’ and in 1992 he starred alongside Michelle Pfeiffer in a movie about the assassination of President John F Kennedy called ‘Love Field’.
In 2001 Dennis Haysbert gained his most popular role yet, that of President David Palmer in the TV series ‘24’ the show became an instant success and David Palmer was a much loved regular character and appeared in four seasons of the show.
He then went on to star in the CBS action drama show ‘The Unit’ in which he plays the part of ‘Jonas Blane’.
Dennis Haysbert now a divorced father of two. He has remained close friends with at least 2 of his former 24 co-stars Glenn Morshower (Aaron Pierce) and Gregory Itzin. (Vice president Logan).