By Stephanie DuBoi Co-starring on ABC's hit drama "Brothers & Sisters'" with such illustrious talent as Oscar and Emmy winners Sally Field, Calista Flockhart and Patricia Wettig would be a coup for any actor. But Dave Annable - who plays Afghanistan war vet Justin Walker on the show -- says its the education he's getting from his pedigreed cast mates on "B&S" that is priceless.

"It's like an all-star team! We've got Sally, Calista, Patricia, Ron Rifkin, Rachel Griffiths and Balthazar Getty and now Emily VanCamp... Someone in our cast has at least won every piece of acting hardware there is," says Annable.

The Suffern, NY, native's only other major credits include the short-lived Fox series, "Reunion" and a small role in the film "Little Black Book" with Brittany Murpy, Kathy Bates and Holly Hunter. He says being the relative newbie to the profession on "Brothers & Sisters" has "been pretty intimidating coming in, but it's just wonderful to work with everyone and their different styles. I feel like this is my school and how much I learn on a daily basis is pretty spectacular.

"I consider myself one of the luckiest people in the world," says Annable, who grew up in Walden, NY, and attended college at SUNY Plattsburgh.

"There could be worst things I could be doing and trust me I did them in high school," he recalls. "I've had every job under the sun. I used to work at a driving range. I worked at Blockbuster. I worked at The Gap, at Disneyworld selling popcorn... I've done everything."

Annable's mom is a research scientist and his father worked for a mechanical corporation while he was growing up.

"He was in charge of the shop in Brooklyn and sending out all the air conditioning supplies and different jobs -- and that was my job in the summer as well," he recalls. "I was this delivery guy, driving this 30-foot van at 20 years old, around New York City delivering air conditioning supplies. I mean that definitely sucks. We would leave at 4 in the morning and not get home until seven at night."

Suck it may have, but Annable says, "It made me appreciate how hard my dad worked. That's why when I was able to help him open up a golf store in Temecula, which has been sort of a dream of his, it felt like a million bucks!

"That's sort of what feels the best out of all this stuff -- to be able to help out my family and take them to see cool things and do whatever I can," says the single 27-year-old actor. "I think that's what life's about. I don't have my own family yet, so this is my family that I can sort of treat. I have my niece and nephew who I love, and give nice things at Christmas time.

"Its completely selfish," he quips, "I just want bigger Christmas presents." Actually, he says it's just "sharing the wealth."

Annable says his reel-life family has become almost as close as his real life family.

"It definitely is special," he says, noting, "It sounds cliche and everyone says it, but we really have taken on that role (of family) off set as well. It doesn't happen on every set and we feel we're sort of lucky we all do get along genuinely as people. We're going to legitimately miss each other on hiatus"

He adds, "Me and the guys who play my two brothers (Balthazar Getty and Matthew Rhys) are literally like brothers. We've gone on vacation together, we're inseparable...we've sort of become the same person, which scares everybody on the set because we have all these inside jokes."

Over their Christmas hiatus, "We all went to England together, just the brothers. Balthazar has a family house in England and once we said we were going, everybody on the set was like 'Oh god, they're going to come back even more bonded'... Everyone was petrified."

They plan to rendezvous again this hiatus, he says.

"Matthew is doing a movie in London and Balthazar is going to be in Europe with his family, so I'm going to go visit them. I'm going to take my little sister who's working hard in med school right now. She's pretty excited.

"But that's how lucky we are on this show. We do get along. Coming to work every day is a lot of fun and how many people get to say that?"

Annable admits, however, that when he gets emotional scenes with the formidable Sally Field -- who plays his mother, Nora Walker, on the show -- he still tends to panic.

"My parents and my siblings and I grew up Sally Field fans, so it was pretty crazy when I got the call she was going to be the new mom on the show," says Annable of the recast "Brothers and Sisters" pilot. "I was just so excited and terrified at the same time because you know, you want to be able to hold your own. And Sally Field is just absolutely killing the part of Nora!"

He laughingly says he uses his on-screen Mom as leverage against his real Mom. "When she gets mad at me I say, 'Mom, Sally wouldn't yell at me like that.'"

Annable says his more experienced "B&S" cohorts have taken him under their collective wings, offering a tip here and there on dealing with the nature of the entertainment beast.

"I'm definitely the baby on set, and sort of a clown at that, so they do have to keep me in check at some point," he says, adding, "Of course, they give me advice here and there, but as much as they'd love to tell me, you sort of gotta make your own mistakes and hopefully learn from them."

Hmmm. Learning from your mistakes? Now that's priceless!