James Marsden Biography

news-details Manages to prove that he is more than just a good-looking American hunk through his versatility in portraying characters, James Paul Marsden has really succeeded in carving his own mark on the mainstream film scene of Hollywood. An Oklahoma native born on September 18, 1973 in Stillwater to a professor of animal sciences and industry at Kansas State University, James encountered his early contact with acting when his mother encouraged him to join a tenth grade drama class at Putnam City North High School in Oklahoma City. Following his graduation in 1991, he then entered Oklahoma State University to take major in broadcast journalism, but found himself became drawn deeper into performing instead, particularly after appearing in its stage production of "Bye Bye Birdie." Ultimately realized that being an actor was all he really wanted to be, the teen without hesitation thus gave up his study and set to start establishing a career in entertainment industry subsequently.

Recalling that he once had been invited to visit L.A. by Kirk Cameron and his sister, Candace Cameron, upon meeting them on a vacation in Hawaii, James boldly headed for the grand city by early '90s with hopes to land some good chances in Hollywood and surprisingly was rather quick to encounter his first stint, a minor part in TV-movie "In the Line of Duty: Ambush at Waco" (1993). Also worked as a Versace model, he continued to appear on the small screen afterwards, popping up in a handful of TV series, like "Boogies Diner" by 1994, "Party of Five" in 1995, plus "Second Noah" (1996-1997) through which he began to be noticed by the audience. This growing attention went larger when the blue-eyed guy wonderfully was billed over Katie Holmes and Nick Stahl in teen thriller flick of "Disturbing Behavior" (1998) and so provided him enough buzz to finally nab the role of Scott Summers/Cyclops in Brian Singer's "X-Men" (2000).

Supported by stunning visual effect, engaging story, and great performances from all the cast, "X-Men" effortlessly turned out to be a smash box-office hit as it came up on theaters in July 2000. Garnered tremendous worldwide income of almost 296 million U.S. dollar, it consequently propelled James to international prominence, even led him to share nomination for Best On-Screen category with Halle Berry, Hugh Jackman, and Anna Paquin at the 2001 MTV Movie Awards. Riding high on this great outcome, the brown-haired actor effectively used the glorious moment to score more in film production, adding "Sugar & Spice" (2001) also "Interstate 60" (2002) into his resume before struck hard once again through "X-Men 2" (2003) which amazingly surpassed its predecessor with total gross of over $406 million around the globe.

Moved further in the business steadily, James wisely preferred to explore various film genres in his next projects that included thriller feature "The 24th Day" (2004), romantic drama "The Notebook" (2004), and Chris Terrio's dramatic work of "Heights" (2005) opposite Elizabeth Banks. Kept sticking to the big screen feature, he seemed to maintain his career very well as there were four movies of his being released in 2006, namely "10th & Wolf", "The Alibi", "X-Men: The Last Stand", plus "Superman Returns" and two in 2007 titled "Hairspray" and "Enchanted" plus another in 2008, none other than rom-com flick "27 Dresses." Taking a look into his private life, James is happily married since June 22, 2000 to actress Lisa Linde who has borne him a son named Jack on February 1, 2001 and daughter Mary by August 10, 2005.