As Sam Winchester, one of the reluctant heroes of the WB
Network's Tuesday hit "Supernatural," Jared Padalecki spends his
time crossing the United States in search of things that go bump in
the night.

Off camera, however, it takes quite a bit to spook Padalecki, a
lanky, 23-year-old former Texan.

"By no means am I Mr. Tough, but I can't name any specific fear I
have," he says. "I don't know if this qualifies as a superstition,
but every time I step on a plane, I kiss my finger and touch the top
of the doorjamb. I started doing that in high school when someone
would run a red or yellow light. I don't know what that means."

Whether it's luck or plain old star quality, Padalecki is one of
the fastest-rising young actors in Hollywood these days. Within a
few months of his 2000 high-school graduation, he traded his
hometown of San Antonio for Hollywood, and at 18 landed a major
featured role on the WB's "Gilmore Girls" as Dean Forrester, the all-
American boyfriend of Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel).

Padalecki knows the role of Dean was the kind of break any young
actor would kill for, but he says he never really doubted he was
born to be an actor.