Miskatonic University PressA list of fictional Dentons. Additions welcome.
Denton (no other name), the “slender, handsome lover” of Elizebeθ Mwres in H.G. Wells’s novella A Story of Days to Come.
Another Denton (I do not know if he has a given name), an accountant with libido problems, in the short story “A Sort of Miracle” by Ron Rash, collected in Nothing Gold Can Stay (2013).
Colonel (or General?) Denton (he doesn’t use his given name), a veteran of the United States Civil War and former town marshal who moves to London where he writes novels and solves mysteries in early Edwardian times. There are seven Denton Mysteries by Kenneth Cameron: The Frightened Man, The Bohemian Girl, The Second Woman, The Haunted Martyr, The Backward Boy, The Past Master and The Oxford Fellow.
Mr. and Mrs. Denton, who run the post office in “How’s Your Mother?” by Simon Brett (1980), collected in Murder on Main Street: Small-Town Crime from Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine & Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, edited by Cynthia Mason (1993).
Officer Denton in the short story “The Badger Game” by Joe Flynn (Guilty, November 1956). Officer Denton drives a police car but says nothing.
Al Denton (played by Dan Duryea) in “Mr. Denton on Doomsday” by Rod Serling, the third episode of The Twilight Zone, broadcast in October 1959. “Portrait of a town drunk named Al Denton. This is a man who’s begun his dying early—a long, agonizing route through a maze of bottles. Al Denton, who would probably give an arm or a leg or a part of his soul to have another chance, to be able to rise up and shake the dirt from his body and the bad dreams that infest his consciousness.”
Bill Denton (“a nice-looking kid of sixteen, with sandy, crew-cut hair, dressed in blue jeans and a sweatshirt”), in The Mean Streets by Thomas B. Dewey.
Don Denton, in Donald E. Westlake’s short story “Good Night, Good Night” (included in The Curious Facts Preceding My Execution and Other Fictions, 1968). Don Denton hosts The Don Denton Variety Show, and the story is told over the course of one hour on a Wednesday night as he watches the show recorded live to tape earlier that day. It begins with Denton being shot in the stomach. By the end of the story he has deduced who his murderer is. Then he dies.
Eddie Denton in “A Mixed Threesome” by P.G. Wodehouse, an Oldest Member golf story, first collected in The Clicking of Cuthbert (1924). “Denton was one of those lean, hard-bitten men with smouldering eyes and a brick-red complexion. He looked what he was, the man of action and enterprise. He had the wiry frame and strong jaw without which no explorer is complete, and Mortimer, beside him, seemed but a poor, soft product of our hot-house civilization. Mortimer, I forgot to say, wore glasses; and, if there is one time more than another when a man should not wear glasses, it is while a strong-faced, keen-eyed wanderer in the wilds is telling a beautiful girl the story of his adventures.”
Elizabeth Denton in “The Denton Boudoir Mystery” by Gelett Burgess. She is dead (murdered in her boudoir) before the story starts.
Major Eugene “Sam” Denton (played by George Peppard) in Damnation Alley (1977), a post-apocalyptic science fiction film.
Gloria Denton, in Megan Abbott’s novel Queenpin (2007).
Harvey, Val, Chloë, Radclyffe and Benjamin: the Dentons in the BBC TV series The League of Gentlemen.
Brigadier General James Denton (played by Robert Webber) in the 1967 film The Dirty Dozen.
“Mr. James Denton, M.A., F.S.A., etc., etc., some time of Trinity Hall, now, or lately, of Rendcomb Manor in the county of Warwick,” in “The Diary of Mr. Poynter” by M.R. James, first published in A Thin Ghost and Others (1919).
JC Denton from the video game Deus Ex.
Jeb Denton, played by Patrick Warburton in the TV sitcom Less Than Perfect (2002–2006).
John Denton, in John Denton’s Friends by Crona Temple, a novel published in London by the Religious Tract Society (no date known). He is introduced on the second page: “John Denton was born in Peru, his father being one of a firm of Liverpool merchants, who found it necessary that one of their number should reside in South America. Johnnie had been very happy during the ten years of his short life; he had his baby sister Rachel and nurse Josefita to play with; his dear mamma to talk and sing to him; and his father to take him out for rides in the cool evenings, and to teach him his lessons every day.” The final words of the novel are: “‘“In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths,”’ finished John, reverently. ‘Mother dear, I have tried to remember it.’”
Lindsay Denton (played by Keeley Hawes) in the second series of the BBC police procedural series Line of Duty. She reappears in the third series.
Mary and Jerry Denton, brother and sister detectives in the children’s series Mary and Jerry Mystery Stories by Francis Hunt; titles include The Messenger Dog’s Secret and The Mystery of the Toy Bank (both 1935). I think this is one of the Stratemeyer Syndicate lines.
Simon Denton (played by Tim Key), sidekick to Alan Partridge starting with Mid Morning Matters.
Wally Denton (played by Paul Sand) in the “For Love or Money” story in episode 5 of season 7 (aired 22 October 1983) of The Love Boat.
Walter Denton (played by Richard Crenna) in Our Miss Brooks (both on radio and TV). Crenna also played Denton Walters in Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993).