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Jared Padalecki shared a sweet photo of himself and his family celebrating the 42nd birthday of his Supernatural character, Sam Winchester
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Padalecki portrayed the role for 15 seasons, from 2005 to 2020
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Padalecki is set to reunite with his Supernatural costars on the upcoming fifth season of The Boys
Jared Padalecki is honoring one of his most beloved characters: Supernatural‘s Sam Winchester.
Padalecki, 42, posted on Instagram on May 2, sharing a photo of himself, his wife Genevieve and their three kids Thomas, Shepherd and Odette, squeezed into a restaurant booth.
“The Padalecki Clan got together to celebrate #SamWinchester’s birthday….” he wrote in the caption. Then, he joked, “Turns out he and Ruby smoothed things over in the afterlife. 😳.”
Sam’s birthday in the show is May 2, 1983, making him 42 this year.
Padalecki starred in Supernatural for 15 seasons, from 2005 to 2020. He and Jensen Ackles played Sam and Dean Winchester, brothers who hunt supernatural beings like demons, ghosts and monsters. Misha Collins joined the cast as the angel Castiel in season 4 and was part of the main cast from season 5 through season 6, and then season 9 through season 15. Jeffrey Dean Morgan also played the brothers’ father.
Jeff Weddell/The CW
Jared Padalecki in ‘Supernatural’ in 2020
Padalecki met Genevieve, 44, when she joined Supernatural as the demon Ruby, taking over for Katie Cassidy, who previously portrayed the role. Sam and Ruby had a complicated relationship throughout her appearances on the show, though in real life, the couple married in 2010, two years after they met on set. They celebrated 15 years of marriage this February.
Pre-Supernatural, Padalecki also famously played Dean Forester, one of Rory’s boyfriends, on Gilmore Girls. He also starred in Walker, a reboot series of Walker, Texas Ranger, from 2021 to 2024. He’s also set to reunite with Collins and Ackles on season 5 of The Boys, which is produced by Supernatural creator Eric Kripke.
Related: Jared Padalecki Says He Hopes to Reprise His ‘Supernatural’ Character One Day
Back in 2021, Padalecki told PEOPLE, “I love Supernatural dearly, I always will. I have a deep and abiding love for Sam Winchester, and I loved helping him come to life for 15 years and 327 episodes.”
Gary Miller/Getty
Geneviev Padalecki (left) and Jared Padalecki in 2025
Though he said Sam “deserved a little bit of a rest,” he added that he was open to reprising the role down the road.
“I certainly have it somewhere in the bottom of my heart and soul that I hope September 10 isn’t the last time I ever played Sam Winchester,” he said, referring to the date the last episode was filmed. Padalecki previously reprised his Gilmore Girls role as Dean for Netflix’s Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, which aired in 2016.
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When Walker ended, Padaleci told TVLine he was “pretty tired” from his 24 years on TV. “With Supernatural, Jensen and I talked about it in our trailers on set for years, or during conventions in the green room, or at home, or flying together, or whatever, playing golf. We’d talk about it, and finally, season 14, we kind of looked at each other, and we were like, ‘Hey, you know what, I think it’s time to go back to our families,’ ” he said. Though he was upset that Walker was canceled, he said, “I’m really focusing on how grateful I am, and will forever be, for the time I got to spend on Walker.”
Read the original article on People
