History Creator / JamesMarsters

->''[[Anime/DragonBallSuper My form is justice. And my form is the world. Worship me. Give praise unto me. Me, the beautiful, the sublime... Me, the invincible, the almighty and divine... All hail James Marsters.]]''

* BadassBaritone: His resonant natural speaking voice lends itself well to playing badasses, whether heroic or [[EvilSoundsDeep villainous]].
* DoingItForTheArt: His work for ''The Dresden Files'' and ''Dragonball Super'' are noticeably below his usual pay rate, but he does them because he's himself a fan. Jim Butcher has even said that Marsters has pestered him about getting more books out for him to narrate.

* OlderThanTheyLook: You wouldn't believe that the man is pushing 60.

[[quoteright:322:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/james-marsters.jpg]]

->''[[Anime/DragonBallSuper All hail Zamasu.]]''

James Wesley Marsters (born August 20, 1962 in Greenville, California) is an actor/singer most famous for playing the EnsembleDarkhorse vampire Spike in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}''. His other most famous roles are as Milton Fine (ComicBook/{{Brainiac}}) in ''{{Series/Smallville}}'' and Captain John Hart in ''Series/{{Torchwood}}''. He appeared on ''{{Series/Caprica}}'' as terrorist leader Barnabas Greeley, appeared on ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'' as the Count of St. Germain, and also portrayed Piccolo in ''Film/DragonballEvolution''. He ''also'' has provided the audio performances for all of Creator/JimButcher's ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' books to date, and became the voice actor for Zamasu in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper''.

He is married to Patricia Rahman, which caused a few eyebrows to raise due to the large age gap (23 years) between them, and the fact that Marsters had attended her high school graduation (they started dating when she was 17-18 and he was 42).

James Wesley Marsters (born August 20, 1962 in Greenville, California) is an actor/singer most famous for playing the EnsembleDarkhorse vampire Spike in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}''. His other most famous roles are as Milton Fine (ComicBook/{{Brainiac}}) in ''{{Series/Smallville}}'' and Captain John Hart in ''Series/{{Torchwood}}''. He appeared on ''{{Series/Caprica}}'' as terrorist leader Barnabas Greeley, appeared on ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'' as the Count of St. Germain, and also portrayed Piccolo in ''Film/DragonballEvolution''. He ''also'' has provided the audio performances of all of Creator/JimButcher's [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Dresden]] books to date, and became the voice actor for Zamasu in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper''.

James Wesley Marsters (born August 20, 1962 in Greenville, California) is an actor/singer most famous for playing the EnsembleDarkhorse vampire Spike in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}''. His other most famous roles are as Milton Fine (ComicBook/{{Brainiac}}) in ''{{Series/Smallville}}'' and Captain John Hart in ''Series/{{Torchwood}}''. He appeared on ''{{Series/Caprica}}'' as terrorist leader Barnabas Greeley, appeared on ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'' as the Count of St. Germain, and also portrayed Piccolo in ''Film/DragonballEvolution''. He ''also'' has provided the audio performances of all of Creator/JimButcher's [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Dresden]] books to date. Most recently he became the voice actor for Zamasu in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper''.

James Wesley Marsters (born August 20, 1962) is an actor/singer most famous for playing the EnsembleDarkhorse vampire Spike in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}''. His other most famous roles are as Milton Fine (ComicBook/{{Brainiac}}) in ''{{Series/Smallville}}'' and Captain John Hart in ''Series/{{Torchwood}}''. He appeared on ''{{Series/Caprica}}'' as terrorist leader Barnabas Greeley, appeared on ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'' as the Count of St. Germain, and also portrayed Piccolo in ''Film/DragonballEvolution''. He ''also'' has provided the audio performances of all of Creator/JimButcher's [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Dresden]] books to date. Most recently he became the voice actor for Zamasu in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper''.

* FakeNationality: He's stated in interviews that he can do any accent he can get paid to do. Irish, Italian, French,
Russian… ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' audiobooks pretty much prove that.

