McDermott is also known for his roles in the first two seasons of American Horror Story, entitled American Horror Story: Murder House and American Horror Story: Asylum, portraying Ben Harmon and Johnny Morgan, respectively. He reprised his role as Ben Harmon in American Horror Story: Apocalypse, the eight season of the show. He also starred as Lt. Carter Shaw on the TNT series Dark Blue and starred in two short-lived CBS dramas Hostages and Stalker.\n', '

McDermott was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, the son of Diane and Richard McDermott. He is of Italian (from his maternal grandfather), Irish, English, and French descent. Diane was fifteen and Richard was seventeen when McDermott was born; by 1967, the couple had divorced, and Diane and her two children were living with her mother, Avis (Rogers) Marino. On February 9, 1967, Diane was shot and killed. Her death was originally ruled an accident, but police later claimed that evidence they had found would be enough to file murder charges against John Sponza, who had been living with Diane at the time. Sponza told authorities that Diane shot herself (despite the fact that she was right-handed and shot in the back of the left side of her head) after picking up a gun he had been cleaning. Sponza, who police say had ties to organized crime, was killed in 1972; his body was found in the trunk of a car in a Waltham, Massachusetts, grocery store parking lot.\n', '

McDermott and his sister were raised by their maternal grandmother Avis in Waterbury. As a teenager, he began taking trips to visit his biological father, who owned the West Fourth Street Saloon in Greenwich Village, New York. The two would go to the movies and the younger McDermott would work in his father\'s bar, serving drinks and breaking up fights. He would also fast-talk his way into the Mudd Club and Studio 54. McDermott was uncomfortable with himself as a teenager, saying he had a "Dorothy Hamill hairdo." He began to imitate his acting heroes, such as Marlon Brando and Humphrey Bogart, to adopt their demeanor. In 1979, McDermott graduated from Holy Cross High School in Waterbury.\n', '

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