James Marsters
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James Wesley Marsters (born August 20, 1962) is an American actor and musician, best known for playing the popular platinum-blond character Spike, an English vampire, in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff series, Angel.
Spike
It was his appearance as Spike on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (first appearing in Season Two) that attracted the attention of the general public. The immediate fan response prevented his character from being killed off, allowing him a presence throughout the series. Spike became a regular in Season Four, and remained so until the show's finale. After the conclusion of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Marsters carried Spike over to the Buffy spinoff show, Angel, also in a regular role (second title billing after David Boreanaz, who played "Angel"). In April 2004, following the end of Angel, Marsters had Spike's trademark bleached hair shaved off for charity live on television in On Air with Ryan Seacrest.
Marsters' inspiration for Spike's English accent was from his co-star, Anthony Stewart Head. Head, who was born in Camden Town, affected a light, Received Pronunciation accent as Giles; he has a deeper, more notably London accent when not in character. Marsters' accent was so convincing, many crew members were not aware that he was an American.
Aside from playing the character, Marsters also wrote a comic book one-shot for Dark Horse Comics, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike and Dru.
Superman Characters
In late 2005, Marsters appeared on the television series Smallville playing Dr. Milton Fine — the popular Superman villain "Brainiac" — in eight episodes throughout the show's fifth season. He has been in 13 episodes from 2005-2008.
Released in September 2007, Marsters starred in the direct-to-DVD animated movie, Superman: Doomsday, providing the voice of iconic villain Lex Luthor. The film received mostly positive reviews, with most of the critics and fans stating that Marsters and co-star Adam Baldwin, (who played Luthor's nemesis Superman) gave excellent performances.