!!Tropes associated with this actor include:

* AscendedFanboy: Marsters would go on to be cast as [[Characters/DragonBallZamasu Zamasu]] in ''VideoGame/DragonBallXenoverse2'' and later the [[Anime/DragonBallSuper official dub]].
* ConvertedFanboy: He ended up becoming a huge fan of ''Franchise/DragonBall'' after watching the anime to study his character as King Piccolo for ''Film/DragonballEvolution''.
* CreatorBacklash: He was so disturbed by his character Spike attempting to rape Buffy during the episode "Seeing Red" that he had his contract updated so he would never be involved in sexual assault scenes ever again.

* FakeNationality: He's stated in interviews that he can do any accent he can get paid to do. Irish, Italian, French, Russian… ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' audiobooks pretty much prove that.
* HandsomeLech: Many fans who have met him in person talked about his habit of hitting on younger women. He would later start dating his wife while she was still in high school and he was in his early 40s.
** He also [[http://newworldpuck.tumblr.com/post/95978667505/james-marsters-ghost-of-the-robot-and-a wrote a love song]] about Creator/MichelleTrachtenberg when he was 40 and she was 17, and the song has some [[http://songmeanings.com/songs/view/118915/ blatantly unsubtle lyrics]]. He once played the song live and said "This song's about Michelle Trachtenberg. She's 18 now, right?"
* MeanCharacterNiceActor: While Spike runs up and down the scale from vicious bastard to AntiHero, Marsters himself is a very easygoing man, and the DVD extras for the show demonstrate that he's quick with a joke, very friendly with the cast and crew, and always willing to take an extra moment to speak with his fans. For the one scene where Spike attempted to rape Buffy, Marsters was so repulsed and disgusted by the violence of the scene that he insisted it be shot as quickly as possible and apologized profusely to Sarah Michelle Gellar both before and after (he credits Gellar's support and professionalism with helping him get through it). Afterwards, he instructed his agent to have it specifically written into his contract that he ''will not'' take part in any rape scenes again.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Born 1962. No kidding. Check his Wikipedia. We are absolutely sure he's not really a vampire, right?
* PromotedFanboy: His role in ''Film/DragonballEvolution'' came full circle when he was cast as Zamasu in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper''.

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* OneOfUs:
** Attended ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fan conventions when he was younger.
** He is a ''Manga/DragonBall'' fan, to the point he resisted furiously when the producers of ''Film/DragonballEvolution'' tried to make Piccolo look normal and demanded he look like the original character. He ended up being a ConvertedFanboy when doing research for ''Film/DragonBallEvolution'' convincing the crew to keep Piccolo's green design rather than the {{Bishounen}} looks they were going for. He even ended up voicing a character in the actual show, Zamasu, in ''VideoGame/DragonBallXenoverse2'' and ''Super''.
** He's a comic geek and a gamer to boot.

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: While Spike runs up and down the scale from vicious bastard to anti-hero, Marsters is a very easygoing man, and the DVD extras for the show demonstrate that he's quick with a joke, very friendly with the cast and crew, and always willing to take an extra moment to speak with his fans. In regards to the AttemptedRape scene in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E19SeeingRed Seeing Red]]", Marsters was so repulsed and disgusted by the violence of the scene that he insisted it be shot as quickly as possible and apologized profusely to Creator/SarahMichelleGellar both before and after (he credits Gellar's support and professionalism with helping him get through it). Afterwards, he instructed his agent to have it specifically written into his contract that he will not take part in any rape scenes, period.

* TypeCasting: Two of his most famous roles (Spike on ''Franchise/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and voicing the ''Literature/DresdenFiles'' audiobooks) involve playing a supernatural badass who favors snide comments and long leather coats.

** AscendedFanboy: He would go on to be cast as [[Characters/DragonBallZamasu Zamasu]] in ''VideoGame/DragonBallXenoverse2'' and later the [[Anime/DragonBallSuper official dub]].

* FakeBrit: Several of his roles, including but not limited to [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Spike]], [[Series/{{Torchwood}} John Hart]], and [[Series/Warehouse13 the Count of St. Germain]]. Several people on the set of ''Buffy'' thought he was actually British.

* OlderThanTheyLook: Born 1962. No kidding. Check his Wikipedia. Appearing to be in his late 20s or early-to-mid 30s, he definitely doesn't look like he's in his fifties. We are absolutely sure he's not really a vampire, right?