Henry Spencer

Henry Spencer is Shawn's father, a retired Santa Barbara cop who spent his son's childhood drilling him in observation and deduction — the very skills Shawn now uses to fake psychic visions. Gruff, exacting, and perpetually unimpressed by his son's antics, Henry wants Shawn to use his sharp mind honestly, as a real detective would.

Corbin Bernsen plays the exasperated straight man without ever going soft or sentimental about it, which is exactly right: Henry's love for Shawn comes out sideways, through nagging and eye-rolls rather than speeches. The show's whole premise — that Shawn's gift is really just training — only works because Bernsen makes that training feel like a real, loving, irritating relationship.