Site Couple Fanlisting Index
James Marsters



James Wesley Marsters was born on 20th August 1962, and is originally from Greenville, California, but grew up in the remote northern logging town Modesto. He was raised by religious parents, his father, John Wesley, who he is named after, used to be a minister, while his mother, a social worker, almost became a nun. He has one brother and one sister, his parents are now divorced. He has at least one step-sibling.

From an early age Marsters knew he wanted to be an actor, one of his first brushes with the profession was a fourth-grade production of "Winnie the Pooh", he played Eyeore. From here he went on to take other parts in local community theatre, including Hugo Peabody in Bye, Bye, Birdie and a servant in The Chalk Garden. In fact James got his first kiss in a theatre class when he was 14. After graduating from Grace M. Davis High School in Modesto James joined the Pacific Conservatory of Performing Arts (PCPA) in Santa Maria, California, a state-funded community college whose two year programme he has described as the best training he ever had as an actor. From here James was accepted into Juilliard, Julliard only accepts twenty drama students each year for its rigorous three year training. However James recently admitted to being a 'tearaway' at this time, and due to disagreements with his teachers he was eventually expelled. James remained in New York for a while, it was here, while working as a bartender in Queens that he received his infamous scar to his eyebrow. "There were years when I spent a lot more time in emergency rooms and police stations than I do now". He also acquired his cat Zachary here, who was equally fierce (James picked him because the cat refused to go back into his cage and drew blood in the struggle). Zachary remained with James until the he died, aged 14, in 2000.

James had begun his professional theatrical career by performing at Chicago's Goodman Theatre in "Red Roses" and such classics as William Shakespeare's "The Tempest". James went on to led a successful career on stage, acting in many more of Shakespeare's plays, including "Macbeth" which he hopes to direct himself one day. During his time in Chicago James worked for the Northlight and the Bailiwick theatre groups and with his own group, the Genesis Theatre Company. The Company preferred new and experimental work; as James says, "we liked dangerous plays". In 1990, James and the two close friends with whom he had run the Company moved to Seattle.

In Seattle he co-founded the New Mercury Theatre Company (named after Orson Welles' "Mercury Theatre"). They played here for a number of years, using any available space, including the basements of restaurants and churches, but eventually found themselves a more permanent space near Pioneer Square. However James decided that he did not want to die poor, so, acting on the advice of fellow actors and seeing only meagre future earnings on the stage, James eventually departed to seek a more solid salary in Hollywood. James was still involved with the NMTC until 1996 when he returned to California permanently.

James made his on-screen debut guest starring as an ill-at-ease priest on the television series "Northern Exposure", he also landed a part on "Moloney". His breakthrough came in 1997 when he landed the part on WB's "Buffy The Vampire Slayer". James has often joked that he was cast as Spike only because the producers were tired of looking for someone. He was only hired for a few episodes, his character was intended to die after five episodes. However Spike was so greatly loved by the shows writers that he was written into more episodes. His character returned to "Buffy" for a single episode in 1998. In 1999 his character again returned to the series, this time on a permanent contract. He remained a series regular till the end of the show.

Besides working on "Buffy" James has had parts on other TV shows like "Millennium", "Strange Frequency" and Gene Roddenberry's "Andromeda". He has also appeared in a number of movies, including a small part in the 1999 remake of "House On Haunted Hill". As well as "Winding Roads" and "Chance", which was written and directed by "Buffy" co-star Amber Benson. In addition to this, he has appeared on a number of American TV entertainment shows including "Hollywood Squares" and "Politically Incorrect". Then in 2000, James revisited the stage with a starring role in an original play titled "The Why," produced by Noah Wyle.

James is also an accomplished singer/songwriter, often performing at fan conventions, or clubs in Santa Monica, California. In the summer of 2003 he toured Europe with his now defunct band Ghost of the Robot to promote thier album 'Mad Brilliant'. The band sold out all tour dates throughout the continent. In addition to the European dates he and his bandmates sold out shows at Los Angeles hot spots such as The House of Blues, The Viper Room and the Knitting Factory. Now the band has split James has taken up solo singing and has released his first album 'Civilized Man' along with a tour in the summer of 2005.

After "Buffy" ended in 2003 James moved to sister show "Angel", where he became a regular for Season 5, which was its final season, ending in 2004. After a brief, self-imposed hiatus James returned to television in March 2005 to star in the USA Original true-crime film, "Cool Money". He played Bobby Comfort, a smart, charismatic thief just released from prison. Also in 2005, James joined the cast of TV show "Smallville" as Brainiac, an artificial intelligence aiming to not only cause a severe rift between Clark and Lex Luthor, but to perhaps unleash darker evils upon the Earth at large. Marsters has recently completed the feature film "Shadow Puppets", a psychological thriller about a group of people who wake up in an insane asylum with no previous memory of who they are or why they are there. There have also been rumours that James may return to our screens as Spike one last time in a TV movie...here's hoping.

Back | XHTML 1.0 & CSS2 | TFL.org