Jensen Ackles is one of those few actors fortunate enough to land multiple central roles in different major TV shows over the course of their careers.
The 43-year old started his acting career while still a teenager in the mid-1990s when he featured in shows such as Wishbone, Sweet Valley High, Mr. Rhodes and Cybill. In 1997, he was cast in his first major TV role, as Eric Brady in the NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives.
He stayed on the show for about three years, featuring in a total of 115 episodes. Shortly after leaving Days of Our Lives, Ackles bagged his second major role when he joined the second season of the Fox science-fiction drama Dark Angel as the character Alec McDowell/X5-494.
Around the same time, he also enjoyed a recurring role as C.J. Braxton in the teen drama Dawson's Creek.
Most Defining Role As TV Actor
In 2005, Ackles was cast as Dean Winchester, one of the two main protagonists from the fantasy drama Supernatural that aired originally on The WB network and then later on its successor, The CW.
Ackles' portrayal of Dean Winchester spanned a period of 15 years and 327 episodes, until the series finale in November 2020.
Somewhere in between all these successful roles, the Dallas-born actor managed to work on yet another iconic character. Between 2004 and 2005, he appeared as Jason Teague, a main antagonist in Season 4 of The CW's superhero series Smallville.
It was a fulfilling role for Ackles, but things might have turned out quite differently for the actor and indeed, for the entire Smallville outfit. At the beginning of the show, Ackles auditioned to join the cast of the series, but he actually tried for Clark Kent. The gig eventually went to Tom Welling, who embodied the character of Clark Kent/Superman with great distinction over the course of the series' ten-season run.
A Pretty Close-Run Race
It may be difficult now to envision someone else in those shoes, but according to Ackles, the race for who would play Clark was pretty close-run between him and Welling. He does admit, though, that it was probably for the best that he lost that particular battle, and that Welling won it.
"It got pretty close and actually came down to Tom and me," Ackles said in an old interview. "We had to go back a couple of times to the network and they ultimately went with Tom which I thought made sense because he looks more the part than I do. Watching the past three seasons, I'd say they made the right choice."
The two actors would go on to work together on the fourth season of the show, as their characters came up against each other to fight for their respective motives and for the attentions of Clark's first love, Lana Lang.