'Supernatural' - Main Cast

Dean Winchester is the older of the two Winchester brothers. He feels a responsibility both to carry on his father's mission of hunting evil creatures and to protect Sam. At the same time he sometimes tends to give the appearance of taking things less seriously than his brother, presenting what they do as a job that has to be done and seeking out whatever fun he can between encounters. A fan of metal rock music, Dean often makes up aliases related to rock performers. At the end of season 2 Dean made a deal with a demon to save his brother, resulting in his being sent to hell at the end of season 3. He was rescued by the angel Castiel. Jensen Ackles was previously a regular on Smallville.

Sam Winchester was a top student headed for law school when his fiancee was killed by the same demon that had killed their mother. Driven to find that demon and their missing father, Sam was nonetheless ambivalent about being a hunter, unlike his brother. Sam has also harbored some bitterness at having been raised as a warrior. Always more sensitive and questioning than Dean, during the first season Sam began to manifest latent psychic abilities, starting with precognition; by season 4 he's developed the ability to purge a possessed human of a demon, a talent both Dean and the angels find alarming -- especially given that its origin seems to be demonic.

John Winchester, an ex-Marine, trained his sons to hunt evil with him, to fight fearlessly and follow his orders without question. His motivation, however, was to teach his sons to protect themselves and each other, so that none of them would have to lose each other. Both sons have vied for their father's affection, which was always present but seldom demonstrated. At the end of the first season Dean and Sam found their father, who had deliberately gone missing to hunt the demon that had killed their mother, and teamed up with him. John sacrificed himself to save Dean's life at the start of season 2, but that was not the end of his story: He later briefly returned from hell to help kill the yellow-eyed demon.