Andrew James Matfin "Jamie" Bell is an English actor who rose to prominence for his debut
role in Billy Elliot for which he won the BAFTA for Best Actor in a Leading Role. He
is also best known for his roles in the films King Kong, Jumper, and The Adventures of Tintin,
as well as starring as Abraham Woodhull in the TV series, Turn. He will portray of Ben
Grimm/The Thing in the upcoming 2015 Fantastic Four reboot.
Early life and education Bell was born in Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees,
England, where he grew up with his mother, Eileen, and older sister, Kathryn. His father,
John Bell, a toolmaker, left before Bell was born. Bell began his involvement with dance
after he accompanied his sister to her ballet lessons. He was a pupil at Northfield School
and took performing arts classes at the local franchise of Stagecoach Theatre Arts. He was
a member of the National Youth Music Theatre. In 1999, he was chosen from a field of over
2,000 boys for the role of Billy Elliot, an 11-year-old boy who dismays his working class
widowed father and older brother by taking up ballet.
Career Bell served as Honorary Jury President of
the 2001 Giffoni Film Festival. Since his film debut in Billy Elliot, he has appeared
as the disabled servant Smike in an adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby, a young soldier in Deathwatch,
a teenager on the run in Undertow, a gun toting pacifist in Dear Wendy, a disaffected Southern
California teenager in The Chumscrubber, and the young Jimmy in the 2005 film version of
King Kong. He also appeared in Close and True, an ITV legal drama shown in 2000, which starred
Robson Green, James Bolam and Susan Jameson. In 2007, he played the title character in
Hallam Foe – for which he was nominated for the best actor award at the British Independent
Film Awards – and appeared as himself in lonelygirl15 spin-off KateModern.
In 2005, he starred opposite Evan Rachel Wood in the Green Day video Wake Me Up When September
Ends, directed by Samuel Bayer. He had roles in two 2008 films: the sci-fi film Jumper
and the World War II drama Defiance. In the latter he plays Asael Bielski, the third of
the Bielski Brothers – leaders of a partisan group that saved some 1,200 lives during the
Holocaust. Despite rumours to the contrary, he did not appear in Thea Sharrock's West
End production of Equus. In 2009, it was announced Bell would play
the title role in the motion capture film The Adventures of Tintin, alongside British
double act Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. The film received a U.S. release on 21 December
2011 and a U.K. release on 26 October 2011. He also starred in the 2011 films The Eagle
as Esca and Jane Eyre. In 2013, he starred alongside James McAvoy
in the film version of Irvine Welsh's Filth. In 2014, he has been offered the role of Ben
Grimm/Thing in the 2015 reboot of Fantastic Four.
Personal life Bell began dating American actress Evan Rachel
Wood after they met while co-starring in the music video for Green Day's 2005 song "Wake
Me Up When September Ends". After a year together, the couple broke up in 2006. Five years later,
in the summer of 2011, it was reported that Bell and Wood had rekindled their relationship.
The couple married in a small ceremony on 30 October 2012. They have one son, born in
July 2013. In May 2014, Bell and Wood announced that they had separated.
Filmography Awards and nominations
References
External links Jamie Bell at the Internet Movie Database
Jamie Bell at AllMovie People in Film: Jamie Bell – Focus Features
Jamie Bell on Twitter