9 most memorable guest stars from Supernatural Season 1

Photo Credit: Supernatural/The CW Image Acquired from CW TV PR

Supernatural Season 1 was full of guest stars with the creature-of-the-week format. Just who were the most memorable?

There are certainly guest stars that you’ll have forgotten about in Supernatural Season 1. While you remember the characters, you only have a vague recollection of the people playing the roles. Sometimes this is because they’ve grown up since their episodes and sometimes it’s because they’ve been covered so you don’t exactly see their faces.

But there are others that stand out immediately. You know them from roles in other shows or because of their stand-out performances on Supernatural. In some cases, the characters appeared in a later episode or were mentioned regularly, helping them become memorable characters but that doesn’t take anything away from the actors/actresses that took on those roles.

Here are the most memorable guest stars from the first season of the show.

#1. Amy Acker

We have to start with the first most memorable actress to appear on the show in a one-off role. Amy Acker was in the third episode of Supernatural, titled “Dead in the Water.” She played Andrea Barr, widow and mother. When the Winchesters read about a varsity swimmer drowning in a lake, they get the feeling that this wasn’t an accident. There’s something in that water.

What they find is the lake is haunted by a young boy who was killed more than 30 years ago. All the deaths are linked to the two boys who accidentally killed him and covered up his death.

Acker was known for another fantasy show just before her appearance on Supernatural: Angel. She played Winifred “Fred” Burkle and Illyria. Fans instantly welcomed her onto the Buffy spin-off, even if they weren’t happy about her death and takeover by the Old One. After Supernatural she would go on to star in Person of Interest and is now in The Gifted.

#2. Julie Benz

Supernatural Season 1, Episode 12 introduced the Reapers for the first time. But that’s not all. It was the episode another Buffy and Angel actress would appear in the show. Julie Benz played the role of Layla, a woman with an inoperable brain tumor with just six months to live.

When Dean is electrocuted and given just weeks to live, Sam searches high and low for someone (anyone) who can save him. This leads them to a pastor who cheated death, but lost his sight. It soon turns out that the pastor isn’t a miracle worker. His wife has chained a Reaper to do her bidding. The case is a life for a life and the wife chooses the victims.

Dean has to deal with being saved, while another dies for him. He then learns that Layla can’t be saved, despite being an innocent in all this.

Benz was most memorable for her role of Darla on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, but that wasn’t all. She also appear in Desperate Housewives and Dexter. The actress has most recently been in Hawaii Five-0 and Training Day.

Photo Credit: Supernatural/The CW Image Acquired from CW TV PR.

#3. Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Yes, this man is technically a guest star on the show. He’s a recurring guest star, but still a guest star. Jeffrey Dean Morgan (as we all know) played the role of John Winchester. Despite only being in a handful of episodes, he is one of the favorites of the show and someone fans want to see return.

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It was Morgan’s character that helped to set up the premise of the show. When John Winchester goes missing, the Winchester brothers, Sam and Dean, have to work together to find him. Along the way they deal with the monsters, creatures, and demons that threaten the lives of innocent people.

Eventually it turns out that John has intentionally gone missing. He’s getting closer to the thing that killed his wife and a way to kill it. His disappearance is a way to protect his sons from what needs to be done.

Morgan was known for a variety of roles long before Supernatural, including the recurring character Denny on Grey’s Anatomy. Most recently he is known for his role of the dastardly Negan in The Walking Dead.

#4. Adrianne Palicki

Despite only being in a handful of episodes, Adrianne Palicki is one of the most memorable guest stars of Supernatural Season 1. She played Jess, girlfriend to Sam Winchester. What makes her memorable is the way she died at the end of the first episode: the same way as Mary Winchester by the same demon.

Jess’ death would become the catalyst for Sam to join his brother on the hunt for John Winchester. Sam’s goal was to find out what the thing was that killed his girlfriend and find a way to kill it. But he needed John’s help to do that and he wasn’t happy that Dean was more interested in killing other creatures than finding John.

Palicki was known for her role of Brianna in South Beach before Supernatural. It would be after the show that she would gain bigger roles, including Tyra in Friday Night Lights. She has also starred in Lone Star, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and most recently The Orville.

Photo Credit: Supernatural/The CW Image Acquired from CW TV PR

#5. A.J. Buckley

You will know A.J. Buckley for his role of Ed Zeddmore in Supernatural. While his role became bigger because of the Season 3 episode “Ghostfacers,” he originally appeared in the Season 1 episode “Hell House.”

