Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Life Transformed Thanks to ‘The Walking Dead’

After almost a decade in Los Angeles and acting, Jeffrey Dean Morgan finally landed the role of John Winchester on “Supernatural,” leading to even more gigs. But it wasn’t this character that would truly change his life as an actor; no, that happened when he received a recurring role on “Grey’s Anatomy.” With stability seemingly within reach for him once again, tragedy struck and his beloved character was killed off—as is so often happens with hospital dramas.

In 2016, Morgan accepted a game-changing role that altered his life. When Negan emerged from the Winnebago in the Season 6 finale of “The Walking Dead,” both the show and Morgan’s destiny were revolutionized. As he discussed with The New York Times alongside co-star Lauren Cohan, they recorded numerous alternate endings for the famous baseball bat smashing episode – one being where every cast member was killed by Morgan himself! “It was insane!,” recalled Morgan about their trickery to mislead fans via an intriguing cliffhanger.

Negan’s explosive introduction to AMC series “The Walking Dead” left fans reeling when he ended the life of beloved character Glen (Steven Yeun) in Season 7. After five seasons playing Negan, Morgan unquestionably gained everlasting stardom and his world was turned around; read on to find out how the show transformed him forever.

Morgan was thrilled when he was asked to join the cast of The Walking Dead

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Jeffrey Dean Morgan was an avid fan of “The Walking Dead” and the comics, so naturally he was elated when offered a role in the renowned AMC show. In 2016, he revealed to Interview Magazine that this series had always stood out for him: “I’d watched it for years; one of those few shows I would go to great lengths to watch.” Despite his busy work life prior to joining the cast, his devotion never wavered.

When fans began approaching Morgan at Comic-Con and recommending he play Negan, the actor instantly understood that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He picked up a copy of the comic book to study his potential character and quickly realized how much fun it would be to portray him. After his agent told him about being cast as a mysterious villain on “The Walking Dead,” Morgan suddenly knew who it had to be – exclaiming in excitement: “It’s f****** Negan! And I’m going to f****** do it!” Needless to say, Morgan was ecstatic with joy when given the chance.

Morgan was already busy filming for “The Good Wife” when he was asked to appear on the Season 6 finale of “The Walking Dead.” Despite his availability issues, he carved out a couple of days in his schedule and reported to AMC. In an interview with Variety, Morgan said jovially that it all happened quickly since he got the script only two days before shooting. AMC took extreme measures to prevent spoilers from being leaked; therefore, they allowed Morgan access only to his own section of the script.

Playing Negan gave Morgan the most consistent work of his career

Jeffrey Dean Morgan is one of Hollywood’s most recognizable actors, known to many for his appearances in “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Magic City,” and “Supernatural.” But it was his turn as the Comedian in”Watchmen” that truly showcased his extraordinary talent for playing villains. After a string of successful roles, Morgan finally made the commitment to star on AMC’s hit series The Walking Dead; since then he has enjoyed steady success throughout Season 7 and beyond.

During a 2022 panel at New York Comic-Con, Morgan revealed the original plan for Negan was only three seasons long, resembling his story arc in the comic (via ComicBook). “I think, originally, it was gonna be three years,” Morgan said. “I had a conversation with Scott [Gimple], and it was like, ‘You gotta be on it for at least three years if you want to be a part of this show.’ I was like, ‘That seems like a long time.'”d

Negan’s character in The Walking Dead blossomed far beyond the comic books, and Morgan maintained his role until the series finale – appearing in a massive 95 episodes throughout seven seasons. That amount of reliable work as an actor can be life-altering, particularly when you have a young family. After joining “TWD”s cast in 2017, he and Hilarie Burton welcomed their second baby together.

**Morgan wasn’t prepared for the kind of fame The Walking Dead delivered**

Before Jeffrey Dean Morgan assumed the role of Negan, he had already accumulated a significant resume in the entertainment industry. Despite this experience however, he was still caught off guard by the attention that came with starring on one of TV’s most popular shows “The Walking Dead“. Reflecting back in 2022 to The New York Times about his experience joining their cast, Morgan exclaimed: “I admired it from afar and knew its success would generate some buzz – I just never anticipated how wild things were going to get!”

When asked in 2016 how the series had changed his life, Morgan jokingly admitted to AOL, “I need security.” He described some strange interactions with fans, saying, “People will follow me home. I get weird mail.” Despite already having been on popular shows like “Grey’s Anatomy,” the intensified attention was a big change. “I’m a very private dude,” Morgan told ABC News in 2017. “I live in the middle of nowhere, so it’s been an adjustment.”

Morgan told AOL, “Everyone told me when I showed up on the set for this show that my life was gonna change, and I thought, ‘well that’s b*******.'” However, he later realized that the role was far different than anything he’d done before. Although Morgan is a self-professed “private guy,” he told Men’s Journal in 2021 that being on the series and the success of his wife’s bestselling memoir “The Rural Diaries” helped him realize there’s “not a lot there to hide anymore.” He explained how freeing that feeling was, calling it “a weight off my shoulders.”

