James Marsters

James Wesley Marsters (born August 20, 1962) is an American actor and musician, best known for playing the popular platinum-blond character Spike, an English yob of a vampire, in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff series Angel.

Early life

He was born in Greenville, California, and grew up with his brother and sister in Modesto, California. Dreaming about becoming an actor since he played Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh in fourth grade, James joined the theater group at Davis High School, acting in many plays including musicals. After graduation, Marsters studied at the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, 1980–1982, and Juilliard Drama School, 1982–1984.

In an appearance on the Loveline radio show in early 2003 he spoke very negatively about the school and his experience at Juilliard, which he was "basically kicked out of", saying that they were not concerned about being entertaining and that it "wasn't an acting school, it was a speech school". However Marsters also made sure to emphasize that they were great when it comes to dance and music.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Marsters moved to Chicago where his first professional acting role was Ferdinand in The Tempest at the Goodman Theatre in 1987. In this production, he was rolled onto the stage strapped naked to a wheel. He also appeared with well known Chicago companies such as the Northlight and the Bailiwick and with his own group, the Genesis Theatre Company. Marsters was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award for his performance of the lead role of Robespierre in the six hour drama Incorruptible: The Life, Death and Dreams of Maximilian de Robespierre in 1989.

In 1990, Marsters moved to Seattle and, with Liane Davidson and Greg Musick, formed the New Mercury Theatre, named after Orson Welles' own theatre group. In this and other companies, Marsters was involved in a wide range of plays, including Teechers (a British play by John Godber), Anouilh's Antigone, an original work based on the Dr. Seuss books, and Shaw's Misalliance.

In 1992, Marsters got his first acting job on TV—on Northern Exposure, a show that was shot near Seattle. He has made guest appearances on television series such as Andromeda, as well as the independent films Chance (2002), Winding Roads (1999), and the 2005 USA Network movie Cool Money. During November 2005, Marsters filmed a thriller, Shadow Puppets, with Jolene Blalock.

Marsters as "Spike"

It is James' notable and acclaimed appearance as Spike on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (first appearing in Season Two) which attracted the attention of the general public. The immediate fan response prevented his character from being killed off, instead allowing him to enjoy a pivotal presence throughout the series. Spike became a regular in Season Four, and remained so until the show's finale. After the conclusion of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Marster's carried the infamous Spike over to Buffy's sister show, Angel, in a starring role (second title billing after David Boreanaz the titular "Angel").

As for where he got the inspiration for Spike's English accent, Marsters said it was from his co-star, Anthony Stewart Head. Head—who was born in Camden Town—affects a light, Received Pronunciation accent as Giles; he has a deeper, more notably London accent when not in character.

Other work

Marsters has also narrated the audiobooks for The Dresden Files produced by Buzzy Multimedia, a series of detective novels with a supernatural bent. The third audio in the series, Grave Peril^[1], was released in March of 2005 and Marsters is contracted to narrate the fourth in the series, Summer Knight in 2006.

In late 2005, Marsters appeared on the television series Smallville playing Dr. Milton Fine (a.k.a. supervillain Brainiac) in episodes 1 ("Arrival"), 4 ("Aqua"), 5 ("Thirst"), 7 ("Splinter"), 8 ("Solitude"), 16 ("Hypnotic"), 21 ("Oracle"), and 22 ("Vessel").

On October 29, 2005, Marsters presented two performances of his own abridged adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth with American actress Cheryl Puente as Lady Macbeth, followed by question and answer sessions with the audience and acoustic concerts in London.

In September, 2006, Marsters' own interpretation of John Godber's play Teechers was performed on stage with two other actors in Los Angeles. This is a play he had received critical acclaim for as a stage actor prior to his television work.

On September 22, 2006 it was announced that Marsters is contracted to co-star in the 2008 cinematic release of P.S. I Love You alongside Kathy Bates, Hilary Swank, and Gerard Butler. ^[2]

Musical career

Marsters had played in bands and solo in bars and clubs for many years and enjoyed several successful sell-out solo gigs at Los Angeles clubs before forming a band. For these solo gigs he mainly performed covers of classic folk and rock musicians such as Tom Waits, Neil Young, and Bruce Springsteen. He sang several songs in "Once More, with Feeling", a musical episode of Buffy. "Rest in Peace", "Walk Through the Fire", and "Something To Sing About" all featured Marsters singing in a solo capacity, and he participated in most of the full cast songs.

In 2003–2004, Marsters was lead singer for the rock band Ghost of the Robot. Their debut album Mad Brilliant was released on February 2, 2003. The band played its first gigs in Los Angeles and Paris. They went on to play successful dates in and around Los Angeles and two sold-out tours of Europe in 2003 and 2004. They released one CD album, Mad Brilliant; three singles, "Valerie", "David Letterman" and "New Man"; and one mid-length EP, It's Nothing. All these releases carried tracks written and co-written by Marsters.

Marsters' solo musical career was launched in October 2004, in London. His solo acoustic tour of the United Kingdom in April 2005 sold out^[3]. A new solo album Civilized Man^[3] was released on April 15, 2005. It includes several new songs as well as the popular "Katie" and "Smile". He has played songs from the album live in Detroit, Houston, Sacramento. Ten of the eleven songs are written by Marsters.

New solo songs not included on the album but sung at live solo concerts include "Birth of the Blues", "Finer than Gold", "Lou", and "London City". "Finer than Gold", "London City", and "Lou" were composed while on tour in the UK in April 2005. "Birth of the Blues" was composed by Marsters in Amsterdam in 2004 while touring with his now defunct band.

During his October 2005 mini-tour of the UK, Marsters introduced other new songs to his sets. "Button Down Vandals", "Up On Me", and "All That She Wanted". These songs are available only as part of his recently released Words and Music DVD which has his abridged version of Macbeth as well as a full length solo music performance.

During his September 2006 convention James Marsters & Friends ^[3], Marsters debuted several new songs including "The Truth Is Heavy", "Fall of Night", "Jealous Man", "Too Fast", and "Not A Millionaire". All these songs reflect his new blues and folk sound.

He also performed a cover version of Keb Mo's classic "Baby Blue".

References

1. ^ Buzzy Multimedia
2. ^ Marsters at IMDB
3. ^ ^{a b c} James Marsters Live

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