Ed was one half of the duo “Ed and Harry.” The two loved the supernatural and paranormal, and set up a website to tell the story of a haunted house. What they didn’t realize is that due to a supernatural element, the story they told made the spirit in the house more powerful. The Winchesters needed to work with them to help get rid of the spirit once and for all.

Buckley wasn’t the most well-known guest star in the Season 1 episode, but he would become one of the most famous. He would also go on to have series regular roles in a number of shows, most notably CSI: New York. He can currently be seen in SEAL Team as Sonny.

#6. Nicki Aycox

Of all the roles on the show, there are few that were big names before the show. Nicki Aycox is one of the exceptions in Supernatural Season 1. Most fans had at least heard the name before her appearance as Meg Masters in Episode 11 “Scarecrow.”

Meg was first introduced when Sam and Dean parted ways. Sam was on his way back to California to find his dad, when he met Meg on the road. They hit it off with their similar backstory, but it was soon clear to fans that this wasn’t a coincidence. Meg was a demon and doing the bidding of her father, Azazel. The Winchesters would learn this at a later date.

Before her role on Supernatural, Aycox has guest star roles in a number of TV shows, including Weird Science and Boy Meets World. However, her most well-known role is of Maxine in Jeepers Creepers II, which is why most people already knew her name. She’d also had the role of Mrs. B in Over There shortly before her appearance on Supernatural.

Photo Credit: Supernatural/The CW Image Acquired from CW TV PR

#7. Travis Wester

Thought I was going to miss this guy? Travis Wester played the second part in the duo that was “Ed and Harry.” Harry Spangler was in the same episodes of Ed, and would go onto the same web series Ghostfacers after their Season 3 episode.

He was one of the more famous actors to join Supernatural Season 1. Some of his biggest roles were in shows like Beverly Hill 90210 and Mr. Rhodes in the late 90s. He would also play Todd Fleming in 30 episodes of Spyder Game, as well as one-off roles in Scrubs, Felicity and Six Feet Under before appearing in the WB/CW show.

One of his most well-known roles is Euro Trip from 2004, just before his first SPN episode.

Photo Credit: Supernatural/The CW Image Acquired from CW TV PR

#8. Samantha Smith

After including John Winchester, we can’t forget the woman who would play Mary Winchester. She was a memorable guest star from her very first moment on the screen. After all, she was the reason John got into hunter and pulled his sons on the road.

We would learn far more than we would believe possible throughout the series about Mary Winchester. This wasn’t a normal housewife and mother. She was a hunter and had plans to keep her sons out of the hunting lifestyle. So much for those plans! The first five minutes of the show would see her burn on the ceiling because she interrupted the Yellow-Eyed Demon.

Samantha Smith was in a number of shows as one-off characters before her time on Supernatural. Some of those shows included Seinfeld, Pacific Blue, and Dark Angel (which would star Jensen Ackles for one season!) After her initial appearance on the show, she would stick with one-off roles in shows like Criminal Minds, NCIS: Los Angeles, and The Mentalist. Smith would come back to Supernatural as a regular guest star for Season 12 and will return for Season 13.

Photo Credit: Supernatural/The CW Image Acquired from CW TV PR

#9. Loretta Devine

Finally, we can’t forget about Loretta Devine. The expressive actress played the role of psychic Missouri Moseley. She was only in one episode, but fans have asked for her return since. She was supposed to be in more episodes, but Devine’s schedule wouldn’t allow it.

In the one episode she appeared in, Dean and Sam Winchester were forced to return to their childhood home. Missouri helped them tackle the poltergeist that threatened the lives of the new family in the home. It was also this episode that we learned John was purposely avoiding his sons, while he learned some sort of truth.

Devine was well-known long before her appearance in Supernatural. She played the role of Adele Webber in Grey’s Anatomy, making that two former Grey’s actors to appear in the fantasy show. She had a number of one-off roles in the likes of Ally McBeal and Family Law, as well as a fun role in Urban Legends: Final Cut opposite Once Upon a Time’s Jennifer Morrison and The Vampire Diaries’ Matt Davis.

After Supernatural, she would appear in two episode of Boston Legal (as two different characters), 31 episodes of Eli Stone, and 30 episodes of The Client List, among many other roles.

Devine will reprise her role of Missouri in Supernatural Season 13, Episode 3, “Patience.”

Next: 11 actors you forgot were in Supernatural Season 1

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