Jamie Bell

Biography

Andrew James Matfin Bell (born 14 March 1986) is an English actor. He rose to prominence for his debut role in Billy Elliot (2000), for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, becoming one of the youngest winners of the award. He is also known for his leading roles as Tintin in The Adventures of Tintin (2011) and as Ben Grimm / Thing in Fantastic Four (2015). Other notable performances include in the films King Kong (2005), Jumper (2008), Snowpiercer (2013), and Rocketman (2019). He earned a second BAFTA Award nomination for his leading performance in Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (2017). In television, Bell starred as Abraham Woodhull in the AMC historical drama series Turn: Washington's Spies (2014–2017).

Jamie Bell was born on 14 March 1986 in Billingham, Teesside, England, where he grew up with his mother, Eileen Matfin, and elder sister, Kathryn. His father, John Bell, a toolmaker, left before Jamie was born. Bell began his involvement with dance after he accompanied his sister to her ballet lessons

In 1999, Bell 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 elder brother by taking up ballet.[6] Bell's performance received widespread acclaim, and 14-year-old Bell won London Film Critics Circle Award for British Newcomer of the Year, the British Independent Film Award for Best Newcomer, the Evening Standard British Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer, and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, becoming one of the youngest winners of the awards. He also appeared in Close and True, an ITV legal drama shown in 2000, which starred Robson Green, James Bolam, Kerry Ann Christiansen, and Susan Jameson.

Bell served as Honorary Jury President of the 2001 Giffoni Film Festival. In 2002, he appeared as the disabled servant Smike in an adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby and a young soldier in Deathwatch. In the following years, he portrayed 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. Also in 2005, he starred opposite Evan Rachel Wood in the Green Day video "Wake Me Up When September Ends", directed by Samuel Bayer. 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 the lonelygirl15 spin-off KateModern. He had roles in two 2008 films: the sci-fi film Jumper and the World War II drama Defiance. In the second film, he plays Asael Bielski, the third of the Bielski Brothers, leaders of a partisan group that saved 1,200 lives during the Holocaust.

In 2009, producers announced that Bell would play the title role in the motion capture film The Adventures of Tintin, alongside Andy Serkis and Daniel Craig.[9][10] The film was released in 2011. He also starred in the 2011 films The Eagle as Esca and Jane Eyre as St John Rivers. In 2013, he starred alongside James McAvoy in the film Filth and appeared as Edgar in Snowpiercer.

From 2014 to 2017, Bell appeared as Abraham Woodhull in Turn: Washington's Spies. In 2015, he played the Thing in the Fantastic Four reboot. The film would go on in infamy as one of the worst comic book films ever made. In 2022, Bell would say of it, “I don't think [it deserves a second look.] Save your money, save your time.”

In 2017, Bell had starring roles in 6 Days and Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool. In 2019, he had a supporting role as Bernie Taupin in the biographical musical film based on the life of Elton John, Rocketman.[