Jamie Bamber

Jamie Bamber
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Portrays:	Lee "Apollo" Adama
Date of Birth:	April 03, 1973
Date of Death:	Missing required parameter 1=month! ,
Age:	52
Nationality:	UK
Related Media
		@ BW Media
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IMDb profile

Jamie St. John Bamber Griffith (born April 3, 1973) is the English-born actor who portrays Lee "Apollo" Adama in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica.

Overview

Jamie St. John Bamber Griffith, was born in Hammersmith, London. His father, Ralph is an American. His mother, Elizabeth is Northern Irish and she trained as an actress. Jamie is one of seven siblings, having a younger brother and a younger sister as well as four older half-brothers from his father's first marriage, all of whom were raised as a single family. It was Jamie's mother who first awakened his love of drama while she ran a children's theatre group at the American Cathedral in Paris; his first role was as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, cast by his mother, who as yet lacked a daughter.

He is married to English actress Kerry Norton (Layne Ishay), with whom he had a daughter, Isla Elizabeth Angela Griffith, born in 2003, and two twin daughters, Darcy and Ava, born in 2004.

Biographical Notes

It was as a child that he had his first paid acting work, dubbing a French film into English while in Paris and then doing the odd TV commercial after moving back to the U.K. at the age of 7. At St. Paul's School in London he developed his love for the theatre and for all things athletic. He became School Captain in his final year, before going to Cambridge University to study French and Italian literature. While there he played university rugby and performed in many theatrical productions. During this time, he delivered wine around London. He also spent a study year in Pavia, Italy, before graduating with first-class honors. He is skilled in languages, speaking fluent French and Italian as well as being conversant in Spanish.

While Bamber has always wanted to act, his acceptance to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art marked the decision to make it his career. Still at LAMDA, he was cast in his first professional role, as Archie Kennedy in A&E's Horatio Hornblower miniseries. Between filming episodes of Hornblower, he had a small but memorable part in The Scarlet Pimpernel, playing Lord Tony Dewhurst, and appeared in the acclaimed British period drama Poirot, in which he played Roger Paton in "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd'.

In 2001, and following pressure from fans, he was re-cast as 4th Lieutenant Archie Kennedy in the new installments of Horatio Hornblower. This brought him to the attention of the casting crew of Steven Spielberg's landmark TV series Band of Brothers, in which he played 2nd Lieutenant Jack Foley.

Prior to the Battlestar Galactica miniseries, Bamber appeared in the long-running ITV series Peak Practice prior to its cancellation, and also in the ITV SAS-drama Ultimate Force. He has also returned to the stage, playing Prince Hal in the Bristol Old Vic's production of Shakespeare's Henry IV.

Battlestar Galactica marks Bamber's first American television series.

He is presently slated to star in the United Kingdom's version of Law & Order, called Law & Order: UK with Freema Agyeman (Doctor Who) and Bradley Walsh, as a police officer.

On Battlestar Galactica

As a child growing up in London, Bamber watched the Original Series during its run on British television. When he learned of the remake, he initially had "mixed feelings" about the project. "I generally don’t see the point of remakes and I remembered how I loved the original series as a kid, and I wasn’t sure why anyone wanted to try to recreate that," he stated.

His concerns were alleviated after reading Ronald D. Moore's script for the Miniseries. "The script was just really good, and it was very different from the original series," he recalled. "It asked serious and very relevant questions, and dealt with the situation and the issues in an honest, adult and engaging way. It was a very human drama, it was very mature and interesting, and I thought it would be challenging to play.”

Bamber sees his character as a "complex human being who has a lot of issues, and always struggles to come up with the right solutions to the problems and dilemmas he faces." He believes the new characters have "more of a modern sensibility" and are "far more complicated and... far more challenging" than their Original Series counterparts.

In preparation for his role, Bamber and other cast members attended a "mini-boot camp" to experience military life. He admitted to being initially unconvinced of its value, but later found that it "gave us a real sense of the hierarchy that exists in the military, and how the military deal with situations."

Reflecting on the show's success, Bamber stated, "I’m very proud of the miniseries, and I’m probably even more proud of season one... Our show has really brought Battlestar Galactica into the 21st century."

Quotes

• "The joy of doing television is that you get to take a character on a journey that is one of slow growth and discovery tha we all go through in our lives. We end up knowing a bit more than when we started."

Links

• Jamie Bamber interview from February 17, 2007 at the MegaCon in Florida
• Jamie Bamber interview at GALACTICA.TV, from Starfury, December 2009