Happy 34th Birthday, Jensen Ackles!

 

 
On March 1, 2012, Jensen Ackles, arguably the most popular big brother on TV, celebrates his 34^th birthday. One half of the hottest and most dangerous hunting duo on “Supernatural”, now in its 7^th season, and well on the way to its  8^th, is loved by his fans for his role as the unstoppable Dean Winchester.
 

 
So much so that his fans made Jensen Ackles’ Birthday wish a top ten worldwide Twitter Trending Topic last March 1^st and kept it there for over 18 hours, which is a phenomenal achievement considering the “Supernatural“ big bro doesn’t even have his own Twitter account. After the wish dropped from the worldwide TT list, it continued several more hours on the top ten list in many individual countries.
 
Oh and a…yeah, I should also mention his fans managed, more than once, to trend a worldwide birthday wish for his fictional character Dean’s birthday January 24, something else not usually seen.
 

Though best known for his role as Sam’s big brother, he had a number of roles before landing the part on “Supernatural”.  
 
After graduating high school in Texas, he moved to LA to try his luck with acting. At the tender age of 19, Jensen landed his first big role. 
 
From 1997 to 2000, he played Eric Brady on the soap opera “Days of Our Lives.” Eric was Sammy Brady’s twin brother who had been living in Colorado with his grandparents before returning to Salem. 
“Days” fans may fondly remember in 1998, when country’s darling LeAnn Rimes appeared as a very special guest star playing a runaway named Madison who had a crushed on Eric.  
 
This role earned Jensen three Daytime Emmy nominations, and in 1998, he was nominated and won the Soap Opera Digest Award for Best Male Newcomer for the series.  Even so, by the end of 2000 he was ready to move on to bigger and better things. 
 
His first role after Days of Our Lives was playing Ben, a psychotic serial killer on the James Cameron drama, Dark Angel.  
 
Ben died early on in the series, but the producers liked Ackles so much they decided to bring him back as Ben’s clone, Alec (also known as X5-494) a genetically-altered superhuman. 
 
Despite the show’s unique premise, it only lasted an additional 22 episodes, forcing Ackles to look for work once again, but he wasn’t out of commission for very long.

In the fall of 2002, he landed the role of Jen Lindley’s (Michelle Williams) love interest, C.J., on WB Network’s drama “Dawson’s Creek”.  
 
After 12 episodes as C.J, he returned to Vancouver in 2003 and auditioned for the role of Clark Kent on “Smallville.”  As we all know, Tom Welling got the part, but the casting directors liked Jensen so much, they created the role of Jason Teague for him, and in 2004, he joined the cast of “Smallville” for 22 episodes.  
 
In 2005,  after years of playing second string to other actors, Jensen finally landed a lead role…that of Dean Winchester  on “Supernatural” and has been burning up the small screen with his equally hot co-star Jared Padalecki ever since. 
 

 
The multi-talented Ackles has also tried his hand on the big screen with film credits including Devour (2005) a horror story where he plays Jake Grey, a twenty-one year old who is haunted by disturbing premonitions of murder and self-mutilation he can’t explain;  
 

 
“My Blood Valentine” (2009), where he played the role of Tom Hanniger, a cold blooded killer who lived to kill another day; 
 

 
…and “Ten Inch Hero” (2007), playing a crazy haired guy named Priestly described as “the pretty ugly guy who finally is recognizes by the girl of his dreams…..”    Ackles delighted his fans with comic talent in the film showing some REALLY colourful Mohawks and even sported a kilt.  He also co-starred with his now real-life wife Danneel Harris, with whom he will celebrate his 2nd wedding anniversary May 17^th of this year.
 

 
Here I have to share a fan’s comment I found.  “I first noticed Jensen Ackles on the daytime drama “Days of Our Lives,” where I dismissed him as another pretty boy. But Jensen has shown time and time again to be a good actor and brilliant storyteller. From Ben and Alec in “Dark Angel” to his turn in ‘Smallville” as Jason, to Dean Winchester, the character he was born to play, Jensen has grown into an artist worthy of his craft.” Yep…I think that about covers it for me too.
 

 
And acting is not his only talent.  In 2010, he made his directorial debut in the episode, “Weekend at Bobby’s” receiving rave reviews and high praise from fans, the SPN cast and crew, and critics alike. In season 7 he expanded his directing credits with his second directing feat, “The Girl Next Door,” and seems set to direct another episode in season 8, if “Supernatural” is renewed.  *Fingers and toes crossed!*
 
In “Supernatural” so far, he has been nominated for 3 awards: in 2006 by Teen Choice Awards for Choice Breakout Star, by SFX Awards, UK in 2007 for Best TV Actor and in 2011 by TV Guide Awards for Favorite Actor which he won hands down….the last by the thousands of devoted fans who voted for him far into the night.  And that is not the only award they have voted for him either. 
 

 
His fans voted him the “hottest man” on TV in TV Guide’s TV’s Hottest Men contest last January. 
 

 
Last November he became the reigning 2011 champion of the Ultimate TV Character Crush contest from E!Online.  On that contest E!Qnline wrote:
 
“Thousands upon thousands of fans flooded our polls to vote for their favorites in our Ultimate TV Character Crush competition, and it’s been a brutal battle to whittle the list down from 64 guys and gals to two finalists. In the final round, it was Supernatural’s Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) for the male icon.” 
 
E!Online wanted to know how it felt to create a character so beloved by the fans, so they asked writer and executive producer Sera Gamble who revealed something very disturbing about Dean’s fan base. “[Executive producer] Robert Singer and I are totally unsurprised that Dean won this, considering the naughty care packages that sometimes reach the office with his name on them.”  Ooops….  E!Online’s response, ”Geez, one time we sent along a box of edible underwear and mixed tapes filled with Taylor Swift songs…”  .    
 

Jensen Ackles’ also holds E!Online’s current reigning 2011 Alpha Male Madness championship. Sweet!  
 
E!Online writes: “After four weeks, seven rounds, 64 competitors, 12,000 Facebook likes, 8,000 blog comments and 1.5 million votes, the winner of the 2011 Alpha Male Madness tournament is Jensen Ackles! The star of CW’s “Supernatural” playing beleaguered but oh-so-pretty hunter Dean Winchester….. The actor retains his 2009 title, from the first year we did this tournament.”

Oh yeah…did I forget to mention he also won the contest the only other time it was run. They skipped 2010.  Best for them…since Ackles’ fans would have just voted him in then too!  Hehehe
 

 
And one other mention, he won Zap2it’s TV’s Most Crushworthy Hunter this month.  What can I say….We do so love our Jensen!  
 
From this ardent Dean Winchester fan, *A VERY BIG* Happy Birthday to you, Jensen Ackles. Here’s hoping you have many, many more to come, and may your life, both professional and private, continue to be everything you want it to be.  Thank you so much for making Dean Winchester an amazing fictional character. I, for one, am really, really, really glad you’re on “Supernatural.”