Morgan can’t walk down the street without being recognized

Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s contentious entrance into “The Walking Dead” didn’t make him popular with long-time fans. In fact, some fans actually stopped watching “The Walking Dead” after the Season 7 premiere when Negan killed Glen. “It changed my life,” Morgan told Insider in 2023. “That one scene changed my life, literally, in so many ways. And I still get s*** for it.” He added that people still “remind me daily that Glenn was their favorite character.” In 2022, looking back on his time on “The Walking Dead,” Morgan told Insider that if he could change one thing about Negan, “I wouldn’t have killed Glenn.”

Morgan’s fame skyrocketed after his character became part of such a popular series. Spending time with other big stars from the show only further magnified this level of notoriety. In an interview with Interview Magazine, he recalled that going on rides on motorcycles with Norman Reedus was downright wild: “It took just three minutes for us to be swarmed by 100 people at the gas station when word got out!”

Morgan revealed to AOL that Reedus has always been exceptionally generous with his fans, and he even admitted that he’s learned a lot about being gracious from his co-star. He further shared the difficulty of managing fan encounters while spending time with his children, saying: “Sometimes I get a little overwhelmed.”

Jeffrey Dean Morgan bought a farm in New York

Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s first time on a movie set was during the ’80s. At the time, he had no plans of pursuing acting, but that eventually changed. “I moved to Los Angeles and met a casting director,” he told Interview magazine in 2016. “Then I spent 20 years struggling trying to figure out how the f*** I was going to make a living and feed my dog. And now we’re doing okay. Now we’re Negan.” Morgan’s early successes gave him the freedom to leave Los Angeles for the Hudson River Valley, where he co-owns a candy shop with Paul Rudd and both actors’ wives.

Although Morgan moved to Rhinebeck before he joined the AMC series, He bought a farm in 2018, during his tenure on “The Walking Dead.” Morgan told Men’s Journal in 2021, “After 20-some years in L.A., my life took a different direction, and suddenly, we bought a f****** farm. It’s been the coolest thing that I’ve ever been a part of. Most of the animals we have are all rescues, and they all have funky personalities.”

Despite the success of “The Walking Dead” filming in Georgia, Morgan was adamant about his children living a rural life on Mischief Farm and attending regular school. His consistent role on this popular show for seven seasons assured him that he could provide such an upbringing to his kids.

Despite his commitments to filming “The Walking Dead” in Georgia, Morgan was determined for his children to grow up on Mischief Farm and experience a more traditional school setting. Thankfully the security of being on a beloved television series for seven seasons provided the stability necessary for him to give them that life.

When Jeffrey Dean Morgan was cast as the notorious Negan, Robert Kirkman had yet to flesh out his backstory. With excitement and anticipation of what could be in store for audiences throughout Season 6, Morgan said to Variety “I think his backstory’s gonna be pretty fascinating” – a prediction that came true when Hilarie Burton (Morgan’s real-life partner) joined the cast of “The Walking Dead” during Season 10 portraying Lucille; Negan’s deceased beloved wife in flashbacks.

Morgan and Burton’s lives crossed paths in 2009 when introduced by their mutual friends Jensen and Danneel Ackles. After having two children, the couple solemnized their marriage a decade later in 2019. Although they were both part of the same series, “Extant,” four years prior to that, they never acted together until taking on Negan and Lucille roles just recently.

Burton gushed about working with her husband on Season 10 of “The Walking Dead” on Instagram, saying, “When I tell you it has been a JOY, I’m saying it with tears in my eyes.” Morgan also posted to Instagram, saying working with his wife in the episode titled “Here’s Negan” was “Probably the highlight of my career. I sure know how lucky I am.”

While playing Negan, Morgan became attached to the character

Initially, Jeffrey Dean Morgan had some concerns about Negan. “I was worried that Negan was very two-dimensional, he told Men’s Journal in 2021. “I felt like every scene was an iteration of him coming out of that Winnebago.” However, Morgan admitted to Interview Magazine that he enjoys playing a villain because it’s both freeing and challenging. “I don’t think of him necessarily as a villain,” he told Variety in 2016, saying that he approached the role thinking, “this is a guy who’s a survivor.”

Taking on the role of an antagonist comes with a unique challenge: finding the humanity within that character, even despite their shortcomings. Morgan recognized this in his performance as Negan and searched for those redeemable qualities. In conversation with Variety, he acknowledged how viewers may perceive Negan to be psychotic but expressed that “I never looked at him like that” and went on to suggest “there’s a lot of similarities between him and Rick.” This sentiment implies if Episode 1 of “The Walking Dead” had begun by portraying Negan’s story first, audiences could have just as easily been rooting for him too.

Negan eventually went on a redemption arc, giving Morgan the chance to grow as an actor as his character grew as a person. He told Men’s Journal, “Negan has become such an important part of my life. It’d be hard to make a clean cut and walk away. Unless they just want to kill me. Just a knife in the back. And maybe that’s what needs to be done for me to walk away from this guy.”

