Information About Spike/James
Marsters
Birth name
James Wesley Marsters
Date of birth
(location)
20 August 1972
Greenville, California, USA
Height
5' 10"
Trivia
Gained the scar on his left eyebrow when he was
mugged whilst living in Queens
Is left-handed.
(July 2000) Won the Sexiest Male Vampire Award at
the Nocturnal 2K Convention in London, England.
Graduated from Davis High School in Modesto,
California.
Studied at Juilliard, the Pacific Conservatory of
the Performing Arts, and the American Conservatory Theatre.
While doing regional theatre in Chicago, he
co-founded the New Mercury Theatre company (named after Orson Welles' "Mercury
Theatre"). In 1990, New Mercury's founders packed the operation up and relocated to
Seattle in the hopes of finding more opportunity; they played there 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.
Is instantly recognisable chiefly for his
platinum blonde bleached hair. He has to bleach his hair regularly to play 'Spike' on
Buffy The Vampire Slayer. He recommends adding four to seven packets of Sweet 'n' Low to
the bleaching solution, to take the sting out.
Has a HUGE cult following in the Sci-Fi/fantasy
community. There are (literally) hundreds of websites dedicated to him and his immensely
popular vampire character 'Spike' on the internet.
Personal quotes
"All I wanted when I came on the show was
a good body count and a good death. That's all."
"I patterned the accent after this guy I was
in a play with, but that was three years ago. Now I'm listening to Tony Head (Giles in
Buffy), who sounds kind of like Spike in real life. It's much more tough-guy talk in real
life. His accent (as Giles) is just as fake as mine. His is nice and gritty, but it's not
North London. I'm always afraid that I'm morphing over into Tony Head, wherever he's
from." - on his british accent in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
"It's just me and a guitar, so I'm not going
to be doing a lot of Smashing Pumpkins. I do Tom Waits, Neil Young, Bob Dylan. That's all
the good stuff, man. That's when they had good songs written for just voice and guitar. I
wish I could do Johnny Lee Hooker, but I'm not that good." - on his acoustic
performance at 14 Below, Santa Monica on 29th August 2000.
"All I really wanted was a spectacular
death. A good quip and a chance to kick butt."
"Chekov man, it's all the same thing. Chekov
and Buffy the vampire slayer - it's all about beautiful losers."
Where are they
now?
(February 2002) Will be performing his solo
acoustic music at the 14 Below club in Santa Monica, California on February 9th 2002. This
will be his 8th performance at the club in 18 months.
