Scott Jaeck as Sam
Scott Jaeck is an American actor who was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on October 29, 1954. He has a long list of film and television credits to his name. He had recurring appearances on Charmed as Sam Wilder and ER as Dr. Steven Flint.
Sam Wilder was a whitelighter. Not much is known of his life as a mortal, but he did receive New York's Teacher of the Year award for 1872. After becoming a whitelighter, one of his charges was Patty Halliwell.
During the end of her marriage to husband Victor Bennett, Patty fell in love with Sam and he fathered her fourth child. Fearing repercussions if their relationship were to be discovered by the Elders, Sam and Patty took their newborn daughter to a church and gave her up to a nun there. They requested only that her name start with a "P" like the rest of the members of the Halliwell family.
When a water demon began attacking children in the lake at a camp, Sam told Patty not to interfere because it was too strong. He feared for her life and tried to stop her. Patty was forced to freeze him with her powers of temporal stasis, but in the time it took her, the water demon attacked and killed Patty.
Blaming himself for the death of his charge and lover, Sam "clipped his wings" and stayed to live out his days at the camp, doing odd jobs there.
When the Charmed Ones started to investigate the water demon, Sam tried to use some of Patty's memory dust that he had been saving for years. In an effort to protect them, he wanted to keep them away from the camp, but the sisters broke the spell and returned. Together, Prue, Piper, Phoebe, Leo and Sam were able to use Patty's plan of freezing and electrocuting the water demon to kill it. Sam, however, was mortally wounded during the fight.
Leo tried to heal Sam, but the Elders refused to let him. Sam was content to die, however, and was reunited with Patty, whom the Halliwell sisters and Leo saw as a specter, returning to greet Sam and take him into the afterlife.
Sam, though did not die, he was made a Whitelighter again and once again stopped using his whitelighter powers. In Season 5, he was made Paige's first charge and at the same time she found out who he was and understood what happen. He reappeared in season 8, where Paige felt she again had to get over her issues with Sam. His James Dean-esque charge from the 1950s, J.D., required extra help, which is why Sam contacted his daughter for the case.
