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 the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London and was identified, in the late 1980s, with the "Brit Pack" of rising young British actors. Early life 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.