Jamie Bamber rose to fame on the reboot of the TV series Battlestar Galactica and is still acting to this day.
Jamie Bamber rose to fame on the reboot of the TV series Battlestar Galactica, making a name for himself in this genre of television. A fan-favorite role will do that for an actor. But like others from the reboot, he does have a before and after.
HIS FIRST MAJOR ROLE WAS IN HORATIO HORNBLOWER
Jamie Bamber began his career as Midshipman Archie Kennedy in the TV movie Horatio Hornblower: The Duel. It would be the beginning of a series of Horatio Hornblower movies that Bamber would appear in, reprising his role as Archie Kennedy in Horatio Hornblower: The Duchess and the Devil, The Wrong War, Mutiny, and finally Retribution.
Bamber was able to turn those roles into others, The Band of Brothers mini-series, Peak Practice, Daniel Deronda, and Ultimate Force before moving on to one of his most recognized roles.
JAMIE BAMBER STARRED ON BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
Bamber saw his first action as Lee “Apollo” Adama in the 2003 Battlestar Galactica (BG) mini-series. The mini-series was intended to check audience reaction to a possible reboot of the ‘70s series, which lasted a mere one season, of the same name. Thankfully for Bamber and the rest of the Galactica crew, it was a hit.
Jamie Bamber then went the next four seasons and 74 episodes as Apollo. Bamber was also part of the 2007 TV movie Battlestar Galactica: Razor. It filled the gap between Seasons 3 and 4, telling the story of the Battlestar Pegasus and its past with Helena Cain’s (Michelle Forbes) command versus the present day of Lee Adama’s command.
Even though the franchise had a few more additions, these would be the only two times Jamie Bamber would play Apollo.
Jamie Bamber would eventually speak to the Collider about his time on BG and how he and his fellow castmates dealt with the grief they took at the beginning of the series. “I’m extremely proud, and I’m proud of everyone that collaborated on it. They’re all my dearest friends, and we will always have that shared story. You put your finger on it. We went from ridicule, mistrust and disdain to gradual, slightly resentful appreciation, and then to adulation. We ran the whole gamut of trolling and hatred to being celebrated as the greatest television artists ever to have got together to make a television show, which is equally ridiculous. We’ve seen it all.”
Jamie also spoke of the pride he felt after winning over fans and seeing the effect the series had on future Hollywood projects:
“There’s tremendous pride and satisfaction that we were part of a big change and that other people have used what we’ve done. And I can see, whenever I watch big Hollywood movies, that there are little nods and things that we did that they now use, regularly. It’s really heartwarming and fantastic to see that. Although there is a slight little bit of ranker that, when the appreciation could have really changed the journey that we were on, it never really came, at the time. It’s been a bit retroactive. Not as bad as Vincent van Gogh had to deal with, but there’s an element of that. The other thing is just realizing how hard it is to make a piece of television like that. Edward James told the younger actors, at the time, that we were essentially screwed because we’d been spoiled for so many years, and we would never again have an experience like it, and he was absolutely right.”
Of course, there are other iterations of Battlestar Galactica. One of those came in novel form with the 2007 Titan Books release of Battlestar Galactica: The Official Companion Season Three written by David Bassom. Jamie Bamber was part of this publishing, writing the book’s forward.
JAMIE BAMBER IS MORE THAN JUST APOLLO
It didn’t take long for Jamie Bamber to move on from Battlestar Galactica. Granted, it was not the ending fans had hoped for with BG, but they did get a good four-year run.
Jamie Bamber immediately moved onto another big series, this one as Matt Devlin in Law & Order: UK. With the Law & Order franchise becoming a big thing in the United States, franchise creator Dick Wolf decided to try taking its popularity across the pond.
So, the franchise, which included Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order: Trial by Jury, Law & Order: LA, Law & Order True Crime, and currently Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, now extended itself once more for a British audience.
And it worked. Jamie Bamber led the way for the series’ first three seasons before he moved on to other things.
Those things included CSI: Miami, House, Body of Proof, Monday Mornings, and Rizzoli & Isles. He also found himself on the TV series Marcella.
JAMIE BAMBER IS STILL ACTING AND IS ON INSTAGRAM
Jamie Bamber doesn’t only act on TV. Now 47 years old and married with three daughters (including twins) he’s branched out into other mediums.
For starters, he’s on Instagram, where he has almost 19,000 followers. His posts typically center on his family and various goings-on in his life. Those include his wife, Kerry Norton, and their three children.
Of course, he’s still acting as well. His movie work includes Before I Sleep, John Doe: Vigilante, The Better Half, Numb, A Christmas in New York, and Inferno: Skyscraper Escape. His video game voice work includes Star Wars: The Old Republic, Grand Theft Auto V, and Dead Rising 3.
While Jamie Bamber has stepped away from time to time on other projects, not TV-related, much of his work does revolve around the small screen. Case in point, joined the cast of the British/American spy thriller Strike Back.
The Cinemax actioner has been around since 2010, going through various stories. Bamber came on board as Colonel Alexander Coltrane and was part of the series’ final two seasons, which ended in 2020.
More recently, he was featured in series like Signora Volpe, DI Ray, and Innocent.
He also has a starring role in the series Cannes Confidential, a mini-series on Acorn that involves a mystery and some British-style detective work.
And who knows, with all the rebooting going on, maybe there is another Battlestar Galactica in his future, especially since the streaming service Peacock recently announced their intention of a Battlestar Galactica reboot.
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