James Norman Beaver Jr. (born August 12, 1950) is an American actor,
playwright, screenwriter, and film historian. He is most familiar to
worldwide audiences as Bobby Singer in Supernatural. He also 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.
His memoir Life's That Way was published in April 2009.Beaver was born
in Laramie, Wyoming, the son of Dorothy Adell (née Crawford)
(1928-2019) and James Norman Beaver, Sr. (1924â€"2004), a minister.
His 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. Beaver's mother has Cherokee, German, and Scottish
ancestry, and is a descendant of three-time U.S. Attorney General John
J. Crittenden.Although his parents' families had both long been in
Texas, Beaver was born in Laramie, as his father was doing graduate
work in accounting at the University of Wyoming. Returning to Texas,
Beaver Sr. worked as an accountant and as a minister for the Church of
Christ in Fort Worth, Crowley, Dallas, and Grapevine. For most of
Beaver's youth, his family lived in Irving, Texas, even while his
father preached in surrounding communities. He and his three younger
sisters (Denise, Reneé, and Teddlie) 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. He also took courses at Fort Worth
Christian College. Later, he attended Oklahoma Christian College.
Despite having appeared in some elementary school plays, he showed no
particular interest in an acting career, but immersed himself in film
history and expressed a desire for a career as a writer, publishing a
few short stories in his high school anthology.Fewer than two months
after his graduation from high school, Beaver followed several of his
close friends into the United States Marine Corps. Following basic
training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, Beaver was trained
there as a microwave radio relay technician. He 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. He served as a radio operator at an outlying
detachment of the 1st Marine Regiment, then as supply chief for the
division communications company. He returned to the U.S. in 1971 and
was discharged as Corporal (E-4), though he remained active in the
Marine Reserve until 1976.
playwright, screenwriter, and film historian. He is most familiar to
worldwide audiences as Bobby Singer in Supernatural. He also 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.
His memoir Life's That Way was published in April 2009.Beaver was born
in Laramie, Wyoming, the son of Dorothy Adell (née Crawford)
(1928-2019) and James Norman Beaver, Sr. (1924â€"2004), a minister.
His 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. Beaver's mother has Cherokee, German, and Scottish
ancestry, and is a descendant of three-time U.S. Attorney General John
J. Crittenden.Although his parents' families had both long been in
Texas, Beaver was born in Laramie, as his father was doing graduate
work in accounting at the University of Wyoming. Returning to Texas,
Beaver Sr. worked as an accountant and as a minister for the Church of
Christ in Fort Worth, Crowley, Dallas, and Grapevine. For most of
Beaver's youth, his family lived in Irving, Texas, even while his
father preached in surrounding communities. He and his three younger
sisters (Denise, Reneé, and Teddlie) 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. He also took courses at Fort Worth
Christian College. Later, he attended Oklahoma Christian College.
Despite having appeared in some elementary school plays, he showed no
particular interest in an acting career, but immersed himself in film
history and expressed a desire for a career as a writer, publishing a
few short stories in his high school anthology.Fewer than two months
after his graduation from high school, Beaver followed several of his
close friends into the United States Marine Corps. Following basic
training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, Beaver was trained
there as a microwave radio relay technician. He 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. He served as a radio operator at an outlying
detachment of the 1st Marine Regiment, then as supply chief for the
division communications company. He returned to the U.S. in 1971 and
was discharged as Corporal (E-4), though he remained active in the
Marine Reserve until 1976.
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