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Bruce Payne
Bruce Martyn Payne (born 22 November 1958) is an English actor, producer, screenwriter, film director and theatre director. Payne is best known for portraying villains, such as Charles Rane in Passenger 57, Jacob Kell in Highlander: Endgame, and Damodar in Dungeons & Dragons and Dungeons & Dragons 2: Wrath of the Dragon God.
Payne trained at RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and was identified, in the late 1980s, with the "Brit Pack" of rising young British actors.
Payne developed an interest for acting at an early age. In an interview with Impact (magazine) in 2001, Payne claimed that a crocodile from the play Peter Pan shouted that it would eat his brother and then proceeded to run upstage.
At the age of 14, he was diagnosed with a slight form of spina bifida, which by age 16 required surgery to rectify. Payne was hospitalised for 6 months following the operation. Payne continued school studies, despite a contact with a talent scout during that time. After his graduation, he enrolled in the National Youth Theatre for two seasons. Payne has described this experience as "Four hundred kids thrown together to work on 7 plays." In addition, he played a lead role for the National Student Theatre Company at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for one season in 1979. He then auditioned for several fringe acting companies, but was told he was too young and lacked experience. Nonetheless, that year saw him admitted to the "prestigious" RADA acting programme. Before being accepted at RADA, Payne had worked as a joiner, a salesman, and a landscape gardener. Payne graduated from RADA in 1981 with seven major prizes for acting, comedy and physical presence.[citation needed]
Payne was part of a 'new wave' of actors to emerge from the academy. Others included Jonathan Pryce, Juliet Stevenson, Alan Rickman, Anton Lesser, Kenneth Branagh, and Fiona Shaw. In 1980 the Principal of RADA, Hugh Cruttwell, selected a scene from an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, which Payne co-wrote with Paul McGann, to be performed in front of Queen Elizabeth II, in one of her rare visits to the academy. Payne directed the scene in which he and McGann acted. Payne played Macbeth and wielded a baseball bat on stage instead of a sword. Kenneth Branagh performed a soliloquy from Hamlet at the same event.
Payne's first television role was in the Tales Out of School series. Payne played an abusive PE teacher who "comes across as more head bully than responsible adult during his classes". His first major film role came in Privates on Parade in which he played the singing and dancing Flight Sergeant Kevin Cartwright (which role he had already played in the stage version).
In 1983, he appeared in Michael Mann's horror film The Keep as an unnamed border guard. That same year, Steven Berkoff cast him in his production of West at the Donmar Warehouse. Payne played Les, a member of an East End gang intent on gaining revenge against the rival Hoxton Mob for the slaying of one of their number. Richard Corliss of TIME stated that Payne bestowed "a frighteningly dynamic performance" in the play.
In 1985, Payne was cast as a "committed", "butch snooker manager" known as "The One" (also known as "T.O.") in director Alan Clarke's snooker musical Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire. Michael Brooke stated that Payne gave the "stand-out performance" in the film. and MS London stated that Payne "is a charismatic presence, with a capable voice, who is perfectly cast as The One".
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Bruce Payne
Bruce Martyn Payne (born 22 November 1958) is an English actor, producer, screenwriter, film director and theatre director. Payne is best known for portraying villains, such as Charles Rane in Passenger 57, Jacob Kell in Highlander: Endgame, and Damodar in Dungeons & Dragons and Dungeons & Dragons 2: Wrath of the Dragon God.
Payne trained at RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and was identified, in the late 1980s, with the "Brit Pack" of rising young British actors.
Payne developed an interest for acting at an early age. In an interview with Impact (magazine) in 2001, Payne claimed that a crocodile from the play Peter Pan shouted that it would eat his brother and then proceeded to run upstage.
At the age of 14, he was diagnosed with a slight form of spina bifida, which by age 16 required surgery to rectify. Payne was hospitalised for 6 months following the operation. Payne continued school studies, despite a contact with a talent scout during that time. After his graduation, he enrolled in the National Youth Theatre for two seasons. Payne has described this experience as "Four hundred kids thrown together to work on 7 plays." In addition, he played a lead role for the National Student Theatre Company at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for one season in 1979. He then auditioned for several fringe acting companies, but was told he was too young and lacked experience. Nonetheless, that year saw him admitted to the "prestigious" RADA acting programme. Before being accepted at RADA, Payne had worked as a joiner, a salesman, and a landscape gardener. Payne graduated from RADA in 1981 with seven major prizes for acting, comedy and physical presence.[citation needed]
Payne was part of a 'new wave' of actors to emerge from the academy. Others included Jonathan Pryce, Juliet Stevenson, Alan Rickman, Anton Lesser, Kenneth Branagh, and Fiona Shaw. In 1980 the Principal of RADA, Hugh Cruttwell, selected a scene from an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, which Payne co-wrote with Paul McGann, to be performed in front of Queen Elizabeth II, in one of her rare visits to the academy. Payne directed the scene in which he and McGann acted. Payne played Macbeth and wielded a baseball bat on stage instead of a sword. Kenneth Branagh performed a soliloquy from Hamlet at the same event.
Payne's first television role was in the Tales Out of School series. Payne played an abusive PE teacher who "comes across as more head bully than responsible adult during his classes". His first major film role came in Privates on Parade in which he played the singing and dancing Flight Sergeant Kevin Cartwright (which role he had already played in the stage version).
In 1983, he appeared in Michael Mann's horror film The Keep as an unnamed border guard. That same year, Steven Berkoff cast him in his production of West at the Donmar Warehouse. Payne played Les, a member of an East End gang intent on gaining revenge against the rival Hoxton Mob for the slaying of one of their number. Richard Corliss of TIME stated that Payne bestowed "a frighteningly dynamic performance" in the play.
In 1985, Payne was cast as a "committed", "butch snooker manager" known as "The One" (also known as "T.O.") in director Alan Clarke's snooker musical Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire. Michael Brooke stated that Payne gave the "stand-out performance" in the film. and MS London stated that Payne "is a charismatic presence, with a capable voice, who is perfectly cast as The One".