_Bruce Martyn Payne_

Some people have always known what they wanted to do with their lives. Bruce Payne is one of those fortunate individuals. Born Bruce Martyn Payne on November 22, 1960 in Kilburn, North London, movies appealed to him at an early age. "I was fascinated by the movie industry", said Bruce in one of his interviews. "I realized that it was a vocation as opposed to a career. I think they're two very different things. We all have to live, we have to pay our bills on time, but a vocation is a very different psychological prerequisite for doing what we call acting." Reflecting on his early fascination with that world of make-believe called acting, Bruce notes, From a young age, we're all influenced by things a lot of things we don't really recall until later. "I know that my immediate family tell me that when I was very young, I saw a play that my brother was in - probably a Peter Pan pantomime because it involved a crocodile - and I apparently shouted out, 'That crocodile is going to eat my brother" and ran up on the stage. "I think it shows that from an early age I loved that suspension of disbelief." Even as a young boy, Bruce connected with and understood the power that acting has to illuminate the human experience. "As I grew up", he declared in another interview, "I think I developed a studios interest in the way why we do what we do and how moral and social rules influence what we think. You learn about fitting in, identity, escaping reality. Acting and reacting are concerned with a lot of that. I find it fascinating."