Bobby Singer, indelibly played by Jim Beaver, was a gruff and cynical, but loyal retired demon hunter and father figure not only to Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles), but many other hunters through the years. Though he died way too early on Supernatural, he made appearances through the rest of the show, as a ghost, a major rebel leader in the Apocalyptic World, and in Heaven.

Below, Jim Beaver reveals all about his fondly remembered character, his favorite Supernatural on-set memories and episode, how he feels about the “rewarding and joyful” fan conventions, and more.

Who He Plays: Bobby Singer, a father figure and hunting mentor to Sam and Dean. He appears later as a ghost and as a leader in Apocalypse World.

Convention Memories: “There have been wacky things that happened. On occasion, one of the actors gets tackled by somebody whose enthusiasm gets out of hand. And then there’s finding out that someone has tattooed your face on their upper arm so that their armpit hair forms your beard! I was flattered and very mystified,” he remembers.

Beaver continues, “At the first convention I went to in Orlando many years ago, what struck me was how people told me that Supernatural primarily engaged them because of the relationships between the characters. And to my surprise, many said they would watch even if there were no monsters. People have come up to me with tears in their eyes telling me how the show had a strong emotional impact on their lives. It makes you feel that you’ve accomplished something big without even knowing you were doing it. I find it deeply moving when we on the show have been accepted with grace, tenderness, and love by the fans.”

Favorite Episode: “Weekend at Bobby’s” (Season 6, Episode 4).”It was all about me,” Beaver said with a laugh. “It was a fun episode, and fans got to see another angle on the show. It was also Jensen’s first episode as a director; I had a superb experience working under his direction.”

What He’d Write in a Letter to Fans: “I’d thank them… I have a line on the show that became almost a touchstone: ‘Family don’t end with blood.’”

Finding Out Bobby Would Die: Of the moment he learned his character’s fate, Beaver told us, “I learned I would die from the showrunners Bob Singer (my character is named after him) and Sera Gamble, who said, ‘We’re going to kill you, but you’re coming back as a ghost.’ I ended up doing more seasons after I was dead. Still, I was disappointed that instead of doing half of a season’s episodes, I’d be lucky to do one or two. But my death episode, ‘Death’s Door,’ was one of the best episodes of television I’ve ever been associated with.”

On Set Memories: “My fondest memories have to do with the fun, the jokes, the one-liners, the banter between cast and crew, and an all-around feeling of camaraderie. It was very much like being a kid at the best summer camp. There were times I wondered how we got the show shot in eight days per episode because we were having so much fun. I am also so grateful for the show giving me a connection with Terry Ann Fleming, who played Bobby’s wife. She and I hit it off from the very first and became and still are deeply attached to one another.”

Mementos from the Set: Even Beaver wasn’t immune from the instinct to take home a souvenir from the show set. “When I knew that Bobby’s house was going to be demolished. I took home a little ceramic frog that was on Bobby’s kitchen counter, and it’s still in my house. Also, Jared stole a set of three little brass owls that I think he wanted for himself, but somebody suggested that I might like a souvenir, and he gave me the brass owls. I ended up auctioning them for charity. When I first showed up on the set and I saw all the books, I thought, ‘I’m probably going to end up stealing a lot of these books, but about half of them weren’t real books and the other half were on obscure Canadian land deals,” he said.

Jack Rowand / © The CW / Courtesy Everett Collection

If There Were an Afterlife for Bobby: The actor imagined, “We last saw Bobby in Heaven with Sam and Dean, so maybe there’s a problem in Heaven that I have to tend to. Or maybe there’s a new alternate universe where we all start over. If the same team talent would do another Supernatural round in some form, I would be ecstatic to be part of it.”

What He Hears from Fans: Instead of saying something to me, they ask me to say something — usually ‘Idjit’ or ‘Balls,’” Beaver explained. “I wasn’t crazy about those terms until they turned into catch phrases, and then I wished I’d trademarked them!”

What Supernatural meant to him: “Being on a show for 15 years is an extraordinary achievement. To be a central part of that for all those years really felt like, ‘Okay, I’ve done something with my life.’ I had toiled in the vineyards of Hollywood for a long, long time, until these two shows, Deadwood and Supernatural, suddenly put me in a place where people knew who I was. That period in the early 2000s was a major shift in my career for which I am eternally grateful because it led me to opportunities that I never would have had otherwise,” Beaver said. “I started Supernatural thinking I was a one-episode guest star, and it ended up opening up the world to me in ways that I never really could have imagined, and provided me with a wealth of friends…some of whom I have yet to meet.”