41 Facts About Jim Beaver

Jim Beaver is most familiar to worldwide audiences as Bobby Singer in Supernatural.

Jim Beaver played Whitney Ellsworth on the HBO Western drama series Deadwood, which brought him acclaim and a Screen Actors Guild Awards nomination for Ensemble Acting, and Sheriff Shelby Parlow on the FX series Justified.

Jim Beaver's father was of English and French heritage; the family name was originally de Beauvoir, and Beaver is a distant cousin of author and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir and Pennsylvania governor General James A Beaver.

Jim Beaver and his three younger sisters all attended Irving High School, where he was a classmate of ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard, but he transferred in his senior year to Fort Worth Christian Academy, from which he graduated in 1968.

Fewer than two months after his graduation from high school, Jim Beaver followed several of his close friends into the United States Marine Corps.

Jim Beaver served at the Marine Corps Base Twentynine Palms and at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton before being transferred to the 1st Marine Division near Da Nang, South Vietnam in 1970.

Jim Beaver served as a radio operator at an outlying detachment of the 1st Marine Regiment, then as supply chief for the division communications company.

Jim Beaver returned to the US in 1971 and was discharged as Corporal, though he remained active in the Marine Reserve until 1976.

Jim Beaver entered what is Oklahoma Christian University, where he became interested in theatre.

Jim Beaver made his true theatrical debut in a small part in The Miracle Worker.

Jim Beaver performed in numerous plays in college and supported himself as a cabdriver, a movie projectionist, a tennis-club maintenance man, and an amusement-park stuntman at Frontier City.

Jim Beaver worked as a newscaster and hosted jazz and classical music programs on radio station KCSC.

Jim Beaver graduated with a degree in oral communications in 1975.

Jim Beaver briefly pursued graduate studies, but soon returned to Irving, Texas.

Jim Beaver joined the Shakespeare Festival of Dallas in 1976, performing in numerous productions.

Jim Beaver continues to pursue this project between acting jobs.

Jim Beaver appeared in starring roles in such plays as The Hasty Heart and The Rainmaker in Birmingham, Alabama and The Lark in Manchester, New Hampshire, and toured the country as Macduff in Macbeth and in The Last Meeting of the Knights of the White Magnolia.

Jim Beaver worked for a year as the film archivist for the Variety Arts Center.

Verdigris was produced to positive reviews in 1985 and Jim Beaver was signed by the Triad Artists agency.

Jim Beaver immediately began to work writing episodes of television series including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Tour of Duty and Vietnam War Story.

Jim Beaver worked occasionally in small roles in films and television.

The 1988 Writers Guild of America strike fundamentally altered the freelance television writing market, and Jim Beaver's television writing career came to an abrupt halt.

Jim Beaver was the only actual Vietnam veteran among the principal cast of In Country.

Jim Beaver starred in the television series Thunder Alley as the comic sidekick to Ed Asner, and as homicide cop Earl Gaddis on Reasonable Doubts.

Jim Beaver was French Stewart's sullen boss Happy Doug on the sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun.

In 2002, Jim Beaver was cast as one of the stars of the ensemble Western drama Deadwood in the role of Whitney Ellsworth, a goldminer whom he often described as "Gabby Hayes with Tourette syndrome".

Originally Ellsworth did not have a first name, but when it became necessary to provide one, Jim Beaver requested he be named Whitney Ellsworth, after the producer of George Reeves's Adventures of Superman.

Jim Beaver continued his long research for the Reeves biography, and in 2005 served as the historical and biographical consultant on the theatrical feature film about Reeves's death, Hollywoodland.

Jim Beaver joined the cast of the HBO drama John from Cincinnati in 2006, while simultaneously playing the recurring roles of Bobby Singer on Supernatural and Carter Reese on another HBO drama Big Love, appearing at least once a season on Supernatural.

Jim Beaver then took on the role of Sheriff Charlie Mills in the CBS drama Harper's Island.

Jim Beaver recurred as the gun dealer Lawson on Breaking Bad and its prequel Better Call Saul, and played Sheriff Shelby Parlow for three seasons on FX's Justified.

Jim Beaver had roles in the feature films The Frontier and Billy Boy.

Jim Beaver was nominated for Best Guest Performance in a Drama by the Broadcast Television Journalists' Association Critics' Choice Awards in 2013, for his performance as Sheriff Shelby Parlow on Justified.

Jim Beaver wrote and directed the short film Night Riders, based upon his play of the same title.

Jim Beaver studied acting with Clyde Ventura and Academy Award-winning actor Maximilian Schell.

In June, 2016, Jim Beaver returned to the Festival to play Big Daddy in Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Since 2018, Jim Beaver has portrayed Secretary of Defense Robert Singer on the Amazon series The Boys, produced by Eric Kripke, creator of Supernatural.

For several years after his 1983 move to California, Jim Beaver shared a house with character actor Hank Worden, whom he considered a close friend and surrogate grandfather.

Jim Beaver became friends with Worden as a child, after writing him a fan letter that sparked a lengthy correspondence between them.

In 1989, after four years of dating, Jim Beaver married actress and casting director Cecily Adams, daughter of comic actor and voiceover artist Don Adams.

Jim Beaver began a relationship in 2016 with actress and singer Sarah Spiegel.