Standing in line at the Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo this September, I noticed a mother and her five-year-old daughter sitting patiently in line right before me. We were waiting to get photos done with Jim Beaver, who played Bobby Singer in CW’s Supernatural, currently in its tenth season.

"So are you excited to get a picture with Jim and your mom?" I asked the little girl, who definitely was, but her mother laughed.

"I’m not going to be in the picture," she said. "Just her. She’s the one who loves Bobby. We already got his autograph yesterday."

They had driven all the way from Calgary for him. When we went up, sure enough, her mother stood to the side of the photo area. Jim, a scruffy, gruff fellow – a real man’s man, someone hard to find in Hollywood – greeted her happily (It’s you!) knelt down on the floor, and spoke with her quietly for some moments before the picture was taken.

This may not come as a surprise to those who watch the show and follow the antics of the actors, but for those who don’t, here is a quick summary: two arguing, dysfunctional brothers who fight demons have a no-nonsense, tough father figure in a man named Bobby Singer. Nobody dislikes or distrusts Bobby. He is the one character who can see things for the way they are, and he is lauded for being more fatherly than the actual father in the show.

"He is written without a lot of BS," Jim said, the day prior. "I bring a certain amount to the character, but he’s written without it."

Acting is the man’s passion. Before his stint on Supernatural he was in the critically acclaimed Deadwood – an HBO production set in the old Wild West. It’s rough, it’s dirty, it’s compelling, and it won him a lot of recognition. "It was kind of an average actor’s life. You would get a little work, go a long time without work, then you’d get a little more work. And then Deadwood came along and changed everything, which was a great role – a fantastic show – and it really turned things around for me. I have been very lucky ever since."

After Deadwood he found himself on Supernatural, which has taken him to conventions across the continent and exposed him to an endless horde of fans who love him for Bobby.

Homosexual themes run rampant on the show, and while Jim’s character doesn’t get the brunt of it, there is a sprinkling in the form of Mark Sheppard’s character of Crowley – a demonic salesman who Bobby ‘loans’ his soul to for a favour. Deals, of course, are sealed with a kiss. Jim joked freely about it, and the two actors have a banter both onscreen and off. Days before our interview Mark surprised Jim onstage at a Supernatural convention and locked lips with him once again.

"He’s a very stubbly kisser," he said and, at news that Jim himself might be the scratchy one, he flat out denied it. "No, no," he said, rubbing his well-worn beard. "This is nice and soft. [Mark’s] is kind of repulsively prickly."

Jim no longer enjoys the same spot on Supernatural as he once did but worry not – he is about to hit the big screen in the upcoming film Crimson Peak by Guillermo del Toro, featuring the acting talents of Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska and Charlie Hunnam, amongst others.

Jim wouldn’t say much about it, but he would tell us this: "It’s a Gothic ghost story. It is set in 1901, and it’s going to be pretty scary. It is not a slasher movie."