During Covid, Morgan and his family lived on the Alexandria set

Jeffrey Dean Morgan once joked that you should never get too comfortable as a cast member on “The Walking Dead” because you can get killed off at any moment. “I had a three-year deal initially,” he told The New York Times, referring to when he first went to Georgia to film. “I remember asking [the showrunner] Angela [Kang], ‘Should I buy a house?’ And she was like, ‘Ehhh.’ And I was like, ‘Well, that’s it. I’m dead!'”

Although Morgan had crafted a life for himself and his family in Rhinebeck, he never got around to acquiring a home in Georgia. His wife Hilarie Burton revealed to Interview Magazine that they quarantined themselves near the set of “The Walking Dead” during Covid-19; adding humorously that their children’s closet door contained bullet holes! It was as though they were residing at Rick Grimes’ humble abode.

Morgan told Men’s Journal that his son did remote schooling on location “in Alexandria, this apocalyptic, walled-off town charred and burned down from the season before.” He added that the 30-foot wall around the town actually gave him some peace of mind, “because I could let the kids and the dogs out. I knew they couldn’t go anywhere.” Burton told Interview Magazine that living on-set during Covid was a truly bizarre experience, saying, “we were living in a real apocalypse in the real world living in a rented house in a fake apocalypse and filming the beginning of a pandemic,” during a real pandemic.

They filmed the super-sized Season 11 during Covid

Already feeling like the cast and crew of “The Walking Dead” were a family, Jeffrey Dean Morgan witnessed this bond grow even deeper when they weathered Covid together. Instead of filming with 16mm film for Season 11, it was shot digitally along with hiring an Army medic and infectious diseases specialist as an added safety measure (via Insider).

Morgan mentioned to Deadline that during Covid-19, the cast and crew were their only companions due to safeguards in place. He shared how they supported each other through this difficult period of isolation, saying “We really leaned on each other.” Despite all the emotional strain imposed by the pandemic, he gave thanks for having such a great team around them: “It was hard on us too and thank God we had each other,” he stated gratefully.

Morgan expressed to Gio Journal that the show “can really be likened to a family atmosphere,” highlighting how Norman Reedus is like an uncle figure to his children, and they are reciprocally akin aunt figures for his little girls. He went on further by noting that being so close with cast members of a television production is incredibly rare – making him even more grateful for their bond while filming in spite of Covid restrictions.

Morgan was so emotional about the series ending he delayed watching the finale

After “The Walking Dead” wrapped, Morgan was emotional about watching the series finale himself. “It’s weird,” the actor told Deadline. “I haven’t been able to watch the finale because there is a finality to it that I don’t think I’m ready to deal with yet.” Morgan admitted he hadn’t actually watched the last four episodes, despite having the time to do so. “I just haven’t wanted to watch them,” he said. “I think I just needed to be in a mood.”

Morgan confessed to Deadline that while he is ecstatic about the opportunity to keep playing Negan, and the anticipation of embarking on a new series, there’s still something special about his former show. “I miss the show,” he said. “I miss that crew, and when I say crew, I mean the cast and the actual crew.”

Jeffrey Dean Morgan is starring in the spinoff Dead City

After the conclusion of “The Walking Dead,” AMC revealed an enticing offer for a spin-off, and Lauren Cohan jumped at the opportunity as Maggie. Titled “Dead City,” it follows her character two years later on a thrilling journey to Manhattan with Negan in tow. Morgan expressed his enthusiasm regarding this new project, noting that he was pleased with what he had accomplished on The Walking Dead and felt excited by this promising new venture.

Morgan’s attachment to Negan made his decision to return incredibly easy, especially due to the filming location being close to home. Speaking on this with Gio Journal, he remarked that “the fact that I get to be home played a big part in it in making this decision really easy for me.” The actor is noticeably excited at the prospect of seeing their world set against New York City and its zombie apocalypse – an exciting tease as we look forward towards what comes next!

The actor revealed to Entertainment Weekly that at first, he thought it would be honorable to quit when “The Walking Dead” finished but ultimately chose otherwise as the story was simply too captivating. Fortunately, we won’t have to wait long for this masterpiece of a show – its debut is scheduled sometime next year in June 2023.

He wasn’t happy about the premature announcement of the spin-off

Fans of “The Walking Dead” were outraged by the premature news surrounding AMC’s upcoming spin-off series, which revealed who would survive and what happened in the last season. Even Morgan himself joined their voice of dissent when it came to how AMC announced its plans for “Dead City” and other potential shows.

“That’s not the way we should have gone about it,” Morgan told Entertainment Weekly regarding the early announcements. “I would’ve tried to go about it in a different way, but look, that’s above my pay grade.” The actor told Deadline that he “got in a little bit of trouble probably for being so vocal about it,” but he stood by his opinion, saying, “if you had watched the scene in the last episode of that lineup, imagine how much better that scene would have been if you thought Negan was going to die.”

Morgan and Lauren Cohan are co-executive producing “The Walking Dead: Dead City,” an excellent opportunity to influence decisions such as the current one. Despite his enthusiasm over Negan’s next journey, he expressed to Insider that what he experienced with his family while part of this show was incomparable: “I felt so embraced by all these people because of this show, something I’ll never experience again.”